- May 17th, 2006, 6:40 am
#15323
Trust me--it ain't "PERCEIVED." Many of the schools are fed up with LCA raiding local talent. It isn't due to competetiveness, because, in most sports, LCA would get waxed.
Of course, I find it highly ironic that LCA is the only school on The Mountain that will recruit locally...
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... 6843&path=
LCA Claims 'Boycott' by Local Public Schools
By Ted Allen and Matt Busse
The News & Advance
May 16, 2006
A perceived boycott by area public high schools against Liberty Christian Academy’s athletic program has prompted the chairman of the private school’s legal counsel to draft a letter to local school superintendents demanding that it be lifted.
Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, said he and LCA officials believe public schools in eight districts are refusing to schedule athletic events in or out of season involving the Bulldogs.
“Whether it is motivated by personal bias or anticompetitive activity - we believe it’s both - it must stop because it’s hurting everybody,” Staver said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference.
Staver said Liberty Counsel, an Orlando, Fla.-based legal advocacy group with an office in Liberty University’s law school, sent letters this week to school superintendents in eight divisions: the counties of Bedford, Nelson, Prince Edward, Campbell, Appomattox, Pittsylvania and Amherst plus the city of Lynchburg.
The letters demand the districts stop the “illegal boycott” or face a lawsuit, Staver said.
LCA Superintendent Harvey Klamm said his school had formed competitive rivalries with area public schools until recently.
“What we’re finding has been developing over the course of the winter and now into the spring is that schools are telling us they will no longer schedule us,” he said, referring to golf, tennis or any one of the major sports. “We’ve had a good relationship with the public schools for years and now they’re basically closing the door to any participation with us.”
LCA athletic director Frank Rocco said those rivalries may have turned from friendly to not-so-friendly due to the Bulldogs’ development as a contender.
“The private school athletic programs are really becoming a very competitive formidable entity in athletics in this area and in some ways, the public schools just don’t want to acknowledge that and coexist with that,” he said, noting other private school teams, including Holy Cross and Virginia Episcopal School, are also being excluded. “They are all agreeing to just not play the private schools.”
Rocco added that the alleged boycott hurts both the Bulldogs and public schools alike.
“This is not a football thing,” said Rocco, who has coached LCA to two consecutive Virginia Independent Schools Division II football state championships. “We’ve run cross country, we’ve golfed, we’ve played softball, we’ve played tennis with every one of these schools, but now we can’t play. It’s a bad situation for LCA, but it’s a bad situation for Central Virginia athletics.”
In early February, LCA applied to become a member of the Virginia High School League (VHSL), stating it was required by law to open its membership to non-public schools. That request was denied, but the school plans to continue to pursue that case in the future.
“The boycott is actually the reason that LCA is pursuing membership in the VHSL,” Jerry Falwell Jr. said. “At the time they were working on the VHSL membership (proposal), it became clear to our lawyers that a boycott was being organized and they thought it would be better to take steps to end it first (before attempting to join the VHSL).”
Falwell Jr. said VHSL bylaws discourage members from scheduling games against non-members.
“They are only able to play private schools if they get permission from the VHSL first,” he said. “The VHSL, the way it’s set up in itself, is a violation of state antitrust laws. These schools are saying ‘We’re not going to ask permission, we’re going to boycott LCA,’ which makes it even more of an antitrust violation.”
E.C. Glass athletic director Chip Berry said Lynchburg City Superintendent Paul McKendrick will refer the letter to the schools’ own legal counselors.
“Our school system took the letter and they’re letting our attorneys look at it to find out if they have any legal ground,” Berry said.
He acknowledged that Glass has excluded LCA in its athletic scheduling, as have some Seminole District schools, due to conflicting rules of operation used by the public schools and private schools.
“I know the Seminole schools have said they don’t want to play them, (though) I don’t know that the whole district as a district has come together and said they won’t play LCA,” Berry said. “The key thing is the different set of rules that the schools play by.”
He said, under VHSL guidelines, public schools have the prerogative to schedule non-district competition against any school they wish.
“If the Seminole schools chose not to schedule E.C. Glass, there’s nothing we could do about it,” Berry said.
“It’s one of those things, nobody has to play anybody,” Brookville athletic director John Vasvary added. “That’s up to each individual school. We choose who we play and don’t play.”
With eight teams in the Seminole District, those schools have a very limited number of non-district slots available.
“With how our season is set up, we have a hard time scheduling teams outside of our district,” Vasvary said. “We would choose to play people that operate along the same boundaries that we do.”
Staver said he and LCA officials think “a handful of individual coaches or athletic directors” are encouraging the boycott, which he said includes the threat of ostracizing any public school that agrees to play LCA.
Though LCA officials have tried to discuss the issue with area schools to no avail, Staver said, he hopes the threat of legal action will help.
“It’s interesting how things change when legal counsel gets involved,” he said. “We’re serious about this.”
Of course, I find it highly ironic that LCA is the only school on The Mountain that will recruit locally...
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... 6843&path=
LCA Claims 'Boycott' by Local Public Schools
By Ted Allen and Matt Busse
The News & Advance
May 16, 2006
A perceived boycott by area public high schools against Liberty Christian Academy’s athletic program has prompted the chairman of the private school’s legal counsel to draft a letter to local school superintendents demanding that it be lifted.
Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, said he and LCA officials believe public schools in eight districts are refusing to schedule athletic events in or out of season involving the Bulldogs.
“Whether it is motivated by personal bias or anticompetitive activity - we believe it’s both - it must stop because it’s hurting everybody,” Staver said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference.
Staver said Liberty Counsel, an Orlando, Fla.-based legal advocacy group with an office in Liberty University’s law school, sent letters this week to school superintendents in eight divisions: the counties of Bedford, Nelson, Prince Edward, Campbell, Appomattox, Pittsylvania and Amherst plus the city of Lynchburg.
The letters demand the districts stop the “illegal boycott” or face a lawsuit, Staver said.
LCA Superintendent Harvey Klamm said his school had formed competitive rivalries with area public schools until recently.
“What we’re finding has been developing over the course of the winter and now into the spring is that schools are telling us they will no longer schedule us,” he said, referring to golf, tennis or any one of the major sports. “We’ve had a good relationship with the public schools for years and now they’re basically closing the door to any participation with us.”
LCA athletic director Frank Rocco said those rivalries may have turned from friendly to not-so-friendly due to the Bulldogs’ development as a contender.
“The private school athletic programs are really becoming a very competitive formidable entity in athletics in this area and in some ways, the public schools just don’t want to acknowledge that and coexist with that,” he said, noting other private school teams, including Holy Cross and Virginia Episcopal School, are also being excluded. “They are all agreeing to just not play the private schools.”
Rocco added that the alleged boycott hurts both the Bulldogs and public schools alike.
“This is not a football thing,” said Rocco, who has coached LCA to two consecutive Virginia Independent Schools Division II football state championships. “We’ve run cross country, we’ve golfed, we’ve played softball, we’ve played tennis with every one of these schools, but now we can’t play. It’s a bad situation for LCA, but it’s a bad situation for Central Virginia athletics.”
In early February, LCA applied to become a member of the Virginia High School League (VHSL), stating it was required by law to open its membership to non-public schools. That request was denied, but the school plans to continue to pursue that case in the future.
“The boycott is actually the reason that LCA is pursuing membership in the VHSL,” Jerry Falwell Jr. said. “At the time they were working on the VHSL membership (proposal), it became clear to our lawyers that a boycott was being organized and they thought it would be better to take steps to end it first (before attempting to join the VHSL).”
Falwell Jr. said VHSL bylaws discourage members from scheduling games against non-members.
“They are only able to play private schools if they get permission from the VHSL first,” he said. “The VHSL, the way it’s set up in itself, is a violation of state antitrust laws. These schools are saying ‘We’re not going to ask permission, we’re going to boycott LCA,’ which makes it even more of an antitrust violation.”
E.C. Glass athletic director Chip Berry said Lynchburg City Superintendent Paul McKendrick will refer the letter to the schools’ own legal counselors.
“Our school system took the letter and they’re letting our attorneys look at it to find out if they have any legal ground,” Berry said.
He acknowledged that Glass has excluded LCA in its athletic scheduling, as have some Seminole District schools, due to conflicting rules of operation used by the public schools and private schools.
“I know the Seminole schools have said they don’t want to play them, (though) I don’t know that the whole district as a district has come together and said they won’t play LCA,” Berry said. “The key thing is the different set of rules that the schools play by.”
He said, under VHSL guidelines, public schools have the prerogative to schedule non-district competition against any school they wish.
“If the Seminole schools chose not to schedule E.C. Glass, there’s nothing we could do about it,” Berry said.
“It’s one of those things, nobody has to play anybody,” Brookville athletic director John Vasvary added. “That’s up to each individual school. We choose who we play and don’t play.”
With eight teams in the Seminole District, those schools have a very limited number of non-district slots available.
“With how our season is set up, we have a hard time scheduling teams outside of our district,” Vasvary said. “We would choose to play people that operate along the same boundaries that we do.”
Staver said he and LCA officials think “a handful of individual coaches or athletic directors” are encouraging the boycott, which he said includes the threat of ostracizing any public school that agrees to play LCA.
Though LCA officials have tried to discuss the issue with area schools to no avail, Staver said, he hopes the threat of legal action will help.
“It’s interesting how things change when legal counsel gets involved,” he said. “We’re serious about this.”
Isaiah 33:1
Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed!
Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed!
Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed!
Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed!
- By cruzan_flame13
- By flamehunter
- By LUOrange