Give Mike Erickson credit. 

When I sat down with Bradford’s athletic director last week to discuss a wide range of topics, I brought up the recent proposal from Rep. Aaron Bernstine to split the PIAA postseasons for private and public schools. 

But unlike most everyone who has weighed in on the subject, Erickson had no hot take, no knee-jerk reaction to the plan. 

Instead, he took a much more measured approach while discussing the subject. 

“It needs a lot more work,” Bradford’s first-year AD said. “I think it’s a good starting ground. I don’t know if the separation of public and private is where the endgame is here, but certainly more oversight is needed on the way we are classifying schools.”

If you haven’t heard, Bernstine — along with representatives from public and private schools across the state — recently laid out a proposal, named the Parity in Interscholastic Athletics Act, that would separate PIAA tournaments in eight sports. Champions would be crowned in public and private divisions before the two schools would then meet for an overall championship in each class. 

It would not, however, impact district championships, which would still mix private and public schools. 

The sports affected in the proposal are football, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, girls volleyball, softball and baseball. 

The major targets of the bill, of course, are the revenue-generating sports like football and basketball, in which private schools heavily recruit for and have won a large majority of state championships over the past decade. 

Erickson, who was the AD at DuBois Central Catholic before starting at Bradford in October, certainly agrees that boundary schools are at an inherent disadvantage. 

“What really muddies the water is that now the charter schools, the cyber schools, the parochial schools are in the picture,” Erickson, who also serves on the District 9 Committee, explained. “You look at some of the schools on the borders of Pennsylavnia who are not only drawing from multiple states but from multiple countries. 

“There’s no way that those schools should be in the same league as the Bradfords of the world who are drawing from this little part of the state.”

Still, Erickson points out that those schools are simply “abiding by the PIAA rules, policies and procedures.” Those policies go back to how the PIAA interpreted a 1972 state ruling that said private schools must be given the same opportunities in the state championships as its public counterparts. 

It’s also a major reason why the PIAA has already come out strongly against Bernstine’s proposal. 

“(We) do not believe creating segregated public/private tournaments is the answer,” a PIAA statement said. “Having private schools guaranteed 50% of the championship entries promotes inequities.”

Dr. Robert Lombardi, executive director of the PIAA, expounded further to the Reading Eagle on what the association feels would be a disadvantage should the legislation pass. 

“It’s wrought with pitfalls,” he said of the plan. “If you have to have an equal number of schools from public and private, you may be diminishing the number of public qualifiers.”

There is also a mammoth piece in the legislation regarding transfers, and the almost free-for-all that it would create.

Bernstine is proposing that transferring students be immediately eligible to play, with the exception of in-season moves. The current PIAA policy is to prohibit all transfers for athletic purposes. 

The PIAA minced no words in responding to that facet of the proposal, saying it would lead to “chaos.”

Erickson, meanwhile, says that transfers have plagued the PIAA for years because of improper enforcement. 

“The former transfer policy was effective before they tweaked it this last time,” Erickson explained. “It was worded well, and in my mind clearly stated what you could and could not do. But it wasn’t enforced. It wasn’t enforced by the principals of the schools that were involved in the transfer and then it wasn’t enforced by the district committees.

“There are 12 districts in Pennsylvania and each district interprets the rule differently. And then when it goes to a PIAA hearing, they may also interpret it a completely different way. It was a one rule interpreted 12 or 13 different ways across the state. And enforced differently, too. Penalties for violating the rule were not really clearly stated either.”

Bernstine defended the transfer language of his bill, saying, “Students are being harmed athletically, and often times academically. We’re taking away [the transfer rule] to make sure we give students the best chance to succeed.”

So if Erickson had a vote on the legislation, which way would he lean? 

“I think we have gone too far in one direction. The water is just too muddy right now just to even understand.

“I think it needs to be revised and cleared up a whole lot more before anybody could vote on it.” 

(Anthony Sambrotto, the Bradord Era sports editor, can be reached at asambrotto@bradfordera.com)