I won't comment on whether the correct call was made against the Norwalk keeper, but the call is consistant with changes I've seen this season. This year I saw more calls made against keepers and for the most part, they were long overdue coming. The keepers have been getting the benefit of the doubt for too long when it comes to contact. This has included the old trick of protecting yourself by raising the knee and then exposing your cleats to any opponent as well as keepers flat out interferring with opponents when they are beaten.
Glad to see the officials are starting to clean this up.
Warrior Soccer, I don't know where you were going stating that private Catholic schools won all 3 titles. Do private schools have some advantages? Yes. Do some public schools enjoy some of the similar advantages the privates have? Certainly, and Norwalk could be the poster child for being a public school who enjoys the same advantages as a private school.
When it comes down to it the two biggest advantages a private enjoys are: 1. They are normally located in (or near) a major metro area and are able to land many kids whose parents want to keep them out of the larger city schools. 2. The private schools are under no obligation to accept troubled or special needs youth. Those kids often are not able to contribute to the athletic or other extra ciricular activities of the school yet their attendance causes an increase in the school enrollment causing them to potentially play in a higher class.
Norwalk definitely benefits from no. 1 and largely isn't impacted greatly by no. 2.
In the not too far past Norwalk was a small 2A school which really struggled with all athletics (you're not alone, the same can be said of Waukee and many other communities). As business boomed in nearby Des Moines (and now West Des Moines) many young professionals decided they did not want their kids attending Des Moines public school nor bloated Valley, so they first settled in Waukee as that filled up, worked their way around to Norwalk. (Next will be Carlisle who will become the next Norwalk if/when Norwalk hits 4A). In a relative short period of years Waukee went from 2A to 4A while Norwalk went from 2A to a larger 3A knocking on the 4A door. As stated earlier, many of the new residents are professionals with above average incomes (much like the parents of the private schools) and share the same socio/economic advantages as the parents of the private schools. One example of this would be the financial ability for early and continued sports developement.
How does no. 2 come into play? Many ways. First they have fewer problem kids. Their families are more stable and the school environment is also a whole different world than the schools those parents were trying to avoid. Often these school are experiencing enough growth they are able to set the academic bar higher than their city counterparts and can effectively keep much of the trouble students out (or open enrolling elsewhere where they feel they fit in). When you are experiencing too much growth as a problem it isn't hard to imagine ways to "push" those kids away thus ridding your school of the problem kids while helping to ease the growing pains (that's a true win/win for these schools). Special needs students? Oh yes they still have them and they do inflate their enrollment number, but in Norwalk's case of being one of the largest 3A schools, their impact in minimal if any.
Warrior Soccer, yes private schools do have some advantages....but so do schools like your Norwalk Warriors.
P.S. Solon, much of this can be said of you too.
This post was edited on 6/6 5:54 AM by ghost80
