North Dakota High School Activities Association representatives got what they wanted from administrators, athletic directors and coaches on Wednesday afternoon during a meeting to discuss the proposed three-division basketball and volleyball system.
Of the 50 school officials and coaches in attendance at the Dickinson State University Student Center, several took turns speaking and voiced opinions about what they believe needs to be fixed in order to make the proposal work.
"This was exactly, from a staff member's perspective, what we were hoping to get," said Brian Bubach, the NDHSAA's assistant to the Executive Director, who served as the meeting's moderator. "We can talk about opposition and we can talk about affirmation, but unless we get down to the specifics, we don't know what really is working and what isn't. I thought today was extremely productive."
Chief among the topics discussed were the possibility of decreased revenue from the elimination of district tournaments and teams playing fewer games, the capabilities of the state's media to cover an additional state tournament that would likely overlap existing tournaments, and teams having to travel even greater distances than they already do to compete in their new regions.
Dickinson Trinity athletic director Rick Gordon brought up the increased travel costs that would be put upon his school, as well as others.
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In the proposal, Trinity would move to the 32-team Class A. It's closest opponents would be Heart River, Killdeer, Beulah and Hazen, but its region schedule would also include trips to Bismarck St. Mary's, New Town and Standing Rock.
"We're going to travel a long ways just for a league game, let alone trying to pick up the other games for our schedule," Gordon said. "I think scheduling is going to be a nightmare, trying to get enough games for some of us."
When it was shown that the Class AA boys and girls basketball state tournaments -- scheduled tentatively for the first weekend in March -- could take place the same weekend as the other state or regional tournaments that involve the state's larger schools, Dickinson High School activities director Calvin Dean and Bismarck High School activities director Jim Haussler sparked a discussion regarding the abilities of their respective fan bases to attend these events.
The discussion then turned the availability of the state media, which has generally been critical of the proposed three-division system.
NDHSAA officials said they cannot allow the media to dictate how this proposal moves forward, but added that concessions need to be made in order for tournaments to have statewide television coverage. After the meeting, the officials also said they understand the stress this could also put on newspapers and radio stations that attend state tournaments.
Haussler said previous attempts to push for a three-class system have failed generally because of the lack of details outlined by the NDHSAA when the proposals were presented to school officials.
"The devil is in the details," he said.
New England High School athletic director Daryl Jung added that even though some schools may not like the idea of moving to a three-division system, he believes that the NDHSAA is finally ironing out details of the proposed system that were necessary after several attempts that failed.
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"You have to give. You can't have everything," said Jung, who said he supports having a three-division system. "I think they're on the right track. They're doing a much better job, the association, with the details they gave us today."
