What’s Fair in the Private vs. Public School Sports Debate?

When I went away to college, I chose Fordham University in the Bronx – for a variety of reasons. The academics were top-notch, the community was small and homey, it was near a major city but it never felt that way… I was just 90 miles from home.

Funny, a friend of mine from California had almost the same list of reasons, except she was 3,000 miles from home. Geographic boundaries were not a consideration.

For me, at that time, it was a factor.

Yet a very short time later, I didn’t think twice about the 600-plus miles difference in searching jobs.

My point is, you do what’s best for you.

I think about that now because some people are against private and parochial schools competing for public high school state championships for the same reasoning: geography.

But that’s athletics; interesting that we rarely have the same conversation about a kid choosing to travel 80 minutes to get a better education… But that’s a discussion for another time. Right now, the discussion is about athletics and recruiting and possibly flouting the rules.

Can’t we find a happy medium?

One possible solution is to institute geographic boundaries. No, a kid shouldn’t be forced to attend Putnam Valley High School just because he or she lives in the district. But they shouldn’t be allowed to attend Christ the King High School, for instance, which is 50 miles away in Queens.

I can see the points from both sides, because we shouldn’t hold our kids back, either. This is about options and choices. We shouldn’t restrict that, but we also shouldn’t make it unfair and limit those choices.

Make them flexible, yes; limit them, no.

Besides, it’s always been my contention that in this day and age, if you’re good enough, a college coach will find you. Maybe that’s a bad example, but it’s true.

A better perspective is this: my youngest son just graduated from college in May and is considering a job offer with a well-known financial firm. The position is located in Denver. If he accepts, I will miss him like crazy, but I’m not about to tell him that he can’t go more than 100 miles from home.

Rich Thomaselli is a longtime sports reporter in the Hudson Valley, and currently covers Putnam County. He can be reached at rich.thomaselli@gmail.com.