Privately, there isn’t anything to really fear

There are three high school football games this weekend that should attract large crowds, vocal alumni and lots of media attention. Each school has been ranked in The Times’ top 25. And there’s one other common thread -- they’re all private schools.

Tonight, it’s No. 5 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame playing at No. 4 Encino Crespi and No. 18 Anaheim Servite facing No. 7 Orange Lutheran at Cal State Fullerton. On Saturday night, it’s No. 10 La Puente Bishop Amat taking on Los Angeles Loyola at Glendale High.

What an appropriate day -- Halloween -- to discuss why public schools fear their private school counterparts.

Let’s look at their arguments: The private schools have more money and better facilities, pay their coaches higher salaries, have more parental involvement and don’t have attendance boundaries.

Newhall Hart Coach Mike Herrington said, “It’s gotten worse and worse,” referring to the competitive inequity between public and private school athletic programs.

Forgive me, but I’m not convinced public schools need to wave the white flag.

Yes, there have been impressive athletic fields and facilities built at Los Angeles Cathedral, Santa Ana Mater Dei, Westlake Village Oaks Christian and San Juan Capistrano JSerra.

But there are magnificent public school stadium projects at Paramount, Redlands, Harbor City Narbonne and Los Angeles Contreras, and the region’s best weight room is at Huntington Beach Edison.

The football fields at Rancho Santa Margarita Tesoro and Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos, built in picturesque canyons, match up with any of the private schools in Orange and Riverside counties.

And yet the complaints are such that there was even a proposal last school year to put public and private schools in separate playoff divisions. That would never fly here. Fortunately, cooler heads quashed the idea before it came to a vote, deciding that it probably would be considered discriminatory and struck down by the courts.

I don’t have a solution other than what the Southern Section has done -- form a committee to discuss the issues, let leagues sort out disagreements in the new re-leaguing cycle and make proposals to calm the hysteria that has divided the section’s 212 private and 359 public schools.

There is never going to be a quick fix to satisfy the biggest complaint by public schools -- that private schools have no attendance boundaries. But there must be a crackdown on private schools that use the lure of financial aid to stack athletic programs.

I find it unfathomable that star athletes are attending private schools on aid packages while their parents drive luxury cars. It’s no wonder public schools question some financial aid programs.

Then there’s the issue of transfer students. There are far more transfers from public to public than private to public, but this is an equal-opportunity problem in which the rules are being manipulated.

A second-year CIF rule that gives freshmen a one-time free transfer before the start of their sophomore year is picking up momentum. In the first three months this year, there were 904 sophomore transfers compared with 895 in the first four months last year, according to CIF statistics. It’s a clear sign that parents are quickly figuring out how to use the rule for athletic reasons.

Two Mater Dei sophomore boys’ basketball players transferred to Corona del Mar and could become immediate starters. A baseball player at Granada Hills who started as a freshman and pitched at Dodger Stadium transferred to West Hills Chaminade. A basketball player at Van Nuys who started as a freshman transferred to defending City champion Woodland Hills Taft.

Transfer issues are soon going to eclipse private versus public as the most heated topic in the Southern Section. The CIF let the genie out of the bottle with its one-free-transfer rule, and it’s going to produce big problems.

The public-private feuding continues to simmer. Public schools need not fear private schools if they hire competent coaches, have principals who understand the importance of athletics, and persuade parents to commit time and effort to encourage their kids on and off the field.

Of the 13 football divisions in the Southern Section, the No. 1-ranked teams in nine of them are public schools. So are the top two teams -- Corona Centennial and Long Beach Poly -- in The Times’ Southland rankings. That tells me public schools are doing something right.

This weekend, let’s celebrate the excitement and passion of the private-school games. Both can be found at public-school games too.

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