LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Thirty schools across the Clark County School District announced their football programs are going “independent” within the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, allowing the teams to create their own setup for season and postseason play.
Thirty principals with 4A and 5A football programs sent notifications to the NIAA of their intent for an independent status.
Insiders tell FOX5, concerns among dozens of public schools had been growing for some time over the competitive edge, from recruitment rules to finances, all afforded to private and charter schools.
The NIAA sent FOX5 the following statement:
The identified programs will enter Independent Status for a minimum of two years in accordance with NIAA regulations. During this period, the football program will not participate in any NIAA-sanctioned postseason competition, including league, regional, or state championship playoffs… the NIAA has engaged in discussion with all postseason-eligible programs within the state to discuss the postseason formats and next steps moving forward.
A group of charter schools and private schools remain, including Bishop Gorman High School. FOX5 emailed, called and messaged a number of Gorman staff for a response to the move.
CCSD sent FOX5 the following statement:
CCSD is aware of the decision by a number of high school principals to move their football programs to independent status.
While each school will be responsible for its own schedule, the District will continue to provide the same support to schools that it has in previous years.
Among the high schools to play with an independent status, starting next year: Liberty High, Centennial, Silverado, Basic, Foothill, Sierra Vista, Spring Valley, Durango, Canyon Springs, Las Vegas and Green Valley.
According to Liberty High Head Coach Rich Muraco, the 30 principals will meet next Monday to discuss the structure of the “group” (it is a group, not a league); then football programs will take steps for next season’s plans.
Liberty High and other schools will still play out-of-state teams like those in Hawaii, Muraco tells FOX5.
For more insight. Here’s some of his conversation with FOX5’s Jaclyn Schultz:
JACLYN: You talked about how CCSD schools, they’re simply playing by different rules here that private and charter schools have. How does that impact what a football program or a student is able to do on an everyday level?
MURACO: We have our hands tied, kind of, in CCSD, and some of it is that way because of the rules the NIAA has in place, and some of it is CCSD’s own choices.
We have to play with kids that are zoned in our attendance boundaries for the most part. There are some schools that have available seats where they can get zoned variances, which is now called ‘open enrollment’… but a lot of schools, Liberty being one of them-we don’t have that ability. We have to take the kids that are just zoned for Liberty and live in Liberty’s zone, whereas the private schools and the charter schools, they don’t have an attendance boundary. They have the whole city, essentially, the country, really, and on some levels.
Kids can move in and live anywhere in Nevada, and then go to those schools, and so that makes it difficult to compete. Then when you add in that they have specific transfer rules that affect schools differently.
For example, a kid can leave a public school and go to a charter school and be eligible right away, but it doesn’t work the opposite direction. If a kid’s at a charter school and wants to come to a public school, they can’t be eligible.
So those are the kinds of things, when I say we’re playing with different sets of rules, that’s what I mean.
And those policies, something needs to change, and I know the NIAA is trying to work on things, but it needs to happen in a timely manner.
JACLYN: A lot of people are saying ‘this is about Bishop Gorman,’ but it’s far more than just about Gorman or any private school or even charter schools?
MURACO: It’s really the whole system…
When you look at the 30 principals that made this decision, it’s not about Gorman. Some of them, yes, Gorman was their issue. Some of them, it’s charter schools. Some of them, it’s a lack of fairness that’s being perceived in how things are done within the NIAA and the rules and things that are placed. It’s a complicated issue.
JACLYN: How ultimately does this help the students and all the players and kids who are playing this, either for fun or maybe they’re seeing this as a career?
MURACO: I think that it’s important as the adults and as the people who regulate these schedules and regulate the divisions that you want kids that are competing, that have similar, it’s not going to be perfect, but similar talent levels, right?
Nobody likes games where it’s running clock in the first quarter, when the team gets up by 35 points…
That’s kind of the hard part of the NIAA and of the schedulers: how do we balance having a nationally-ranked program that, if they really wanted to, could get running clock in the first half of almost every single game they play?
This particular plan I think is going to help, because we’re going to make sure that now when we do the scheduling, that we group teams together based on ability and based on what’s going to be competitive games. You’re going to see a better product out there.
It’s very disheartening for a lot of kids…and I’m not talking winning a championship, just winning regular games.
This going ‘independent’ gives us some flexibility with making schedules and matching up teams that should be playing against one another. I think it’s going to be great.
JACLYN: What steps do you hope the NIAA takes now?
MURACO: Personally, I hope that they do some self-reflection and maybe look at how does the board vote on things.
Maybe it needs to be more balanced between the North and the South.
I know they try to keep it like it’s a 50-50 vote, but 75% of the schools are from Southern Nevada, so we should have a little more of a say of what’s unique to us down here.
That could be a first step.
I think a second step would be, how do we address a situation where you have one program that is just absolutely dominant?
Maybe we should have a public-private split and have a private school state championship and a public school state championship.
That’s what I hope, personally, we would see moving forward. But I think the biggest thing is, they just need to get people in a room together and ‘problem solve.’
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