BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
Photograph: Opelousas High athletic director and head football coach Jimmy Zachery, Jr. (Photograph by Bobby Ardoin.)
Opelousas High is appealing a Louisiana High School Athletic Association ruling which intends to place the school among teams that are competing this year for select division postseason championships.
The high school which previously entered the state playoffs as a non-select team, received permission during a special St. Landry Parish School Board meeting to contest the ruling delivered in June by a LHSAA executive committee.
Opelousas athletic director and head football coach Jimmy Zachery Jr., told a School Board Executive Committee last month that the LHSAA decided to place the program into the select groups since OHS has a bio-medical program which allows students from throughout the parish to attend classes at the school.
Zachery said Opelousas enrolls about 170 students every year in a bio-med program. However only two of the bio-med students at the school who are expected to compete in athletics live outside the Opelousas zone, Zachery told the Executive Committee.
Apparently Zachery said, the LHSAA considers the OHS bio-medical curriculum as an open enrollment program similar to a charter, private or parochial school that attracts students from other parishwide attendance zones..
That perception by the LHSAA Zachery said, is misleading, since only two students from outside the Opelousas attendance zone should be considered as OHS athletic participants.
The LHSAA committee is expected to rule on the Opelousas High appeal sometime later this month, according to Superintendent Patrick Jenkins.
Postseason Disadvantage
Zachery said if Opelousas is placed among the 206 select teams during the postseason, the school will experience a distinct disadvantage.
If Opelousas becomes a select playoff team, Zachery said the program will be placed in Division 1, which includes Class 5A schools as well as those with student enrollments that far exceed OHS.
During the regular season, Opelousas athletics are placed in Class 4A due to the school enrollment size. Opelousas plays for regular season championships in District 6-4A against Cecilia, Beau Chene and Breaux Bridge.
Jenkins said Opelousas is expected to enroll about 760 students in grades nine through 12 this year.
The LHSAA increased the number of statewide select teams during a recent reorganization plan approved by the Executive Committee.
The LHSAA Committee concluded that many public and public charter schools that were formerly considered as non-select, were actually accepting students from outside their attendance zones.
Other Parish Schools
J.S. Clark Leadership Academy in Opelousas was among the schools that will transition this year from non-select to select status, according to the LHSAA decision.
Clark principal Tiffanie Lewis told St. Landry Now that the school won’t appeal the LHSAA ruling which puts the athletic program among select postseason teams.
Other parish schools which are considered select postseason schools are Opelousas Catholic, Westminster Christian Academy and The Academy of The Sacred Heart.
