Bishop Guilfoyle. Kennedy Catholic. Lancaster Catholic. Archbishop Wood. Cardinal O’Hara.

Of the six Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) state classifications in girls’ basketball, five titles were won by parochial schools.

On the boys’ side, Imhotep Charter, Lincoln Park Charter, Devon Prep and Imani Christian – also non-boundary schools – captured four of the six state championships.

And that’s just basketball.

State Rep. Scott Conklin (R-Centre) wants to level the playing field and protect students in PIAA competitions.

His proposed legislation – House Bill 1983 – would change the PIAA championship system and allow separate events for boundary and non-boundary schools.

Traditional public schools are referred to as boundary schools because they generally must recruit from within district boundaries, while private, parochial and charter schools may draw student athletes from multiple districts and states.

“We started to see public moneys being put into charter schools,” said Conklin. “We started seeing public moneys put into private schools more and more. And they’ve realized that by doing so, they were allowed to be a non-boundary school,” Conklin said. “And the non-boundary schools, simply put, is a school that can recruit outside its boundaries.

“And I know that ‘recruiting’ is not a word people want to hear, but it’s the truth. By doing so, they’re able to buy a championship.”

Bald Eagle Area athletic director Doug Dyke said, “I think it’s time we try to take a look at how our current system is affecting interscholastic athletics. We’re talking about a bill that was passed 52 years ago and I don’t believe there’s too many things in this world that we haven’t taken a look at that has been existent for 52 years but for some reason, we’re stuck on not taking a look at this aspect of interscholastic athletics. I think we’re possibly killing our interscholastic athletics from the inside by not looking at ways to engage new students.”

Former high school football coach Jim Cantafio, a member of the Pennsylvania Football Hall of Fame, praised the state’s neighbors for separating championship tournaments between boundary and non-boundary schools.

“Have teams compete against each other (in the regular season),” he said. “Don’t change the league setups. But when you get to the end of the season, let’s be fair about it. Put aside the money that it’s going to cost. Let’s think of the young kids who are involved in our sports programs.”

“We come from a small school, not many kids in our area,” said Bald Eagle Area multisport athlete Carson Nagle said. “We have to play these private schools all the time and as soon as we get into districts, you see a private school on your schedule. In states, you see a private school on your schedule.

“Obviously we’re going to go out there and compete and do whatever we can to beat them, but you get to the state aspect and the state tournament, you see these private schools and everybody knows who they are. You see St. Joe’s Prep, Imhotep Charter, you see these kids from how many states, pay these kids to come play for them and public schools just can’t do that. We’ve lived there our whole lives. We can’t bring in kids, we can’t do anything like that.”

“When it comes to competition in team sports, especially football and basketball, private, charter and parochial schools have been dominant in state playoffs over the past several years,” wrote Conklin in his sponsorship memo.

“While competition is an important aspect of sports, I am also concerned about the safety and welfare of student-athletes. Not all student athletes have superior size, strength and speed, however, when one team has the ability to field more of those athletes due to the lack of a boundary, it creates both an unfair advantage and an unsafe environment.