There's no doubt a handful of Kansas private schools dominate high school sports.
And many public schools are tired of it and are demanding change.
"This is the member schools talking to you as their representatives and they're saying we want something done," Girard Middle School Principal Randy Heatherly told the Kansas State High School Activities Association Board on Wednesday.
Heatherly and Paola High School Athletic Director Jeff Hines took the results of their new statewide survey to Topeka to that board.
The duo sent out the survey last month.
Eighty percent of the schools responded.
Eighty-two percent of those schools agreed the sports classification system for Kansas private high schools needs to change.
"It's the difference between, in my opinion, right and wrong." Hines said.
He's seen the problem of private school sports dominance first hand.
Hines' Paola girls basketball team lost in the state finals each of the last two years to metro powerhouse Bishop Miege.
Miege also ended Paola's football season in the state playoffs two years ago.
"This isn't sour grapes because Bishop Miege is a road block for us, it's the idea that we have an imperfect system and it needs to be addressed," said Hines.
He argues the main problem is private schools in the state's large metropolitan areas can draw students from the entire region.
Public schools can't.
"They can accept in Kansas City's case a metropolitan area of more than two million residents, Paola has 5000," Hines said.
Championship data from 2004 to 2014 shows Kansas private schools make up only 8 percent of schools but they've won 32 percent of state titles.
Additionally, 37 percent of private schools won 5 or more state titles during the same time period while only 3.6 percent of public schools did the same.
And 22 percent won 10 or more state titles during this time frame while less than one percent of public schools accomplished this level of success.
The survey shows a majority of schools from all six Kansas high school sports classifications support a change.
The largest portion of them support a classification modifier based on success.
For example, if a particular sports program reaches the state quarterfinals in 3 of the last 4 years, that program would be bumped up in classification.
Currently, Kansas high school sports classification is based only on the number of students attending each school.
"This is a problem of classes over decades," said Heatherly. "How much longer are we going to put it off?" he said.
For any change to take place, Kansas state law would have to be changed.
It currently requires sports classes to be based on school enrollment only.
The KSHSAA Executive Board did vote Wednesday to reshuffle the state's schools based on enrollment to even out the classes for football individually and for the rest of activities.
That proposed change recommended by a special committee meeting for over a year will now go the full board.
That proposal and any changes to how private schools are classified would likely take a couple of school years before implementation.
-----
Andy Alcock can be reached at anderson.alcock@kshb.com.
