COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina lawmakers are looking to change how charter and private high schools compete athletically against public schools.
John Sowell is a junior at Gray Collegiate Academy in West Columbia and has been playing football there since he was a freshman.
“It's a family-like bond. The chemistry on the team is unmatchable," said Sowell.
The school has become increasingly dominant in sports. He said it's a very different environment from when he played football at his public middle school.
“I feel like at Gray everybody has a goal and that is to achieve state," said Sowell.
Under a proposed law charter schools like his wouldn't be eligible for postseason play unless the playoff and championship competitions only include charter schools.
That's because some charter schools can target mostly athletes, and some worry that gives them a major competitive advantage over public schools -- particularly since they often compete against smaller high schools in the state that may not have as many resources.
Supporters argue it aims to level the playing field between the schools.
“If you're comparing the population and your population is almost all athletes and I have a population that's made up of a fraction of athletes, we're still comparing apples to oranges," said Fairfield County Superintendent J.R. Green.
Green gave his high school teams permission to forfeit games against Gray after several big losses.
“It was quite demoralizing to my young people," said Green.
This year alone, only three out of 16 South Carolina High School League fall and winter sports team championships in classes 1A and 2A were won by public schools.
Out of the 219 schools in the S.C. High School League, 15 are charter schools and four are private schools.
"If you don't conclude that there is an imbalance, I'm not sure how much more evidence you need," said Green.
Separate legislation calls for charter and private school sports teams to be put in higher athletics classification if they accept students living outside the public high school attendance zone in which they're located.
South Carolina High School League Commissioner Dr. Jerome Singleton said a temporary law renewed in the state budget every year would prevent those bills from changing anything.
“I've always thought that the ... member schools ought to be able to make the decisions on rules that affect their member schools," said Singleton.
Athletes like Sowell said the changes would be unfair.
“It's our goal every single year to make it past upper state to the state championship," Sowell said. "For the legislators to take that away from us would basically, in essence, mean that they're throwing all of our hard work and dedication down the drain."
Sowell added that he knows many public high schools like Dutch Fork in Irmo that have also dominated football championships.
"I've known schools that have upwards of five to 10 players who have the opportunity to play at the division one or division two level," said Sowell.
A tenth-grade softball player at Brashier Middle College Charter High School, Molly-Breeze James, echoed similar sentiments.
"It's not about what school you go to, who is doing what, and who you're playing it with," said Breeze. "At the end of the day, we're still a public school. We still don't charge for tuition."
It's too late in the legislative session for any of the bills to pass, but they could come up again next year.
Right now, the league addresses competitiveness through realignment which happens every two years. It moves schools up or down in classification based on enrollment changes.
The league will start making plans soon for its next realignment which will go into effect for the 2024 to 2026 school years.