Sportsmanship, teamwork, winning, and losing are some of life’s greatest lessons learned on the field, the court, the diamond, or any other surface where a sport is played.  However, when one team is at a competitive advantage over the other, those lessons, along with the fun and safety of sports, are all but lost.
 
As humans continue to evolve, our children are getting bigger, stronger, and faster.  While our public high schools, or boundary schools, may have a limited number of athletes with superior size, strength, and speed, the private, charter, and parochial schools, otherwise known as non-boundary schools, are fortunate to have the resources and capabilities to attract these types of athletes.
 
When it comes to competition in team sports, especially football and basketball, the private, charter, and parochial schools have been dominant in state playoffs in recent years.  While competition is an important aspect of sports, I am also concerned about the safety and welfare of student-athletes.  Not all student athletes have superior size, strength, and speed, however, when one team has the ability to field more of those athletes due to the lack of a boundary, it creates both an unfair advantage and an unsafe environment.  That is why I want to level the playing field and make high school team sports both safe and fun again by allowing the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) to establish separate playoff systems and championships for boundary and non-boundary schools.
 
Let’s work together to make high school team sports safer, more competitive and fund for our kids again.  Teamwork is something we need to do more of so that we can all get a win.
 

Statutes/Laws affected:
Printer's No. 0020: P.L.30, No.14