What if you played a one on one game? First player to get to ten points wins. Fair enough. What if your opponent was spotted five points? Still fair? What if that opponent was also given 10 days to watch you scrimmage and scout you before playing? There are some who believe that this is an unfair advantage is being afforded to Public school teams over Catholic school teams and Independent teams over everybody.
The Public Schools Athletic Association (PSAL) allows its member teams to practice on October 26, play non-league games on November 12. League play begins on November 26
By comparison, Catholic High School Athletic Association (CHSAA) teams must wait until November 9th to practice and until November 18th to scrimmage. Non-league game can be played on November 27th with League play beginning the first week of December.
With high schools that belong to independent leagues, there’s a different set of peculiar guidelines. For one, they don’t have to adhere to the league/non-league restrictions that public and Catholic school do.
Whereas most New York State leagues require teams to play league games along with a limited number of optional non-league games, every independent league game is considered a non-league game and the teams played are chosen at the discretion of the coaches. As a result, Indy schools don’t have league standings and lack the inertia that comes with vying for first, second or third place.
Additionally, Independent school’s regular season ends a month before the New York State Championships begin unlike most PSAL and Catholic schools that only have a week to prepare. Some may argue that having a month off is actually a disadvantage because you get rusty. Others say, teams that have a month off have more time to scout or rest up.
In New York State, the solution may sound Utopian but it’s quite easy. Regular seasons should begin and end on the same date for all leagues and have Independent schools merge with existing leagues in order to have mandatory in-league games along with out-of-league games or allow all team to make their own schedules. When everybody plays under an agreed upon set of rules, then and only then will we know, who’s the best.
