I’ve always acknowledged that words, not numbers, are my friends. So it remains.

I put up this post on Tuesday, linking to a story in the Marion (O.) Star about the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s look at conducting separate state championships for its public and private schools. The idea stemmed from a survey sent out statewide by school superintendents in Wayne County, Ohio.

I ran some numbers in that post that were, well, they were close, but they weren’t 100 percent accurate.

In short, I said that private schools have won 243 PIAA team championships since private schools joined the PIAA in 1972 (more accurately, PIAA was forced to accept private schools that year after the General Assembly changed the school code, barring PIAA from barring private schools). That number was incorrect; the correct number is 256.

I worked off of my PIAA all-time championships database on Tuesday and I did so in a hurry; I had a “date” with my ex-wife on the 8th floor of the Dauphin County Human Services building that turned out to be the most expensive “date” I’ve ever had with any woman. Anyone who has been to the 8th floor knows exactly what I mean.

The bottom line is I went through the database once, rapidly and did not double-check my work. Yep, made a few errors.

I went back through each sport and recalculated the numbers. As noted, private schools have won 256 PIAA team championships since joining PIAA (of all sports, I failed to add in the 13 football titles won by privates). I also said there have been 1,580 PIAA team championships all-time (I still believe that to be correct), but when I calculated the number of total team titles since 1972, I used a completely erroneous total of 951 that came from another calculation, and thus reported that private schools have won nearly 26 percent of the state team championships.

Um, no. Since 1972, the PIAA has crowned 1,399 team champions. Using these correct numbers, private schools have won 18.3 percent of the state titles since 1972. Private school membership has usually been around 15 percent of total PIAA membership, so the private school titles run at just a slightly higher percentage of representation.

I apologize for the error.

If someone wants to check my math – and please do – I have added the following pdf file: Public v Private

Unfortunately, my 100-mph error left readers with the impression that private schools have been over-represented in PIAA team titles by winning about a quarter of them when in fact their numbers are in line with their percentage of membership.

As you can see, the problem is child is basketball, specifically girls’ basketball. Private schools have won 51.9 percent of PIAA girls’ hoop titles, and that’s where the flame burns the hottest on the public-private issue.

But what’s just as important – maybe even more important – is to look at the percentages of the other sports. By and large, the publics completely overwhelm the privates. No private school has won a PIAA boys volleyball or dual meet wrestling title. Private school titles are rare in baseball, softball and field hockey.

While it’s not entirely accurate to say the public v. private dust-up is a basketball-only issue, there really isn’t any other PIAA sport that has percentages as out-of-balance as hoops. That’s the No. 2 reason why I have always argued against the concept of separate championships, although based on their dismal numbers in some sports, the privates just might think it’s a swell idea.

Anyhow, I needed to correct the research. Like I said, numbers and I don’t always get along. Just ask the folks on the 8th floor.

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This story appeared in the Marion Star recently, indicating that the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA, the PIAA’s Ohio counterpart) is looking at separating the public and private school championships. (Hat tip to District 3 treasurer Bob baker and District 3 committee member Doug Bohannon for passing this along.)

Based on the story, this issue has some legs in Ohio. That’s interesting because the reasons for considering such a drastic move are virtually identical to the reasons the issue has been discussed – without success – in Pennsylvania.

As noted, only three states that have private schools as members of their state associations have separate championships. Other states have only public schools as members.

As it happens, Pennsylvania is ripe for a serious look at the matter, even though Catholic schools are shrinking in enrollment and numbers (Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, which each used to have numerous Catholic high schools, are each served by one now; several Philadelphia area Catholic schools have merged in the last three years).

The PIAA is currently in the process of reviewing its entire structure, from the public vs. private issue right down to how it qualifies schools for its championships. Never has the climate been better for actual change.

But the question here is: Should it change? Advocates of separate championships for public and private schools or at least a different system of classification for private schools are passionate about the issue. Proof is that the matter is revisited on an perennial basis.

Personally, I think this is Crybaby Central and always has been. The privates have an advantage available to them, but I can’t abide separate championships.

It is a fact that private schools have won a high proportion of basketball championships relative to their numbers, especially in Class AA and and Class A. The problem is especially acute in small-school girls basketball.

The privates show up pretty large in other sports as well, soccer chief among them. But by and large, private school dominance is a non-issue in a number of sports. There’s an enormous amount of data available on this issue, but we’re just going to focus on totals.

All-time, there have been 1,580 PIAA team championships in all sports (excluding gymnastics, which is absent complete results).

Of those 1,580 team titles, 243 – or 15 percent – have been won by private schools. That’s roughly the percentage of private schools that are PIAA members.

But private schools have only been PIAA members since 1972; PIAA has been conducting championships since 1920, starting with boys basketball and adding other sports over the years.

When the pre-1972 years are excluded, the percentage of private school championships jumps to about 26 percent, an over-representation, but one inflated by the basketball results.

Since this is a general, and not a scientific, exercise, I’m skipping past all of the necessary statistics and disclaimers and possibilities to get to a central point: Yes, privates do have an advantage because of their ability to draw from multiple public school districts and even nationwide (Milton Hershey comes to mind).

But so what? I get the advantage, but I can’t stand the whining. I wouldn’t argue against a reasonable remedy regarding classifications, but there is no way I would support separate championships. The great thing about the PIAA Championships is they are virtually all-inclusive since the addition of the Philadelphia Public League and Philadelphia Catholic League schools. In that sense, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So, yes, there are some private school issues that merit serious discussion. But separate championships should not be a part of that discussion.

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Follow RodFrisco.com on Facebook and Twitter. Click the icons on the lower right side of the page. Want to find information on a specific sport? Use the tabs at the top of the page or click on the category to the right.

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(Umm, yeah, this was supposed to be up last night, but I, uh, kind of dozed off. Sorry about that.)

No different than any other scholastic athletic body, District 3 has experienced an economic downturn.

The district is not in poor financial shape. Just the opposite: District 3 has a healthy fund balance. And last year, the district realized a gain of approximately $144,000. But that gain is almost one half of what it had in 2009-2010, and the district shares a percentage of that amount with member schools to help defray the costs of participating in post-season events.

In addition, the district has expenses it incurs throughout the upcoming school year, and its profit, such as it is, goes toward those operating costs. So that $144,000 is not get-fat-off-of-the-consumer dough.

The sharp drop in revenue prompted the District 3 Committee, which met Monday in Hershey, to reduce its school reimbursement to 35 percent of the gain realized. Just a few years ago, the reimbursement level was 60 percent.

The decision was unanimous, but met with frowns. Parents representative Dale Myers of Hanover stated the case well when he said, “Our first duty as this organization is make sure we conduct championships for our schools. I think our schools realize that. Everyone is hurting financially, but we have to make sure we’re able to have these championship events.”

The sentiment was met with tortured nods and grumbled “yeahs” around the table.

Myers is right. District 3 is not in the business of getting rich, nor is it in the business of making school athletic budgets whole. The reimbursement has always been an appropriate (if small) bonus, but a bonus nonetheless for member schools. Schools understand that when they support an athletic program, expense comes with that decision and it is up to each school to control its own costs and deal with those it cannot control. Whatever money is realized from the district is a pleasant extra and should not be considered a line-item on the revenue side.

Other District 3 business:

Former PIAA wrestling champion Arty Walsh continues his tour of District 3. Walsh was a state champion as a freshman at Wyomissing and transferred to Juniata last year as a sophomore where he won a 3-AA championship before going 0-2 at states. His transfer back to Berks County was one of several uncontested transfers approved by the district committee.

Brad Cashman, PIAA executive director, stopped by to give an update on PIAA matters, spending considerable time on the new football off-season rules. But he also dropped in this little nugget about boys volleyball: He will reconvene the PIAA’s volleyball steering committee to see if there’s an appetite to bring all 32 qualifiers (16 in each class) to Penn State next June and eliminate the first-round single-elimination matches.

The reason is a schedule conflict with the preferred venue, Penn State’s Multi-Sport Facility located adjacent to Bryce Jordan Center. The MSF is not available on the usual dates the PIAA conducts boys’ volleyball, but Penn State’s Rec Hall is. The PIAA prefers using MSF because it can set up more courts than it can at Rec Hall.

Cashman said that by eliminating the first-round matches, the championship could be conducted at MSF on June 3-4, 2011, and it’s clear that is what the executive staff would prefer. If not, the matches will move to Rec Hall a week later on June 10-11 using the current format.

The district also confirmed its number of qualifiers in several team championships and took other action:

Baseball
10 teams in each in Class AA and Class A, 20 teams each in Class AAA and Class AAAA. Preliminary games in baseball will be played at home field of higher seed, a change from the past. Baseball chairman pat Tulley said that the district might be forced to schedule more single games this year because the second game of recent doubleheaders have bumped up against curfews at certain sites.

Softball
Softball brackets will be set at 20 qualifiers each in Class AA and Class AAA.

Lacrosse
District 4 and District 6 schools are now part of a PIAA sub-region and will no longer qualify through District 3. As a result, District 3 loses one qualifier to the PIAA championships.

Girls’ Spring Soccer
Spring soccer drops back to one classification for the its final two-year cycle; District 3 will receive 9 of the 16 berths in the PIAA championships. Although not definite at this moment, it appears that the district still run a two-class tournament, then advance the top 6 Class AAA teams and the top 3 Class AA teams into the PIAA bracket. The district still must determine how schools will fit into each slot.

Field Hockey
There will be 20 teams each in Class AAA and Class AA for the district tournament. Qualifiers will be determined by the new power rating system.

Football
There will be 8 qualifiers each in Class A and Class AA and 16 each in Class AAA and Class AAAA. There was considerable discussion, as always, whether to slash Class A to 4 spots (District 3 has just 10 Class A programs, including some perennially weak teams). The football coaches on the committee, former Newport boss and current football chairman John Ziegler and current South Western coach Don Seidenstricker , came down squarely on the side of 8, citing their distaste for a bye week (top-seeded Upper Dauphin had a bye last year). Some folks wanted to compromise at six (the district usually has six decent teams in A each year while the No. 7 and No. 8 teams have generally been dreadful), but that left the No. 1 and 2 seeds with the hated byes. And it was pointed out that Class AA is down to 15 teams, not a lot more than Class A, yet there’s no talk of reducing AA qualifiers. So 8 spots won the day.

Boys Soccer
Well, the fur flew a little here. Soccer chairman Fred Isopi announced that soccer would qualify 16 teams in Class A and 24 each in Class AA and Class AAA. This immediately raised an objection from Elco AD Doug Bohannon, who said that he believed soccer would qualify 20 each in the top two classes. Other committee members said the same.

But Isopi correctly pointed out that the district left qualifying numbers up to each sports steering committee, nor did it adopt the 40 percent rule (the district discussed at great length limiting the number of team qualifiers to 40 percent of the total number of schools in a given class). Had that rule been formally implemented, the soccer qualifiers in the top two classes would have been capped at 20.

In addition, Isopi also said he wanted to keep soccer qualifying at 24 teams while seeing how the new power rating system worked out before adjusting the number of qualifiers. In the end, Isopi had the truth on his side, but not the votes.

When a motion was made to set soccer qualifying at 16 in A, 20 in AA and 20 in AAA, it passed with 15 affirmative votes.

Isopi also said that in Class AAA, where District 3 gets four qualifiers to states, there will be no consolation game to determine the No. 3 and No. 4 spots. The reason: The No. 4 team from 3-AAA gets the District 6 champion while the No. 3 team catches the District 1 champion; the latter is generally considered the much more difficult draw.

So instead of risking the possibility of a team tanking in consolations, District 3 will decide those two spots on the follow-the-winner method; the loser to the eventual champion becomes the No. 3 team while the loser to the eventual runner-up becomes the No. 4 team.

Golf
In the past, when a girl played on a boys’ team, the girl had to play from the same tees as the boys. The PIAA recently changed that, allowing a girl to play the course at 85 percent of the boys’ length. Note that this is not the same as saying the girl plays all 18 holes from the red tees. Nor did it say 84% or 86%; it said 85%. This could require a host course to set up new tees just for one player, something course management would be unlikely to do.

The matter was left unresolved by the district committee, but it made for considerable discussion.