Yesterday, in division one boys soccer, I witnessed two things that I thought I would never see, La Salle Academy and Bishop Hendricken were both eliminated before they were able to reach the championship game. It’s not that I thought this would never happen in soccer, I never thought it would happen in any sport. In a division where those two schools are competing in the same division, it is very rare that both of them get eliminated before they reach the championship. The reason why this is so pleasing to me is because I feel like for the first time in a while I will get to see my school compete against another public school in a division one championship game.
Rhode Island D1 State Soccer Finals
November 10, 2016
One comment
December 14, 2016 at 9:45 am
Here’s my take on this situation:
I think it’s unfair too. Not that the private schools are playing against the public schools in the RIIL (Rhode Island Interscholastic League), but that they play against the public schools with a different set of rules that is advantageous to them. For a student to attend a public school in RI, that student must have legal residence in the town or city in which the school is located. To be eligible to play sports at that school, obviously the student must be enrolled at the school. So, a student-athlete at a public school must be a legal resident of the town/city the school is in. But that’s not the case with the private schools. Private school students can reside anywhere. In fact, there are instances right here in RI where private school student-athletes live not only in RI towns/cities other than where the school is located, but in the surrounding states as well. In some cases, those private schools can, and do, offer outstanding athletes scholarships, and other assistance, for the student to attend their school. That’s something the public schools can’t do. So…I’m not saying don’t let the private schools participate in the RIIL. But they should have to adhere to the same rules as the public schools. And I’m not saying that private schools shouldn’t be able to enroll students from outside their city/town. But I am saying that a private school student-athlete should be required to have legal residence in the the town/city where the school is located…just like the public school student-athletes are required to have. Otherwise, those private schools that don’t want to adhere to that requirement should be removed from the RIIL.