High school sports have the unique opportunity to excite small communities, and when the Trojan football team advanced to the state championship game, excited is exactly what Downers Grove was. Purple flags hung outside businesses on Main Street, and all everyone talked about was traveling down to ISU for kickoff Nov. 25. At the game, the community support was evident: teachers, alumni, students, and parents braced the cold weather in their purple attire to cheer on the team.

The Trojans fell to Mount Carmel High School 35-10, capping off an unforgettable season. The regular season finish (7-2) is the best in the five years under head coach Joseph Horeni. Throughout the playoffs, the team continued to impress, outscoring their opponents 142-40 in the first four rounds and advancing to the state championship for the first time since 2004.

The Trojan loss reignited a popular debate: should private and public schools have separate playoffs? Since 1974, private and public schools have been competing with each other for the same trophy, and when it comes to sports such as football, private schools are historically more successful than public schools. Joliet Catholic Academy and Mount Carmel have won 15 state championships each, tied for the most in IHSA history, and in 2022, private schools won state championships in six out of the eight classes.

In the past, the IHSA has tried to level the playing field. ln 2005, they instituted a multiplier rule. By multiplying the number of students at private schools by 1.65, certain private schools move up to higher classes, where they would compete against bigger public schools. In 2017, the IHSA created a rule that forced private schools to move up a class if they won two state trophies within four years in one sport.

Public schools argue that private schools need to compete against each other in the playoffs for all sports. This may seem like an unfair thing to say, however, private schools get to play by a much different set of rules. These schools are allowed to enroll student-athletes from anywhere within a 30-mile radius. This allows Mount Carmel to pull from an area a little larger than 2,827 square miles compared to DGN’s boundaries which span 31 square miles. In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times Nov. 26, Mount Carmel football head coach Jordan Lynch commented on this issue, saying that the large area makes finding players to enroll harder. 

“The one town one team whole thing they are saying, that seems pretty easy to me, to be honest with you,” Lynch said. “Those are kids that grew up playing together. Those guys know, in my opinion, where their next meal is coming from. Catholic schools have no idea. You have to fight every single day.”

When Lynch says ‘next meal’ he’s referring to feeder schools. Public high schools have middle schools that feed into them which means students are guaranteed to enroll. This makes sense, in theory, if kids have played together their whole lives they should have chemistry with their teammates that makes it easier for them to win games. However, those are the only kids public schools can enroll. Private schools get to pick and choose kids from all over to make up their roster. Sure, they aren’t sure where their ‘next meals’ are coming from, but for powerhouses like Joliet Catholic and Mount Carmel that attract the top players in the state, the kitchen never closes.

Supporters of private schools argue that public schools are sore losers, and if you want to win a state title, you should be able to compete with anyone. Another valid point is the one Lynch made. Private schools have no guarantee that students will enroll, as a football player can choose his local public school, or any private school within 30 miles to attend.

Private schools have a clear advantage over public schools. Private schools can offer financial scholarships and other forms of aid to help relieve the cost of tuition. Graduating from a private school is also seen as a status symbol as they tend to have more academic advantages like smaller class sizes and greater access to extracurricular activities. Public schools can’t market themselves the way private schools do since everyone is eligible to attend public schools. The schools that use their money to fund athletic programs are the schools that usually dominate public schools. States like Maryland, Texas, and Virginia have separate tournaments for private and public schools, but the debate of whether public schools should be competing against private schools is not a question with any easy answer. 

The way to address this issue is to let private and public schools play by the same set of rules. First mentioned in this 2015 Forbes article, this solution would allow the public schools that want to focus on building their athletic programs to compete with the private schools that attract the top players. This means allowing student-athletes to transfer to different public schools if they would like to play for a certain coach or join an already successful team. This solution creates a more competitive environment between private and public schools, and although private schools can still offer academic scholarships, public schools can attract student-athletes who may not be willing or able to pay the price of tuition at these schools. Public schools that aren’t as concerned with sports can be eligible to move down a class, similar to how schools are grouped by size. This solution helps even the playing field. If a student-athlete has a just as good chance at winning a state championship at a public school, they could attend the school that is best for them in multiple ways, not just athletics.