By Matthew Keough, President, Christian Brothers Academy
When several Section III football teams chose to move to Tier 2 this season, opting out of competing against CBA, one local coach admitted, “It’s not the right thing to do.” His candid admission cuts to the heart of a deeper question: what values do we truly want high school athletics to embody, and are our structures effectively teaching the right lessons?
At their best, high school sports teach a foundational truth: growth does not come from avoiding difficulty. It comes from facing it. Strength of character, resilience, and a sense of purpose are not born of comfort; they are forged in challenge and sharpened through struggle and perseverance. Yet, a growing trend in both athletics and education threatens this fundamental truth, advocating for ease over the hard work that builds strength.
Interscholastic athletics, when structured well, help students become more disciplined, more committed, and more capable of working toward something larger than themselves. They teach teamwork, perseverance, and the deep satisfaction that comes from pushing beyond what once seemed impossible.
But those lessons are shaped not only by what happens on the field. They are shaped by the systems adults design and the choices we make about how competition is structured.
In Section III of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, the current Tier 2 system threatens to undermine a core purpose of high school athletics: embracing challenge rather than retreating from it. Christian Brothers Academy competes in Class AA, the highest classification. In recent years, however, Tier 2 has allowed some schools to compete in lower classifications during the regular season, thereby avoiding regular-season contests against CBA. While some cite competitive imbalance to justify this move, doing so risks redefining competition itself.
The intention to support programs facing genuine hardship is admirable. However, Tier 2 now risks eroding the spirit of competition it was meant to protect. Athletics should show compassion for hardship, but not become a refuge from challenge. When systems make avoidance easier, they do more than reshape schedules; they reshape essential values.
Many schools have raised concerns about competitive balance, enrollment models, and the perception that non-public programs such as CBA have structural advantages. Those concerns deserve consideration. But the answer cannot be to disengage from competition altogether.
The challenges we face in structuring high school athletics are not isolated; they mirror a wider trend in education. There is increasing pressure to lower the bar across the board, often in the name of fairness, comfort, or short-term success. We see this when standards are adjusted to produce higher pass rates, when grading policies are softened to avoid failure, or when expectations are lowered so that outcomes appear more equal. Although often well-intentioned, these approaches send the same message: that success is not about rising to the challenge, but about reshaping the challenge to be more easily met.
Across New York State, important conversations are underway about how public and non-public schools compete, including proposals related to schools without boundaries and championship structures. These discussions deserve thoughtful consideration. But whatever policies emerge, they should strengthen competition and prioritize student development, not promote insulation. When competition is diluted for the sake of ease, the spirit of the game fades, and so does the character it is meant to form. What message does taking the easy path send students about their own worth and potential?
This question is central to our philosophy at CBA, which has always been clear: students grow when expectations remain high and when they are challenged and relentlessly supported to be their best. It is this belief that guides our approach to academics, athletics, the arts, and every pursuit that shapes young people into their best selves.
When a student is accepted to CBA, we do not promise an easy path. We promise a meaningful one. There will be moments of struggle, times when confidence wavers, and challenges that seem too great. Those are the moments where growth begins. We tell our students that the road will not always be smooth, but they will never walk it alone. Our belief in their potential does not falter; it guides everything we do. Our role is to stand beside them, supporting and challenging them in equal measure, until they see in themselves the strength and promise we have seen from the start.
To lower the bar would send a very different message. It would suggest that we do not believe students are capable of meeting high expectations, so we will adjust those expectations downward. That is not care. Real care is holding students to a high standard and walking with them as they work to reach it.
When Jamesville DeWitt’s basketball program won four consecutive state championships, our response was not to avoid them. We invited them to our Christmas tournament so our students could compete against one of the strongest programs in New York State. That is what competition is meant to do. Strong competition elevates everyone involved. When we seek out the toughest opponents, we rise. When we look for the easiest path, the victories become hollow, lowering the standard for all.
Over our 126-year history, we have lived this lesson ourselves at CBA. In 2019, our football program endured a one-win season. The message to our students was not to retreat or search for a softer schedule. It was to persevere, improve, and come back stronger. This is how resilience is built.
The debate surrounding private and public schools often centers on the claim that private schools recruit athletes. The reality is more nuanced. Private schools recruit students, not athletes. That distinction matters. Anyone driving through Central New York has seen CBA billboards inviting families to consider our community. However, no student is recruited, admitted, or provided financial assistance based on athletic ability. Admissions and financial aid decisions are based solely on the student and family, and athletics play no role in that process.
At CBA, athletics is one pathway, not the gateway. These pathways emerge after admission, not as a basis for it. If a student is passionate about the violin, we help them become a musician who enriches others. If they are drawn to engineering, we help them develop the skills to solve real problems. If they pursue athletics, they are challenged to grow through competition, discipline, and teamwork. We are proud that each of these paths reflects the same standard: excellence through rigor and high expectations. Together, they serve a common purpose, forming young people who recognize their gifts and use them in the service of others.
Our school’s commitment to embracing challenge extends beyond athletics. Recent data show that 95 percent of CBA eighth graders are proficient in English and 92 percent in mathematics, results that exceed state averages and even those of the highest-performing districts in our region. And our football program, coming off a third consecutive state championship, was recently recognized by the National Football Foundation as one of the top academic teams in the country. That honor reflects something deeper than achievement alone, a culture where academic discipline, athletic commitment, and character are formed together. These outcomes are not accidental; they reflect a culture that refuses to lower expectations and instead lifts students to meet them.
This debate over the use of Tier 2 transcends trophies and classifications; it goes to the heart of how we form students. This is not about one school or one program. It is about what we, as a community, want high school athletics across our region to stand for. When systems are designed to favor comfort over the transformative power of challenge, they inevitably drift from the true purpose of athletics and education. Challenge is not an obstacle to be circumvented, but an essential condition under which young people are shaped. Lowering the standard may produce short-term success, but it limits the growth and potential of those we are called to serve. The decisions made in Section III today will shape not just schedules, but also the lessons thousands of Central New York students carry forward.
The true value of athletics lies not solely in win-loss records but in the profound life victories our students achieve. Those enduring victories are the real measure of success — the lesson high school athletics was always meant to teach.
