If you can't beat 'em, whine about 'em
In the past 4 days, Matt Koehler, a resident of Sultan, has spent a significant amount of time trying to convince people that Archbishop Murphy High School does not play on a level playing field with public schools. He wrote a letter to the editor to the Everett Herald, has posted virtually the same letter on a blog for the Seattle P-I, and posted misleading (and sometimes outright false) statements on this message board.
Let's set aside Sultan's winner-to-state, loser-out basketball victory over AMHS last year, and examine his logic.
He's actually RIGHT!
Let's also set aside the public school advantages of school size and taxpayer funded athletic programs, facilities and coaches salaries for a moment, and consider the following:
Archbishop Murphy is, indeed, NOT playing on a level playing field in two key areas:
1) Its 50 mile radius drawing area; and
2) Its ability to attract families within that drawing area to pay tuition for their children to get a quality education and positive experience at AMHS.
The REAL question, the one that I challenge Matt Koehler to answer, is this:
Are Archbishop Murphy's advantages UNFAIR at the 2A classification in Washington state?
A quick look at the facts indicates that the answer is NO.
First of all, AMHS voluntarily opts up to the 2A classification in order to play bigger, more challenging schools in the state playoffs. Since making this choice in 2005, AMHS has won exactly 2 state championships, both in girls soccer.
So, in these 4+ years, AMHS has competed in 16 team sports at the 2A level. That's 64 different sports seasons. This means that in 62 out of the 64 sports seasons, AMHS has been knocked out of the District or State playoffs...by a 2A PUBLIC SCHOOL!
Is Archbishop Murphy really dominating 2A athletics?
Last year, a 2A public high school, Sehome, won 6 state championships.
Lynden, another 2A public high school, won the football, boys basketball and baseball state championships. Lynden also knocked AMHS out of the running for a state title in girls basketball and twice in football.
Fife, another 2A public high school, defeated AMHS in the girls soccer semifinals two years in a row on the way to their own state titles.
Burlington, another 2A public high school, routinely pummels Cascade Conference opponents in virtually every District tournament contest year after year.
What exactly does Matt Koehler want? Do people really think that AMHS has an UNFAIR advantage over the 62 public high schools who have knocked them out of the playoffs the last 4 years?
I would submit that AMHS and its administrators should actually be commended for voluntarily choosing to opt up to the 2A classification. Imagine the number of state titles, and subsequent uproar, that would result from AMHS competing at the 1A level.
I would also argue that the problem is NOT that AMHS has an UNFAIR advantage over public schools. The problem is that people like Matt Koehler are adopting a mentality that "If you can't beat 'em, whine about 'em." Throw your hands into the air. Whine about the schools who beat you. Try to ban them from ever competing against you again.
I assure you, Sehome doesn't have that mentality. Lynden doesn't have that mentality. Fife doesn't have that mentality. Burlington doesn't have that mentality.
Does Matt Koehler think people are going to buy his argument that, if they didn't play Archbishop Murphy, they would be getting to state against the powerhouse schools of the Northwest Conference? The combined conference records of Sultan's football, volleyball and girls' soccer teams were 1-32 this fall. That's 0-5 against AMHS and 1-27 against the other public schools in the Cascade Conference.
Matt Koehler's mentality is reduce successful athletic programs to the lowest common denominator.
That's no lesson to teach young people.
The only lesson Matt Koehler seems to be teaching is whining, cowardice, and self-pity.
Below is a breakdown of the state placers in the conference members since 2000. I may have missed a few but here it is: