I think a lot of people initially voted for the split because they felt obligated to. One public school principal who was in our gym not too long ago said he wants to play us. But he felt an allegiance to other schools in his district to vote the same way so as not to seem like an out­cast. If people truly voted their conscience, voted their heart, they would do what's right for the kids. Meaning, everybody should be together. We had no problem playing the schools that people perceive as cutting corners. If they're cutting corners, you need to do something about it.

What I'm hearing is that, if an additional split were to happen, an immediate meeting of the private school principals would take place within the time frame of the LHSAA Convention to discuss it.
The LHSAA has contractual obligations to abide by. The contract with the Sugar Bowl to sponsor the football playoffs in the Dome has an out clause that allows the organization to no longer sponsor high school athletics if a further split occurs. Imagine - kids who are used to playing in the Superdome will not be playing in the Superdome. Where are they going to play? We're penalizing the kids.
Mr. Booker was wise in his proposal. If it went across the board for all sports, the public schools would lose their other sport programs [besides football, basketball, baseball, and softball].

I don't know what's going to happen with the new director just hired. It's great that we've got somebody from outside who has a wealth of experience in dealing not only with splits in his state [Nevada] but has a fresh look. He has a new set of eyes on what we've been deal­ing with so it doesn't feel as if it's the good old boy system. We may not like some of the things that are handed down, but we have to give this man a chance to try to right the ship. If we continue down this path, there is going to be a split. I'm pretty sure that all the private schools will pull out of the LHSAA if that happens.
Mr. Henderson [the previous Director] was staunch in advocating that he just enforced the rules that the principals passed. I think we need a Director who is able to stand up there before something is passed and say, if this passes, this is what it means. Do the homework ahead of time. Then you can't say when something passes, what do we do now? Then spend six months trying to figure out what was just passed. Could 90% of that homework go to the wayside? Absolutely. But you have taken steps as leader to inform principals what's going to happen. They need to hear that, not out of fear but out of reality. Tommy Henry [the Director before Henderson] was a politician, and Henderson was a manager. We need a director, a leader

The sentiment is that we would not schedule them anymore. We still keep it open to playing some schools in football because we know what their true feelings are. But after a couple of years, even as I'm saying I'm the optimist, I feel like I'm getting dumped on. You have to take a stand. But at a certain point you don't want to hurt your kids. I don't want to have a 7-game football schedule for the sake of trying to prove a point. That's not fair to the kids. They deserve a 10-game season. They deserve five rounds of playoffs. They deserve an opportunity to go to the Superdome. And if your team is not worthy of that, they shouldn't be a part of it. That's the life lesson that we're missing with these kids. You have to work to earn things in life and things aren't going to just be given to you. I understand the experi­ence of playing in a playoff game. But what about the experience of pushing them harder to make them do things they didn't think they could do in order to earn that playoff game? I think that's what we're losing sight of. Life is not like that. You may work your butt off and not get what you want. What are you going to do then? Pout, cry?