Ron Kantowski on why some NIAA members are fed up with Gorman playing by own rules

Friday, March 10, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

A couple of weeks ago, a bunch of overachievers from Reno High School beat the best team money can recruit in the boys' 4A state basketball semifinals.

In terms of upsets, the Huskies' 58-57 overtime victory against Bishop Gorman was roughly comparable to the Jets beating the Colts in Super Bowl III, Canada beating Team USA in baseball or Britney Spears and Kevin Federline practicing contraception.

But it apparently wasn't enough to convince Bishop Gorman's Southern Nevada public school rivals that the playing field is anywhere close to being level when it comes to competing against the private school Gaels and their wealth of wealthy donors and alumni.

In fact, as the late Peter Finch put it not-so-elegantly in the movies, the other Las Vegas-area 4A schools are still mad as hell. And they insist they're not going to take it anymore.

They're so fed up that on Thursday night they went before the Clark County School Board to express their dissatisfaction and discuss a long-range plan that may include withdrawing from the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association and forming a league of their own.

A league that would not include Bishop Gorman.

This should not be read as an indictment of the NIAA's leadership. Nor does it have much to do with the expense of traveling to Reno once or twice a year for a playoff game, although that was mentioned for the record.

This is about one thing and one thing only: The public schools playing by one set of rules and Bishop Gorman playing by another.

"I feel comfortable in speaking for all the high school principals in saying that we would like support from the board to help create a level playing field for the 4A high schools," said Silverado High principal and NIAA Board member Mark Coleman.

"The major reason we have an unequal playing field is because we have a private school in our league."

While Gorman isn't the first school in Southern Nevada to recruit athletes, as a private school it can do so without reprisal. But even more frustrating to its public school opponents is that virtually every time the NIAA tries to throw its rule book at the Gaels, Gorman uses its lawyers to throw it right back.

That's basically what happened during the just-concluded basketball season. In another display of perceived arrogance and defiance, Gorman attorneys went to court to overturn what amounted to an NIAA-imposed ban from the state tournament stemming from the recruitment of star player Jonathan Tavernari, a native of Brazil.

Apparently, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Although to hear the public schools talk, the camel has been hunched over for as long as anybody can remember.

Coleman, speaking on behalf of the principals, recommended that steps be taken over the next year to create a level playing field before the Southern 4A schools consider forming their own athletic governing body.

School Board members said two years might be a more reasonable timetable.

None expressed any sympathy for Bishop Gorman. In fact, School Board President Ruth Johnson spoke as if she were ready to take the first drastic step.

"This has been going on for 20 years or more and it hasn't fixed itself yet," she said. "What's one more year going to do?"

Nonetheless, Johnson agreed to serve on a committee comprised of School Board and NIAA board members that would put some rules into writing before reconvening in a few weeks to chart a course for a level playing field.

School Board member Susan Brager-Wellman said that may amount to getting Bishop Gorman to agree in writing to abide by the NIAA's rules and decisions.

"I know it's not the proper thing to say but I really find that offensive," Brager-Wellman said about Gorman taking the NIAA to court. "We need a document signed ... that you cannot go to a court to change a decision. Or take your toys and go home."

Bill Garis, Clark County School District athletic director, was a tad more diplomatic.

"We have people that are willing to do anything to circumvent our rules," Garis said. "But I don't believe now is the time to pull out of the NIAA."

Garis mentioned that the NIAA has governed high school sports in Nevada since the 1920s, and it was worth "trying our best to hold this organization together."

"But if it doesn't work," he warned, "then we may be back here and have to make some hard decisions."

When you get past the tough talk, rhetoric and posturing, nobody really wants to see a splintered state high school union.

Not the players and coaches, who would no longer have a true state championship for which to strive.

Not the NIAA, which needs the membership dues from the Southern Nevada schools if it wants to remain solvent, relevant and effective.

And, I'm guessing, not Bishop Gorman. When it finally gets around to stating its case, I suspect the Gorman reps will also see the value of playing ball in a unified Nevada.

But now that push is coming real close to shove, what everybody does seems to want is for Bishop Gorman not to shove back for a change.

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