Sometimes, a wise person once suggested, the easiest way to solve a problem is to stop participating in the problem.

And Notre Dame of West Haven just became a solution through finding a creative way to rid itself — and perhaps others who may follow — of a problem in state high school basketball.

Notre Dame, wary of prep schools poaching kids from high schools, will start its own postgraduate program, Notre Dame Prep, beginning next year, per a report on GameTime CT, the state's digital destination for high school coverage.

The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the state's governing body for high school athletics, issued its blessing, requiring only that the new prep school "remain a separate entity from the high school team and school." Hence, Connecticut College graduate Jason Shea will remain as the high school coach, while Nick DeFeo, coach of one of Woodstock Academy's prep teams, will coach Notre Dame's new postgraduate team.

Why is this significant? Prep schools have plundered a reported 12 basketball players from the Southern Connecticut Conference alone this season, altering the state's overall talent pool and the hopes and dreams of many programs. Many parents get duped into the whole prep school ideal of "reclassifying" or repeating an academic year at a prep school and paying mondo tuition, all while their kids may or may not end up playing at Kentucky.

Meanwhile, they miss the high school of experience of playing with their friends and for their town inside filled gyms, the whole "Hoosiers" thing on a community level.

"(Notre Dame Prep) gives parents a chance to hang up on those prep schools who call up and talk about reclassification," Shea told GameTime CT. "You are being asked to take a leap of faith as a sophomore when you really have no idea whether you will end up at the level they project for you. Instead, if you continue at your high school and get to the point of the real recruitment, you get feedback from college coaches and then if you need to do a fifth year, you are making an educated decision."

Shea is emerging as one of high school sports' voices of reason, clearly using his Conn education practically and wisely.

"I don't oppose all kids reclassifying," Shea said. "If you are an extremely high-level player and it makes sense to go to a school that is better for them academically, great. What I am opposed to is the rampant reclassification.

"Usually, at the time of the reclassification, kids are not being recruited, but being promised the opportunities. The prep school coach has no idea if he can make those promises come true. In a lot of cases, the local prep schools play in front of 20 people every night. You can't tell me that a better developmental situation or environment for those athletes."

Notre Dame — again — scores points for ingenuity. The school was among the first in Connecticut to livestream many of its sporting events over its website — the Green Knights did so two years ago during a state football playoff game at New London — and again here illustrates leadership through some resourcefulness.

And this much we know about high school sports in Connecticut: plenty of us sit around and whine about this, that and the other thing, but who's really doing anything about it?

Answer: Notre Dame.

"All too often, we talk about problems with high school sports in this state, but we never create solutions," Southern Connecticut Conference commissioner Al Carbone told GameTime. "Great job by Notre Dame getting this done. It is always great to be first at something and Jason Shea and the ND administration really thought this through and took advantage."

GameTime reported that 15 student-athletes may enroll beginning in mid-August and begin classes — and practice — when the high school students return. The cost will be the same as the high school tuition — approximately $16,000. Core courses and electives will be offered in addition to SAT prep.

It's worth noting — at least to those of us who rail about competitive balance — that Notre Dame is a school of choice that is giving itself another advantage to attract out of district kids. Two things, though: The Green Knights play in the state's highest basketball division and are doing what they can to show other schools a way to keep high school kids in high school where they belong.

We're lucky here east of the river that prep schools aren't coming to take our kids at an alarming rate. Can you imagine the complexion of basketball around here if 12 kids from the Eastern Connecticut Conference left? Oy.

So this is an example of how the other half (of the state) lives. Not easy sometimes. But Notre Dame just scored a victory for those of us who value the "high school" part of high school basketball.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro