Let Them Play?
November 13th, 2008 - by You may have seen Oaks Christian High School on SportsCenter this week. If you missed the feature, it is dubbed “Celebrity High” due to the many famous names on the roster. Joe Montana’s son is the starting Quarterback on the 
Varsity and the sons of Will Smith and Wayne Gretzky are currently on the JV team.
The piece on ESPN focused on the famous names, but beneath the headlines a controversy is brewing. Oaks Christian has been dominating its league opponents so thoroughly that they would like to switch leagues to the more competitive nearby Marmonte League.
However, the Marmonte League wants nothing to do with Christian Oaks. The hold up centers around the fact Oaks Christian is a private school while every school in the Marmonte League is public. Deepening the disagreement is the fact that Oaks hands out scholarship money to an estimated 25% of athletes.
“We’ve got no plan or desire to change things right now,” Agoura (Calif.) High athletic director Jason Rosenthal said. “We can’t deal with (Oaks Christian). They recruit; they get to hand out money for scholarships.
“First, they take the best kids from our area, and now they want to play against us with them.”
Marmonte officials suggest that Oaks look into joining some of the private leagues 1-2 hours away in Orange County. Oaks officials think this idea is preposterous. What do you think?
