Schools Will Play with LCA

Lynchburg, VA – Following a demand letter written by Liberty Counsel on May 16, 2006, to eight Virginia school districts, it now appears that a number of the schools are ready to talk about scheduling athletic events with Liberty Christian Academy (LCA).

LCA for several decades has engaged in athletic competition, off-season practice competition and training camp opportunities with student athletic teams of high schools within Bedford, Nelson, Prince Edward, Campbell, Appomattox, Pittsylvania and Amherst counties and the City of Lynchburg. LCA has scheduled in-season games, meets and matches with teams from these school districts in the sports of football, baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball, wrestling, soccer, track and field, cross country, golf, and tennis. LCA has participated in off-season open leagues with teams from these school districts in practice competition. LCA’s basketball players have also attended the Altavista Team Camp for a number of years. LCA’s football team won the state championship for the past two years, it’s basketball team was runner-up state champion this year, and LCA won the state championship in girls’ volleyball this year.

As LCA prepared for the 2006-2007 academic year’s sports seasons, LCA’s athletic director had been repeatedly informed by athletic department heads that LCA players are no longer welcome and may not participate in the Altavista Team Camp, may not participate in any “open” leagues for any sport, and that LCA has been dropped from the schedule of any high schools in these districts in all sports. After sending the demand letter which alleged the districts had engaged in an illegal boycott, LCA learned that district athletic directors and coaches had been instructed during a meeting by some of the boycott leaders not to schedule games with LCA, and that if they did, they, too, would be boycotted.

Soon after the demand letter, Pittsylvania School District contacted LCA to advise that it will schedule with LCA this year. Today, a law firm representing Appomattox, Bedford, and Campbell County School Districts wrote Liberty Counsel attempting to distance these schools from any boycott and stating that they will now consider scheduling games with LCA. The letter invites LCA officials to contact the school administrators. LCA Athletic Director Frank Rocco will now contact these four school districts to begin scheduling athletic competition. LCA also urges the remaining schools and districts to end their boycott and begin scheduling competition.

Mathew D. Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, said: “The coaches, the families, and most of all, the students, are pleased that once again they will be able to engage in friendly competition with their community schools. Community and cross-town competition is good for everyone. While we are very pleased that four school districts are willing to schedule games with Liberty Christian Academy, we are still waiting on the remaining holdouts. As one school district after another comes forward and is willing to schedule games, it becomes clear, as we have always suspected, where the boycott first originated. We will not rest until every school district decides to play fair.”