From left, Catholic High principal Dr. Stella Arabie and head football coach Brent Indest pose with Allstate officials and Notre Dame head football coach Lewis Cook and Notre Dame principal Cindy Istre before the start of the Division III state championship game in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in December. The LHSAA voted Friday to allow select (non-public) schools to hold separate state championships in the major sports starting with the 2019 school year.

The days of Louisiana’s football state championship games all being played inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome may be coming to an end.

In one of the more shocking developments coming out of the LHSAA general meeting held in Baton Rouge on Friday, was that the body which oversees high school sports in Louisiana voted to split off the select school championships from the non-select school championships in all sports.

After originally voting to reject Teurlings Catholic principal Mike Boyer’s proposal for select schools (non-public schools) to take charge of their own championships in football, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball, the proposal was brought up again for a revote.

The second time around, Boyer’s proposal for baseball passed 146-122 and that seemingly laid the groundwork for the proposals for the others to pass as well, as the plans for basketball (153-149),  football (125-96) and softball (169-74) all passed.

“A lot of coaches were surprised,” said NISH head football coach Rick Hutson. “I wasn’t surprised but I thought that it was going to be a close vote. I think the big difference was the fact that it was brought up by select schools, not public schools.”

The changes are slated to take effect with the 2019 school year that starts in August.

A trio of Teche Area high schools are affected by the change, Catholic High, Highland Baptist and Hanson Memorial.

The three head football coaches at each school, Brent Indest at CHS, Scottie Williams at HBCS and Chris Sanders at HMS, all had similar opinions.

“Personally, I don’t like it,” said Williams, whose school has never been to the Superdome to compete for the state championship. “The championships have been played at the Superdome for many years and a lot of kids who have grown up with it are going to be disappointed with the change.”

Sanders meanwhile is kind of in a unique situation with Hanson. 

The only football title in school history was won at McClosky Field in 1976 when the Tigers were the home team. 

The state championships started at the Superdome in 1981, five years after Hanson’s state title game. 

The Tigers also have never competed for a state title since the move to the Superdome.

“I have mixed feeling about it but I haven’t really sat down and looked at everything associated with it yet,” Sanders said. 

“Yes, you have the chance to play at the Superdome, but at the same time, I can’t say that I wouldn’t want a state title game at home.

“I’ve talked to people and heard stories about the atmosphere of the game the night we won the state title back in 1976 and I would love to have that here again,” Sanders added.

According to the proposal, the select school would take charge of their championships and championship tournaments across the major sports which means that the school could have the title game at its own stadium or possibly at a collegiate facility like Cajun Field in Lafayette.

One argument was the the move would help lower expenses and at the same time increase revenue for the select schools by holding the championships closer to the schools.

Indest gave a good example of what that could look like.

“Last year we played Notre Dame in the Superdome for the state championship and we had to split the money from the championships nine ways,” he said. “But if we could have played Notre Dame at UL’s Cajun Field, we could have each made a lot more money and had a lot more interest in the game because it was closer to the two schools.”

Notre Dame High is located in Crowley, which is about 22 miles from Cajun Field and Catholic High is located about 25 miles from the home stadium of the Ragin’ Cajuns.

“I was conflicted about the proposal,” said Indest. “We thought long and hard about it and we actually voted against the proposal. There were some positives and there were some negatives about it.”

Sanders and Williams weren’t sure how their respective schools voted on the proposals.

One of the biggest positives was financial, according to Indest.

“A lot of people don’t realize that it costs a lot of money when you add up all the expenses to play at the Superdome. You really lose money,” Indest said. 

“If we could have played Notre Dame at Cajun Field, it would have been a financial windfall for both schools.”

Another issue, according to Indest, is the travel and time involved attending the title games in New Orleans and what effect that has on academics.

“We played our state championship game on Thursday at a decent time,” said Indest who’s team played for the Division III championship at 7 p.m. 

“But what about the 1 p.m. game that day, or the 4 p.m. game. At the state softball tournament, we could have easily played at 10 a.m. the Thursday.

“At the state baseball tournament, some schools missed graduation because of the time of the game and the date of the game,” Indest said. 

“Being able to control the time and date of the state championships is a good thing. Now you can have a marquee game at a marquee time.”

Indest added that there are still going to be problems (securing locations for example) that will need to be ironed out. 

Despite that, Catholic High will opt to look at the positive side of the equation.

“That’s what we will do going forward,” Indest said. “Concentrate on the positive.”

Still Sanders is sure about one thing as the new format starts next year.

“I think that we are in uncharted waters,” he said. 

“And I don’t think that anybody knows how it’s going to play out. 

“This could be the one thing that gets us back together or the one thing that just ends up tearing the LHSAA apart.”