The scoreboard reads 0-0, as the game has not even started yet. But the athletes stand on the expensive turf field, already feeling the effects of a loss.
“Going into the game knowing you don’t have a chance [to win] isn’t very fun,” said sophomore Jonathan Robbins, who plays both varsity football and lacrosse at Northwood. “Against [Cardinal] Gibbons, [the lacrosse team] didn’t have a chance.”
Cardinal Gibbons is a non-boarding parochial school, or Catholic school, located in Raleigh. Gibbons is just one private school that is dominating other public schools in the state.
Cardinal Gibbons has won 55 North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) state titles since 2005, more than any other school in the state. The girls’ volleyball team has won the state championship 10 of the past 11 years, including seven straight, and the boys’ soccer team has won five state championships in the past 10 years.
“It’s a challenge [to play Cardinal Gibbons], which is good, but then you feel it’s a bit unfair that these high schools have so much talent,” said sophomore Thomas Russell, who plays varsity soccer at Northwood.
Some Northwood athletes do not think one school dominating throughout all sports is good for the sports, or for the conference.
“Variety and new champions every year is good for the league,” Robbins said. “It keeps it spicy.”
Dominating almost every sport makes it less enjoyable for other competitors.
“For [Cardinal Gibbons] they think it’s good, but it makes it less fun for the rest of us,” Russell said. “We kind of dread playing Gibbons.”
Private schools have the reputation that they can offer kids a better path toward their future with both athletics and education. This can be a big factor for attracting talented athletes to their schools.
“They can promise an amazing education and a good guarantee on getting into a great school,” said Nick Roberts, a senior at Northwood who used to attend private school Durham Academy. “The private school also might have more connections in being able to bring college coaches to games, because college coaches are attracted to organized, nice programs and facilities.”
Some say the talent of the teams like Cardinal Gibbons and other private schools gives them an advantage over public schools.
“I don’t think [Cardinal Gibbons] should play those who don’t have the same advantage as they do,” said sophomore Morgan Simmons, who plays varsity soccer at Northwood.
Cardinal Gibbons has a 25-mile radius from where they can admit students, which is a much larger area than from where public schools can admit students.
Head varsity baseball coach Rick Parks thinks the bigger district gives Cardinal Gibbons an advantage over public schools that have limited districts.
“If they told me I could coach a baseball team here, and I didn’t have to go by jurisdiction, I would like my chances too,” Parks said.
It is the opinion of many people,
including girls’ head varsity basketball coach Cameron Vernon, that Cardinal Gibbons and other Catholic schools should not be allowed in the same conference as public schools.
“In North Carolina we have a league for that, and it’s called the North Carolina Independent Athletic Association (NCISAA),” Vernon said. “So I think that those schools that are able to pull from other school districts should play each other.”
However, not all students share the opinion that private and public schools should not be in the same conference.
“Yes, [they should be in the same conference] because it offers other schools good competition so that they can get better,” said junior Ally Mckee, who plays varsity softball at Northwood.
Cardinal Gibbons participated in the NCISAA from 1983 to 2005 but then rejoined the NCHSAA in 2005.
“I don’t know what the appeal is for Gibbons to be in a public school league,” Parks said. “Like for me, why wouldn’t you want to play in a private school league? Then you can get the apples to apples and oranges to oranges.”
This past year, Cardinal Gibbons moved up from a 3A conference to a 4A conference, but there was some controversy while doing so. Two 4A conferences, the Cap-8 and the Southwest Wake Athletic Conference (SWAC), changed their conference’s bylaws so that schools in their conferences cannot play non-public schools like Cardinal Gibbons.
SWAC president Mike Dunphy spoke to the News and Observer about the issue.
“We have a lot of kids that should probably be going to public schools that are choosing to go to private school instead,” Dunphy said. “We just felt it wasn’t fair to our student body and our athletes to compete against those schools when we don’t have to.”
This prevented Cardinal Gibbons from joining those conferences, and they are now playing in the Pac-6 conference.
Contrary to what many students believe, Cardinal Gibbons is officially prohibited to recruit and give
scholarships to athletes, and the administration denies any involvement in doing so.
Jason Curtis, principal of Cardinal Gibbons, spoke to HighSchoolOT.com about the issue.
“I’m grateful for what our students and coaches have done and the work that they do,” Curtis said. “There certainly have been programs in the area that have been successful for a sustained period of time. I would never feel comfortable as an educator, or even as a citizen, making that claim [that they’re winning, so they must be cheating] without knowing any facts.”
Junior Sam Milliken, who plays varsity soccer at Cardinal Gibbons, also denies any recruiting of athletes.
“Because I’m a soccer player, I know a lot about the athletics,” Milliken said. “And I know for a fact that Gibbons does not do any recruiting or give scholarships to any student for sports.”
There are also not many people who transfer into Cardinal Gibbons for athletics. According to HighschoolOT.com, there are currently seven athletes that have transferred from another high school into Cardinal Gibbons, and all are observing a mandatory 365-day sit out period. In addition, athletes who went to a public middle school make up only 13 percent of Cardinal Gibbons athletic rosters.
Cardinal Gibbons instead credits its success towards talented athletes from Catholic middle schools, as well as nice facilities.
“Honestly I think [we have been successful] because of all the talented kids from Catholic middle schools,” Milliken said. “There really isn’t another Catholic high school around like [Cardinal] Gibbons, and all the middle schoolers are drawn to it anyway. Another part is the facilities. We have a crazy nice gym and a great field that all the teams get to play on.”
Playing teams overloaded with talent is not easy. Vernon discusses his mindset when playing Cardinal Gibbons.
“You want to play against the best, and you want to beat the best,” Vernon said. “So I don’t care what their situation is, it’s a challenge for your kids, and as a coach, and you go out there and try to beat them.”
—By Davis Palermo
