In late October, the VAs, fresh off not only a victory at LQBA Fall Invitational South, held with both a middle and high school division, return home with a hard-won victory, brought with Oleg on the A-team, paired with Cindy, in the high school division. And Hathaway placing second in both divisions. But, after the news from the LQBA Fall Invitational South are announced, more athletic news cropped up. Starting with cross-country, for whom regionals are this Saturday, and then swimming.
"Our roster for the Division Three LHSAA State Swim Meet has been finalized" Leila then names four girls in alphabetical order of last names, herself going first.
Leila gave her all in class, including but not limited to, AP French, and, somehow, manages to be good enough as a swimmer to make it to the state championship? Until now, I knew she swam, because she once missed class for a swim meet, but no more than that, Flo, taken aback by the swim team, seems a little bewildered; however, she expected nothing less from a student from a magnet school.
"We won our fifth game this season on Friday night, fifty-one to thirty against Lake Charles Prep. This football season has been a marked improvement over our last one, but we aren't yet confirmed into the playoffs. For that, we need to win our season closer this Friday, against Westlake" Norman then reads the realignment enrollment numbers in use for redistricting.
Yet, beyond any sporting considerations, redistricting appears to be on every non-senior athlete's minds this morning. Like one of Leila's teammates in French II, Sylvie, who starts to show signs of panic:
"Quand est-ce qu'on va savoir si on va changer de district?" (When will we know whether we will change district?) Sylvie, the swim captain, asks, her hand raised.
"Sylvie, je crois que tu manques de patience" (Sylvie, I think you lack patience) Flo seems to be on edge, even though, in past LHSAA redistricting cycles, VA didn't budge once.
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Meanwhile, Norman holds a meeting with Jabari, the 7-8th grades assistant principal who doubles as VA's athletic director, where the preliminary data for enrollment is discussed, on a list sorted in descending order of enrollment.
"As it stands now, we're going to be in four-A, with Iowa and Lake Charles Prep" Norman points at where these three schools are going to be in the provisional redistricting plan, and VA is at the very bottom of the 4A list, two students above the 4A cutoff.
"If we're going to compete in four-A, we'll need a new weight room since our current one is used to capacity. We're paying the price of decades of athletic underfunding!" Jabari retorts about what moving to 4A implies for VA's short and medium-term needs. "Even when you were the AD, before you became principal, you deemed our facilities adequate for three-A!"
"Every post-pandemic principal spent little on sports, but also, for several years running, we had net gains in transfers because of how we maintained our reputation as the best high school in SWLA, from an academic standpoint. And also the growth of the town. Sure, we might have lost a few to greener athletic pastures, but focusing on academics is how we even got to this position!" Norman dreads the costs of adding a new weight room.
Especially since the oldest equipment in the current weight room is approximately as old as, well, VA's campus, and, if adding a new weight room is part of the deal, it's going to factor heavily in the financial aspect of the decision of whether to move to 4A. That's on top of new assistant football coaches, because having two assistants won't suffice in 4A, or so both people suspect.
"And we assume that moving up to four-A won't make more kids play sports. And just replacing the unsafe and worn-out equipment at the end of their useful lives won't be enough" Jabari explains to Norman. "We could always try to get the money for the new weight room by rationalizing the equipment for health purposes rather than athletic purposes"
"A new weight room is a one-time expense. Adding new assistant coaches from existing faculty and the upkeep of the weight room are recurring expenses. Come back here with an estimate of the costs of the weight room by the end of the month, and we'll decide then whether to go forward with this or not" Norman issues his orders to the athletic director before leaving his office.
Obviously, there is no unused room on campus that can be used for a secondary weight room. This mean an additional room will be necessary, and this would take years to build. Unless, perhaps, we could rent a mobile classroom to house it until the weight room is finished! The athletic director then initiates the process to field requests for quotations for a brand-new weight room.
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Meanwhile, in Hathaway, Marianne receives another call from Lacassine's principal regarding the redistricting process. Cardinals and Hornets are both going to play in the B class if they do nothing, with all the athletic consequences it carries.
"It turns out that, if we go up to one-A, tennis and XC aren't going to be affected by our move to one-A, and, for us, moving up to one-A will not change much for us financially in either direction, so please, file your declaration!" Lacassine's principal is filing its Declaration to Play in a Higher Classification while on the phone with Marianne.
I guess, if it means we can charge an extra dollar per basketball or baseball ticket, so be it, Marianne was told about how charging an extra dollar could increase gate receipts, but still not be enough to pay for the entirety of the sports program's costs, nor would this necessarily result in extra costs borne by the school as opposed to the parish.
Marianne then wastes no time filling out Hathaway's declaration, as well as writing the press release about Hathaway's announcement of playing in 1A for the next two seasons.
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Yet, back at VA, the athletic director has received some quotations, as well as historical costs incurred by similar schools to build new weight rooms of the size the AD deemed necessary just to stay afloat in 4A.
It's not about "keeping up with the Joneses" since we are not able to get VA anywhere near the powerhouses of even 4A, let alone the Airlines and Jesuits of this world, the AD is aghast at the costs required for getting the new weight room, the upkeep of both weight rooms and other costs he believes can be directly attributed to going up to 4A. The AD then returns to the principal's office at lunch:
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"Look at how expensive this is going to be! Even if we crowdfunded the entire operation of getting us a new weight room, the expense of the project is a very large one that, even if we were to split it over two years, would not be easy to swallow for our local community" Jabari, now armed with case studies, quotations and the like, attempts to convince Norman that getting VA up to 4A should be postponed.
"So you think a new weight room and a dressing room attached to it would be required to just compete in four-A? How are we going to get one million dollars to get this done, as well as replacing the equipment in the old weight room?" Norman counters.
"For these reasons, I believe we are not ready to move up to four-A yet, and file our appeal immediately! Cite poor funding and inadequate facilities, and we should be good to stay in three-A for the next two years. However, we need to get started doing this, NOW! So that we can, three years from now, hit the ground running in four-A!"
"We might have the enrollment to be in four-A next year, but two years from now, there is no guarantee that enrollment will remain at this level! We are right on the wire for four-A, remember?" Norman asks Jabari. "Also, you seem fixated on the idea that each division has implicit standards on facilities that must be met for a school to remain viable in it!"
"You know athletes have transferred out of here in the past because of that, and this has prevented us from being competitive, even in three-A! I don't expect this to abate in four-A"
And then Jabari takes pictures of the poor condition of the weight room on mobile, paint it as a consequence of long years of athletic neglect, and starts a campaign so that VA could crowdfund a new weight room and auxiliary dressing room and hope it would foot part of the bill. Might want to spend a day or two touring weight rooms and other athletic facilities at LaGrange and Washington-Marion to see what it would really take to compete in 4A, Jabari ruminates on what he feels he should do at this point.
He not only forwards Norman the pictures taken on mobile, but also declares his intention to spend the afternoon to tour the weight rooms and other practice facilities of schools they could play against if they remain in 4A. At the same time, Norman files his appeal of them being unfairly classified as 4A, with the financial situation of VA athletics and practice facilities. Which lands him an invitation to attend the first classification meeting at the LHSAA office on November 1.
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By October 31, as Norman's workday ends, he gives his instructions to Jabari, the most senior of the assistant principals.
"While I'm away in Bâton-Rouge to make our case for appealing our Class four-A placement back down to three-A, you will be in charge of the school" Norman entrusts Jabari with acting principal duty for the day.
"All right, thank you for trying to give us some breathing room for the next two years" Jabari beams with gratitude.
The other two are also given their tasks for tomorrow, with Ena being given the middle schooler and ninth graders for the day, while the other assistant principal is given the others.
Jabari thus wastes no time to draft his request to the parish school board for a new weight room, citing the poor condition of the existing one, which puts students in danger, the projected increase in enrollment over the next few years, and the dressing room, complete with lockers, as well as a timeframe to get the entire project done.
And, of course, reducing the rate at which students transfer out of VA because of inadequate facilities, as well as a preliminary funding plan for it. However, he expects the parish to foot only one-tenth of the bill out of the capital budget, maybe even less, that is, replacing the existing weight room equipment without building a new weight room and dressing room.
Before we can actually commit to a competitive bidding process, it seems like the layout of the weight room is made inadequate because of equipment malfunctions. However, optimizing the layout of the current weight room would probably put more pressure on the dressing room next to it, Jabari thinks of ways he could possibly save on the costs of the weight room project if so the parish requests it. Even if we were able to replace the old weight room equipment by more space-efficient equipment, it would still be used to capacity, albeit a higher one. However, space efficiency comes at a cost. He tries to think of a backup plan that he believes the parish would be more likely to accept and be closer to what he feels is necessary for Class 4A readiness. Yet, he knows there is no use to try to crowdfund the VAs' new weight room equipment without first getting approval from the parish.
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Then comes the first reclassification meeting on November 1, at the LHSAA head office in Bâton-Rouge. He is joined by a handful of other principals. No parish had more than one principal attending that meeting, and all of them represent schools on the borders between classes.
This is do-or-die for Venomous Agendas athletics. Jabari made it abundantly clear that 4A athletics represents expenses we can't sustain for the next two years without resorting to pay-for-play fees, which we know will reduce the number of players on VA's sports teams. And run contrary to our athletic ethos. While, normally, enrollment numbers are certified by the Louisiana Department of Education (LDoE), plus any middle schoolers on VA's sports rosters last year, I must get my point across and convince LHSAA to have us remain in 3A, a nervous Norman is shaking as the classification meeting starts. More important than districting to VA athletics is the classification; they will always have us grouped with more SWLA schools, or as many of these as possible.
Ten uneventful minutes later, the time for the principals of schools wanting to appeal their classification starts with a signal from the LHSAA's executive director, and the appeals committee listening.
"Now, we will begin to hear the classification appeals, starting with Class five-A schools" the head of the appeals committee asks whether there are any principals of 5A schools. "Anybody?" that person asks in the absence of any 5A school principal. "Then we shall move on to four-A schools" Norman then steps forward to make VA's case to remain in 3A.
"On behalf of Venomous Agendas, VA thereafter, I request that VA be brought down to division three-A because we feel that, because of a small number of cross-country runners, swimmers and track competitors in seventh and eighth grades, LHSAA has unduly penalized VA by imposing new expenses we feel we can't afford as a result of moving up to four-A" Norman then shows the committee the breakdown of the costs that he feels can directly be attributed to VA moving up to 4A, first one-time and then recurring.
Once he has finished making his case, Norman listens to the cases of other principals feeling they were unjustly put into higher or lower divisions. Like him, several of them pleaded their schools shouldn't be penalized for the actions of a handful of middle schoolers playing individual sports, and/or a lack of financial readiness. Especially since most schools pleading the former service at least part of middle school on top of high school and are in rural regions.
It just so happens that VA is the largest school appealing their classification this year that sports these characteristics; all other schools appealing were originally in classes 2A or 3A. And, while Norman expects one appellant each to succeed in 2A and 3A, he expects the successful appellants to be the ones with the biggest financial problems.
Meanwhile, the parish central office responds to the proposal sent by Jabari while Norman was away in Bâton-Rouge trying to buy time for VA to get their athletic facilities in order, for the next cycle. The parish office said no to a new addition to VA specifically for a second weight room and dressing room the same size as the current one, but, while they accepted the replacement of existing weight room equipment, they said they won't foot more than a certain amount of the bill of replacing existing equipment, Jabari summarizes the letter from the parish, which he then forwards to Norman as well as the booster club president.