It’s a point you hear debated all the time in South Carolina high school sports.

You can’t comb through a high school sports Facebook thread or attend a 2A athletic event without picking up on the obvious theme. 

That theme is that many residents aren’t happy with the perceived competitive imbalance at the 2A level, where public charter schools often face off with traditional public schools. Many have expressed frustration that public charters are racking up state title wins and appearances playing against schools that operate differently and have different restrictions on where they can get their players.

Two schools that get tagged with this consternation a lot are Oceanside Collegiate Academy in Mt. Pleasant and West Columbia’s Gray Collegiate Academy, right here in Lexington County.

And another, American Leadership Academy, which is set to open in Lexington this fall, is dealing with impacts right out that gate.

This academic year, the two schools played each other in the boys soccer state championship, baseball state championship and boys basketball state championship. Oceanside Collegiate also won the girls soccer and volleyball state championships while also appearing in the state football championship. Gray Collegiate won the girls basketball state championship. 

This level of dominance has angered administrators and has led schools like Fairfield Central to forfeit their scheduled games against Gray Collegiate in multiple sports despite being in the same region. 

Attend any Gray Collegiate athletic event and sit on the opposing team’s bleachers, and you’re sure to hear rumblings, factual or not, about how Gray Collegiate gets their student athletes. At the 2A Upper State final between Gray Collegiate and Mid-Carolina, one parent loudly pointed to each Gray Collegiate infielder and barked out where he thought they all came from, all within earshot of the players themselves:

 “Saluda! Pelion! Batesburg-Leesville! Swansea!”

So, how did it get to this point? How do so many schools at the 2A level feel like they’re at a disadvantage playing against these schools? 

South Carolina High School Sports League Appellate Panel Member Otis Rawl represents the state’s 2nd Congressional District on the body, including all of Lexington County. He said the advantage comes from the pool of athletes public charter schools can access.

 “I think every high school needs to have an opportunity to compete and be able to compete, and the traditional schools cannot do what the charter schools can do where they can pick from kids in an entire district, not just in a zone, but across an entire district,” Rawl said. “Everybody else is confined by where you live as to what high school or what school you attend and would be able to play athletically. So, there’s a little inequity in that when you start looking at it.”

One of the perceived advantages comes from the notion of recruiting. With no elementary and middle schools feeding into schools like Gray Collegiate, they have to bring in students from other schools and school districts. Otherwise, there would be no school. But with the school gaining a reputation as a premier high school athletic destination, this has brought up allegations and rumors of recruiting or poaching. 

How one views this process and how charter rosters are filled seemingly sit in the eye of the beholder. Some see public charter schools as marketing their product to parents who have the right to send their child to a public charter school if they wish. Others see this as targeted recruiting of some of the best athletes in the area. 

Rawl said “recruiting” happens even with some traditional public schools and that the recruitment element of the discussion isn’t relevant to competitive balance. He cites the success of the Dutch Fork football program and posed a hypothetical scenario that if someone had a child that excelled in football and wanted to better that football career, relocating to Irmo to play for that program is a wise decision so it really isn’t that much different than someone choosing to transfer to a charter school.

But where Rawl does see some imbalance with bringing in kids from outside the school district is that some traditional public school districts require relocation while public charter schools may not, which can cause more of an imbalance than any kind of perceived recruiting.

“The rules are still set up that somebody can only attend their school if they live in the attendance district of that school,” Rawl said. “So somebody has to move in there to be able to do it. And if the parents made that election for their kids and the kids want to do that, I don’t have a problem with it and I don’t think anybody should have a problem with that. But you remedy that problem by being able to adjust the competitiveness of that school in sports based on their ability to win championship and be competitive in a classification and not being over competitive in a classification where nobody can even compete with them. That’s how you deal with it. You don’t deal with it from a recruiting standpoint, you deal with it from a competitive standpoint.”

This perceived lack of competitive balance, heightened by instances when Gray Collegiate or Oceanside Collegiate win in incredibly lopsided outcomes, creates tension that often feels irreparable, exemplified by the aforementioned forfeitures of Fairfield Central to Gray Collegiate in multiple sports (with other 2A schools very likely to follow suit).

“Nobody wants to be humiliated in anything you do, and sports are no different,” Rawl said.

Gray Collegiate didn’t respond to the Chronicle’s request for comment.

Legislative fix?

The animosity and lack of competitive balance has reached a point to where the matter found its way to the South Carolina state legislature, where a budget proviso was in motion to give the South Carolina High School Sports League full autonomy to address issues regarding competitive balance. 

Per the current state law, the league must address public charter schools and traditional public schools equally, which essentially has forced the league to only make realignment decisions based on school enrollment. 

Ultimately, the proviso was excluded from the state budget by the Conference Committee, meaning the current status quo will last until at least January 2023 when state Rep. Russell Ott (D-Calhoun), who sponsored the proviso, told the Chronicle he plans to bring the measure back up.

Ott, whose District 93 touches Calhoun, Lexington and Orangeburg counties said the issue has a simple fix and that’s what his proviso in the legislature aimed to address.

“The proviso that I introduced basically just says that it affirmatively states that the high school league can adjust public charter schools and private schools that are members of the league with the justified amount of rationalization or justification that they can make changes as they see fit,” Ott said.

 Ott plans to aggressively pursue the issue again after the feedback he’s received from constituents living in some of these 2A communities. 

“I do believe it’s a problem. I just feel like we gotta put our hands around it,” Ott said, telling a story about his college roommate, whose daughter played volleyball at Branchville and in the state championship, got blown out by a public charter school in a way that was perceived that the game was over before it even started. 

“He basically said that, ‘You know, we walked in the gym to play a state championship match and we knew from the outset that we were going to run up against a buzzsaw,’ and that’s ultimately what happened. Obviously, from their perspective, it wasn’t necessarily fair that a special season by their girls was diminished by unfair or unlevel playing fields.”

Ott went on to say that he doesn’t have anything against public charter schools, but there is a competitive balance issue that can get out of hand and cause traditional public schools and public charter schools like Gray Collegiate even more issues if nothing gets done and that is what he fears.

“If we don’t do something, I think the problems will continue to grow,” Ott added. “You saw what happened with Fairfield Central this year where they said, ‘We’re not going to compete against Gray anymore.’ I’m concerned that that stance will be adopted by other public schools in the future. So then, that’s going to lead to Gray and these other schools having a hard time scheduling games. You know, they’ll be put in a division and they’ll be able to compete for a state championship but as far as the regular season competitions and regular season games, who knows where they’re gonna have to go to find opponents.”

A new charter school enters

The increasing friction between these kinds of schools and the debate regarding classification of public charters puts newer charter schools like American Leadership Academy, which is opening in Lexington this fall, in an awkward situation. 

They will participate in all High School League sports this season but will be an “at-large” school, meaning they won’t belong to a specific region or classification and won’t be able to participate in the postseason or state championships until they are assigned a classification in 2024.

With all the talk about schools like Gray Collegiate and Oceanside Collegiate dominating 2A and having certain schools refuse to play them, American Leadership Athletic Director Ray Canaday has already run into issues of certain schools refusing to play them in certain sports even in their first year of existence.

“We’re in our early phases of trying to schedule and some schools are very good and don’t mind scheduling us and some other schools that have said no, they’re not going to play us,” Canaday said. “And that’s their right. All I ask is that they not look at us and judge us before jumping to conclusions or have a perception just because we’re a charter school because all charters are different.”

If his school reaches that same level of success that Gray Collegiate has had and if any changes are made to allow the high school league to make adjustments based on athletic advantages, Canaday said he wouldn’t have any problem if his school was asked to move up in classifications or play in a “multiplier” system in the future. Multiplier systems, in place in other states, allow for dominant schools at lower levels to “move up” in classification based on athletic performance.

“They talk about multipliers or playing up or if it’s all going to be based on previous success and that’s fine,” Canaday said. “We’re coming in and we just want to be competitive. We want an opportunity to play and we want to be fair to our kids and as long as that happens, we’re good to go. And I have no doubt that the High School League will do that.”

Canaday ultimately believes that there won’t be a solution that everybody will get on board with but that he has faith in the high school league to figure it out.

“I don’t know that you’re going to have a best solution that pleases everybody,” Canaday said. “What I do know is that Commissioner Singleton and his staff always have and will try to do what’s best for everybody and try to maintain a competitive, fair, balanced playing field. And I do think some things are going to change, but I have complete confidence in Commissioner Singleton and the high school league to make sure that everyone is treated fairly and equally.”

As of now, the High School League can’t make any changes and will be solely dependent on the state legislature to intervene. Until then, the same issues will exist, and only time will tell how existing tensions escalate. 

Rawl said he thinks public charter schools will ultimately form their own league with a separate ruling body because the high school league’s hands are so tied.

“There’s nothing that the High School League can do to stem what’s going on,” Rawl said. So the general assembly has to do it or you’re going to get more of what you’re hearing with the animosity issues, the dodging schedule issues and the non-playing issues to the point where I don’t know where charter schools go unless they go and create a league for themselves.”