For all our mutual experiences, Billy Joel’s lyric goes, our separate conclusions remain the same.

And that’s where it begins and ends for me and the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the state’s governing body of high school athletics. Mutual experiences, separate conclusions.

Example: Another spring season begins soon and seven Catholic schools, who have won five of the last seven state Class S baseball championships (four straight from 2015-18) are in Class S again.

I beg for the concept of equity, a fair baseline of competition among all our schools. The CIAC’s responses are cursory, leaving small, rural public schools like Wheeler and Tourtellotte competing for the same trophy as East Catholic, Immaculate, Kolbe, Northwest Catholic, Notre Dame of Fairfield, St. Bernard and St. Paul.

I contend that enrollment numbers alone should not dictate championship divisions. Catholic schools from more heavily populated areas that attract kids from 30-40 towns own a competitive advantage over small, rural public schools with kids from one town. Hence, they do not belong in the same division.

Wheeler principal Kristen St. Germain, whose husband, Randy, once the baseball coach at Old Lyme, understands this better than almost every other principal in the state. She has lived it.

“Our total enrollment (at Wheeler) 217,” she wrote. “I’m assuming it’s St. Paul, Immaculate, Holy Cross … just loved losing to those teams in the semis when Randy coached!

“I love our little school who only pulls from the streets of NoSto. We are fighters and don’t shy away from a good battle. At some point, perhaps CIAC will see there are enough Catholic schools and schools of choice that perhaps could fit nicely in one division. But let’s be honest, this advantage is within our own league as well.”

Except that the Eastern Connecticut Conference ought to serve as a statewide model for competitive equity. Wheeler and other small schools in the ECC rarely, if ever, compete against the league’s biggest schools — and certainly not for the same trophy at conference tournament time, unless there are similar program strengths.

It is the byproduct of cooperation, discussion and common sense.

But the CIAC allows Wheeler to play for the same trophy as East Catholic, whose own website trumpets it as “a college-preparatory school of the Archdiocese of Hartford, serving students from more than 35 towns in the Greater Hartford area and eastern Connecticut.” Or Immaculate, whose website says “approximately 42 percent of our student body resides in Danbury and the remainder in 26 surrounding towns in western Fairfield County, Litchfield County, and New York state.”

Think about that. Roughly 200 kids from NoSto must compete against counterparts from 35 towns in greater Hartford and 26 in western Connecticut and New York state. How is that possibly equitable?

And if you think I’m cherry picking examples, consider this actually happened to Lyman Memorial last year. Lyman, with its roughly 180 boys, played state tournament baseball games on consecutive days last June against East Catholic and Immaculate.

"Schools that have an opportunity to recruit like the Catholic schools make it very, very difficult on small public schools with limited players,” Lyman baseball coach Marty Gomez said after last year’s gauntlet. “And it's been addressed by a number of people over the years from (Griswold softball coach) Rick Arremony to (former Putnam boys' basketball coach) Tony Falzarano who took on this battle on with CIAC. It just seems to stay this way.”

More absurdity: Lyman is bound by the same CIAC one-size-fits-all "school of choice" rules as Fairfield Prep, which draws from 55 towns and 82 middle schools. Why? Lyman has an Ag-Science program that attracts students from other towns.

“Our Ag-Science program is great," Gomez said. "But very, very few ballplayers come into it, whether it be soccer, basketball, or baseball. Very few. It just doesn't attract athletes."

Here’s more: East Catholic participates in the East Division of the Central Connecticut Conference with East Hartford, E.O. Smith, Enfield, Manchester, RHAM, South Windsor and Tolland. Average enrollment of East's divisional opponents: 1,295 students. Lyman, Tourtellotte and Wheeler play in Div. IV of the ECC. Average enrollment: 272.

And yet they're playing for the same trophy.

I'd also point out that the girls' lacrosse team at East Catholic eliminated Wheeler from the Class S Tournament last year.

I’ve long asked why this continues to happen. I get no answers. I’m also learning that such answers are less likely to be forthcoming, not with the recent edict from the CIAC to Hearst Connecticut Media sports columnist Jeff Jacobs, the 11-time Connecticut Sportswriter of the Year.

CIAC officials have informed Jacobs they “have decided to no longer respond to any of (his) questions.” Jacobs has been critical of CIAC people and policies over the years. The CIAC’s response? Jacobs goes on mute. Why? Because the CIAC can. Because CIAC answers to nobody.

Imagine: a governing body who freezes out the state’s most influential media voice? It is unacceptable and unprofessional. But then, who’s going to stop them? It’s not like there’s a superintendent, principal or athletic director with the backbone to fight for what’s right. They’re either afraid to speak out or get shouted down by the sycophants, who break out into frequent choruses of “The people all said sit down, sit down you’re rockin’ the boat” to us infidels.

Funny how Jacobs and small public schools own the same classification in the CIAC kingdom: The Orwellian “unperson.” The CIAC won’t answer Jacobs’ questions. It doesn’t have to explain why Wheeler has to beat East Catholic. It won’t entertain the idea of simply moving Catholic schools north of Class S. It won’t acknowledge that not all schools of choice are the same.

Status quo for now. Forever.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro