Over the next two weeks, Ohio High School Athletic Association member schools will vote on whether the Competitive Balance Proposal should be instituted.

And the driving force behind the proposal is the school boundaries factor.

“Boundaries is probably the most important aspect of the competitive balance proposal,” said Tim Stried, the Director of Information Services for the OHSAA. “It’s the heart of the proposal — how do schools get their kids.”

Is there an advantage gained by nonpublic schools, specifically in athletics? The OHSAA believes so.

The OHSAA’s Competitive Balance Committee identified school boundary as one of three key factors — socioeconomic and tradition are the others — in athletic competition and how it affects success.

“Is there an edge (for schools without boundaries)? Sure there is,” said Scott Kaufman, the Vice President of the Southwest District Board and former athletic director at Princeton.

“But at the end of the day, if you’re building a good program, the kids are going to get better, and you’ll attract good kids to come in and continue the success.”

If the proposal passes, eight sports would be affected: football, boys and girls soccer, girls volleyball, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball.

Each member school would be placed into one of five categories and given a percentage to be multiplied to its enrollment. That figure would be added to the beginning enrollment total.

Those five categories are: nonpublic schools with no boundaries (10 percent); nonpublic schools with limited boundaries (8 percent); public schools with statewide open enrollment (6 percent); public schools with adjacent districts open enrollment (4 percent); and public schools with no open enrollment (no percentage added).

Stried said of the three factors in the proposal, school boundary has received the most positive feedback.

“It’s the easiest to understand,” he said. “People are very understanding and positive. Even the nonpublic schools.”

Nonpublic schools — despite making up just 17 percent of the OHSAA’s total membership — have won 43 percent of the state championships in selected team sports between 1999 and 2010. Currently, tournament divisions are determined strictly by enrollment.

Is it the same?

According to the Ohio Department of Education, 63.2 percent (419 out of 663) of the state’s public school districts have statewide open enrollment.

One argument, though, from nonpublic administrators is that public schools with statewide open enrollment should have the same multiplier as nonpublic schools with no boundaries.

“Even more schools will go to open enrollment over the next several years,” Roger Bacon boys basketball coach Brian Neal said. “It’s a wash. We should be treated all the same.”

Badin Athletic Director Sally Kocher agreed, admitting that the competitive balance issue is more than just private versus public.

“It’s about balancing the playing field by narrowing how we get our students,” she said. “The open enrollment for the public schools as well as the no boundaries for the private schools. Part of me gets that. What I don’t get is why are the private schools being made to add a higher percentage of students for open boundaries than the public schools are for open enrollment?

“Truthfully, that’s the biggest issue for me.”

The rebuttal from the OHSAA is that there is a definite difference between the two.

“A public school with statewide open enrollment could, in theory, get kids from all over the state,” Stried said. “But they’re going to lose kids, too. Not like a nonpublic school with no boundaries, which isn’t losing kids they should be getting because they don’t have a geographic boundary.”

Lakota East Athletic Director Rich Bryant is a proponent of having boundaries for the nonpublic schools, which were set in place until three years ago when the Archdiocese of Cincinnati removed those boundaries.

“It’s not usually Joe Shmoe, a 5-foot-8, 150-pound power forward,” Bryant said of the student-athletes who attend nonpublic schools. “It’s funny that the kids who go to Moeller are 6-6 and can jump out of the gym. There has got to be a boundary system based on parochial schools.”

Advantage gained?

One quick glance at Moeller’s varsity baseball team clearly shows an extensive representation of student-athletes from the Greater Cincinnati area.

Of the 24 players on this spring’s roster, 15 are from different zip codes.

The Crusaders’ status as a nonpublic school with no boundaries — one of 114 in Ohio — is debated as one of the major reasons why they’ve established and maintained one of the elite Division I baseball programs in the state. They’ve made eight Final Four appearances and have won five state titles.

“When you play there, you’re aware of the tradition,” said David Whitehead, a 2010 Moeller graduate who was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays and is now pitching at Elon University. “That pushes you to get better. When you put that jersey on, you realize you’re part of something bigger.”

After moving with his family to West Chester Twp. from Columbus before his eighth-grade year, Whitehead attended Lakota Plains Junior School. He decided to go to Moeller for high school rather than Lakota West, and he pitched two years on varsity for the Crusaders and was the Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year last season.

“Moeller puts you a step above,” Whitehead said. “It helps that they get a wide range of players. But once you get there, that’s where the real change happens. They helped me become more mature.”

Lakota West baseball coach Bill Dreisbach knows it’s a battle he has to fight, having seen players like Whitehead and Andrew Brackman, another Moeller product who’s in the Yankees farm system, who lived in the Lakota district but went elsewhere.

But despite coaching in a public school district that has no open enrollment, Dreisbach led the Firebirds to the 2007 Division I state championship.

“It can be frustrating,” Dreisbach said. “You almost have to recruit your own junior high students to ensure that they stay at Lakota West. ... I don’t want to sound like I’m crying sour grapes. (Nonpublic schools) have an advantage, and I accept that advantage. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The OHSAA has bylaws for recruiting — Section 9, which has 10 parts — essentially acknowledging that it happens and that a plan is in place to monitor it.

“ ... The OHSAA is making it sound like it’s all about recruiting, how we can recruit our students,” said Badin’s Kocher, whose baseball program has made three straight Division III Final Four appearances.

“I’m offended by that because we have the same rules as every school in the state of Ohio has as far as recruiting. Open boundaries in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati has not helped or hurt Badin High School. It hasn’t changed a thing for us. So why should we be penalized?”

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5113 or smatthews@coxohio.com.