NIAA Board to form committee to address disparity between Gorman, public school athletic programs

By Anjeanette Damon

Tuesday, March 6, 2012 | 1:14 p.m.

RENO — The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association’s Board of Control will form a committee to explore ways to level the playing field for high school sports in the wake of intensifying complaints from public schools that they can no longer keep up with Bishop Gorman High’s dominant football program.

The board decided Tuesday during a meeting in Reno to appoint a committee of regulators and school officials to address the growing competitive disparity between Gorman and the rest of the state’s schools — including establishing new rules for postseason play that could exclude Gorman from the playoffs.

Those on the board made it clear they have a single target in mind: private school Bishop Gorman.

“Everybody wants to beat around the bush on this,” said Palo Verde High School Principal Dan Phillips, who sits on the board. “But the issue is not private schools. The issue is Gorman.”

The decision to form a committee — an option proposed by Gorman President John Kilduff — came after nearly two hours of heated debate pitting public schools from both ends of the state against Gorman.

They accused Gorman of improper recruiting techniques and grilled Kilduff on the school’s tuition assistance policy, questioning whether the school or boosters are paying athletes to attend.

Kilduff said it’s the parents’ responsibility to sign a compliance form and to make sure “there’s not anything happening that shouldn’t be.”

He added that school officials have ongoing conversations with boosters about the impropriety of paying athletes or their families.

Kilduff bristled at the anonymous complaints mentioned by board members, who acknowledged they had no verified incidents of improper tuition assistance or recruiting.

“Every time Mr. Bonine has brought a circumstance to our attention, we have dealt with it to his satisfaction,” Kilduff said. “I don’t know how we deal with anonymous allegations when we can’t put a name to it. We can’t defend ourselves.”

The state’s other 4A private high schools — Bishop Manogue in Reno and Faith Lutheran in Las Vegas — offered a tepid defense of Gorman, arguing that excluding any NIAA member from post-season play would be discriminatory and would fail to address the problem.

Some board members agreed with them.

“Excluding Bishop Gorman from competition to me sounds extreme,” board member Carolyn Edwards said. “I’m not sure that’s a real solution.”

While the new committee should have recommendations to the board by June, the board also moved forward with regulations to create an associate membership designation, which would allow schools to opt out of post-season play.

The prospective associate membership was offered to Gorman as a way to eliminate the school from post-season play, but some public schools have considered using it as a way to avoid competing against Gorman.

“There’s talk from principals they want to pursue the associate membership, that they would rather not compete for a state championship than to play Bishop Gorman,” said NIAA board member Ray Mathis, who is also the athletic director of the Clark County School District. “They feel they don’t have a chance to win, so why bother competing?

“That is scary. That means this board needs to take a look at some options.”

The competition disparity issue has been simmering for a while, but it came to a head after Gorman trounced Reed High School 72-28 in the state championship game last December. That prompted board member Ken Cass to pen a letter to the board asking for a remedy.

Cass noted Reed had defeated its regular season opponents 639-156.

“Reed had an exceptional team,” Cass said. “They had lost one game all year. But they didn’t stand a chance against Gorman.”

Cass likened it to “going to a gun fight with a plastic spoon.”

NIAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine refuted the suggestion he brought the issue to the table “because Bishop Gorman came north and handed it to some northern schools.”

“That’s not the case at all,” he said. “It’s a timing issue.”

Indeed, Northern Nevada high schools aren’t the only ones complaining.

In a rather impassioned soliloquy, Phillips said he is fed up with the inability to compete with Gorman’s coaching, recruiting and facility resources—all of which outmatch resources available to public schools.

He argued it’s unfair for Gorman to pursue national ranking while running roughshod over Nevada schools.

“If that’s your goal to be a national power, to be on ESPN, to do whatever you need to do to be on the national stage, I will root for you every time,” Phillips said. “However, we in public schools are not going to be your cannon fodder to prepare you for that level. We’re just done.”

In an interview after the meeting, Kilduff countered that his athletes “would much rather win a state title than have a national ranking.”

“But no one outside the league will play us. That’s forced us to go out and get these national games.”

Kilduff argued the entire state benefits from having a powerhouse like Gorman, saying the team attracts recruits who are exposed to other schools’ talent who would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Kilduff said he’s satisfied with the board’s decision to appoint a committee to investigate solutions, as long as it addresses the problem objectively.

But some doubt a committee will be able to truly address the underlying issues.

“It’s not that I don’t have confidence in the committee,” Phillips said. “I just don’t think we’ll get anywhere where we aren’t today. But I do like the idea of open dialogue.”