re: Louisiana High School Football will split Public/Private. **Edited with Yes/No**

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I know several area highschool coaches, public for the most part, and they work just as hard if not harder as private school coaches

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No offense, but I doubt they do. The private school coaches I am in the loop with put in over 50 hours a week, if not more like 60 of just dealing with the sports they coach, aside from their jobs. They love it though. I know several Catholic league coaches and private Christian school coaches who love it because they know outworking everyone else is the key.

And btw, the public schools have the better athletes, they are just lazy and the coaches won't teach them any lessons because they are afraid to lose them. I have firsthand knowledge of public school coaches who won't get on kids about grades (and the kids end up being ineligible) and I also know for a fact that at least one prominent local high school athlete was arrested during the week, yet was allowed to compete that weekend. The coaches are win at all costs in public schools, but the hype is that it is just the opposite.

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Re the comments bout "discipline & dedication" being the reason private schools dominate.

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I'll say this: If East Jefferson had the community support of, say, Katy, Texas, it would take a good chunk of the good players from Curtis and Rummel almost overnight.

Again, the secret in Texas is not that the UIL keeps private schools out, but that the UIL members aggressively fund and support athletics (and, in many areas, academics) in a way most private schools can't compete with.

Look at the stadiums they build. Whenever outsiders get outraged about the expense of those things, usually those districts brag about their academic programs and test scores, noting that they did not rob Pater to pay Paul with athletics.

If Jefferson Parish consolidated some schools, used the savings to add an aggressively ambitious IB and AP curriculum for the top students, vocational education (maybe more classes that can count as credits to Delgado or UNO for things like nursing) for average students and, importantly for this discussion, better facilities and more coaches for a more intensive athletic experience, then I bet they'd get a lot of private school students back.

But Louisiana school systems won't do that. Even in places like Jefferson and Ascension, where demographics aren't necessarily the reason for keeping schools "neighborhood," the preference is for many schools that offer the same, crappy, sub-standard curriculum instead of larger schools that offer a more diverse curriculum and things like bigger coaching staffs.