Shaw’s choice to stay put may be a blessing

Think about it. The decision made by the administration of Archbishop Shaw High School not to  play up  to Class 5A when the Louisiana High School Athletic Association reclassifies its member schools next year may have been a wise choice.

On the surface, the option to remain a Class 4A school for athletic purposes may appear to have cost the longtime member of the Catholic League an opportunity to rejoin its parochial counterparts in a reunion of sorts. But you have to look at Shaw’s decision not to move up with deeper thought, if not pragmatism.

Since leaving District 9-5A following the 2021-22 school year, the Marrero school has dominated its local 4A district, winning rather easily in three varsity sports to date.

Dynastic duo

The football and basketball programs have evolved into Select Division II giants. Since Hank Tierney’s return as the head football coach, the Eagles have compiled a 31-8 record and have yet to lose a District 10-4A game.

Oh, did I not mention that the Eagles are also the reigning Division II state champions?

Under coach Wesley Laurendine, the basketball team enters the state playoffs as the No. 1 seed in Select Division II with a 24-2 record. And they have gone through district competition undefeated and may very well add another state championship. They certainly have the assets to do so.

With the exception of St. Charles Catholic, Shaw has little competition in this cupcake district.

So why not play up and make winning great again as a Catholic League member, which Shaw had been for 55 years, and shed itself from playing the less competitive trio of Kenner Discovery, Belle Chasse and the Willow School?

What if Shaw would have made the move and LHSAA executive director Eddie Bonine saw the upgrade as an opportunity to make a radical change in 5A district structures?

In the long era of LHSAA commissioner Tommy Henry, Shaw would have been sent back to the Catholic League without question. The late commissioner had a soft spot for the schools in the Catholic League because it was the only district he could count on to do the right things.

“The principals and athletic directors are all professionals, and I never have any problems with how that district is run, so I leave them alone,” he once told me. 

But Tommy, bless his soul, is gone. 

Different conclusion

Bonine runs the LHSAA with sound leadership, but he has been the director of high school athletic associations in other parts of the country. And most other districts in the LHSAA’s seven classes include both public and non-public schools.

So, let’s say that he looks at this now pseudo-Catholic League with its three non-Catholic members – John Curtis, Edna Karr and Warren Easton – expanding to eight teams if he were to place Shaw in that mix.

And then he would have to look at the Jefferson Parish public school district of 10-5A, which has just five members after losing three former district schools. 

Bonine would have a decision to make.

Former district member Grace King is now Haynes Charter, with a smaller footprint; Helen Cox has closed; and Kenner Discovery does not have a 5A enrollment. That leaves the Jefferson Parish district with just five schools: East Jefferson, Bonnabel, Higgins, Riverdale and West Jefferson.

The majority of the schools in District 9-5A are located in Orleans Parish, with the exception of Archbishop Rummel and John Curtis, also Jefferson Parish schools. So, if he would place Shaw in 8-5A, that would add another Jefferson Parish school to the district. He might also consider moving Rummel to that district as a brother school to Shaw.

Then 10-5A would have seven members, and that would leave the now former Catholic League with the same number of schools. Six of those schools – Brother Martin, Jesuit, Holy Cross, St. Augustine, Karr and Warren Easton – are located in Orleans Parish. Curtis, the seventh school, would be the Jefferson Parish school that Bonine would likely leave in place.

So, perhaps the men making the decisions at Shaw knew what they were doing to most benefit the school, and may have saved what’s left of the Catholic League in the interim.

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