Valley City

[point/center]

Dan Hammer has Valley City High School Super. Koppelman on the radio today. VC wants to move the Class B basketball number cut off upto 400. Which would screw Shanley and St. Marys out of Class A.

[Baller]

He thinks that they will be able to compete in class B but the girls basketball team already plays class B teams and they cant even beat them. I struggle with him trying to come up with a plan that is going to screw up the success that St. Marys and Shanley have at the Class A level just so his school can reap the benefits.

[point/center]

I hope they podcast that interview Koppelman really didnt make much of an argument that made any sense.

My most visual example of #s vs quality coaching and system is Napoleon wrestling, having to fill all those weight classes and for a few years beating top Class A teams.

Finally Koppelman said it's not about winning....i disagree...if they were winning would they want out of class A?

[Mandan]

I realize this is a late response and I did not hear the interview, but I want to double check the exact proposal.

The current numbers are 200 and 325. if you are below 200 you have to be class B, if you are above 325 you have to be class A, if you are inbetween you can choose either.

Which number would be changing? or would both go away and it would be a hard break at 400, above = class A and below = class B? This is an important distinction in knowing how to properly respond to the proposal.

[point/center]

I realize this is a late response and I did not hear the interview, but I want to double check the exact proposal.

The current numbers are 200 and 325. if you are below 200 you have to be class B, if you are above 325 you have to be class A, if you are inbetween you can choose either.

Which number would be changing? or would both go away and it would be a hard break at 400, above = class A and below = class B? This is an important distinction in knowing how to properly respond to the proposal.

check out this link from the Dan Hammer show to listen to it. about 3 up from the bottom with Dean Koppelman. Personally I don't think there is ANY support outside of Barnes County for this...so hopefully it fades off into the sunset.

http://www.740thefan.com/HammerOnDemand.asp

[ClassBEast]

NDHSAA OKs new alignment
Associated Press
Published Friday, August 08, 2008


VALLEY CITY, N.D. – The North Dakota High School Activities Association board has changed the high school sports alignment so Valley City can move from the current Class A to a division of smaller schools.

Thursday’s vote was 8-0 to set Division A for schools with a high school enrollment of 400 or more in girls and boys basketball, volleyball, baseball, cross country, golf, track, wrestling, drama, music and speech, said board member Jack Maus of Grafton. High schools with enrollments of less than 400 in those activities would be in Division B.

The alignment replaces the current Class A and Class B system, which puts schools with high school enrollments of 325 or more in Class A. The change starts in the 2009-2010 school year, Maus said.

Valley City is the only school affected, he said. Without the change, it would have had to remain in Class A for about seven more years and would have struggled to compete, he said.

“The gap between Valley City and bigger schools was getting bigger and bigger,” he said.

Valley City originally asked for a switch to a three-class system. As an alternative, school officials asked that the enrollment for Division A be raised so Valley City could move to Division B, Maus said. A committee studied the issue and chose the second option, he said.

Dean Koppelman, Valley City schools superintendent, said the school’s win-loss records in the last decade support the change.

In the last 11 years, the girls basketball team has won 19 percent of its games and is 1-7 against Class B teams. Its boys basketball team has won 36 percent of its games in the last seven years, and is 4-4 against Class B competition. Volleyball has won 22 percent of its games in that span and is 6-10 against Class B.

“There could be the feeling that Valley City is going to be the big school and take state championships at this level,” Koppelman said. “We’re looking at keeping our students on a level playing field.”

Koppelman said the change could create momentum for a switch to three classes.

“I think we’ll create a good amount of discussion with the membership schools in our state,” he said.

The change does not affect football, which already has four divisions.


Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press.

[digger]

Koppelman said the change could create momentum for a switch to three classes.

Is this a backdoor route for building towards three classes? Let it die already! Valley City has stopped being able to compete at the higher level, I understand that. They won't dominate in Class B just like the old NorthStar teams (Langdon, Grafton, Rugby, Ryan, etc.) haven't dominated. Let them go to a more appropriate level of competition and let's move on.

[Mandan]

I was reading the minutes for this meeting at the NDHSAA website

http://www.ndhsaa.org/files/Board_Minutes__8_7_08.pdf

The wording makes it sounds like it is a hard line at 400, above = Class A, below = Class B. No inbetween area like there always was when you were between 325 and 200.

If this truly is the case, then the question is what is Shanley and St Mary's enrollment? I thought they always around and possibly below that line as well. How can this affect just Valley City in that case?

[vballfan06]

That's a good point...when I read the minutes, I would have to agree---there seemed to be no discussion about being able to 'play up' a division. I hope when they re-district though, that Valley City is moved east with Central Cass, Oak Grove, Kindred, etc. so they are playing against bigger class B schools. If they were to move down this year, they'd be about 3 times as large as the next biggest high school in that region (their district would be LaMoure, Edgeley, LMM, PBK, Ellendale, etc). Not saying they'd walk through the district, but I think within a few years they would dominate that area based on numbers alone.
The other part of the minutes I question is where they discussed redistricting...with a new standard format for both the district and region tournament (4 team regional). How do you think that would go over? I would think we would lose a large gate receipt when you take that first day out of the regional tournament....

[ndlionsfan]

They also condensed the districts tournaments down to a single elimination tourney with a maximum of 3 days of games.

[vballfan06]

yeah...some districts already have that in place.

[ndfootballwrestling]

Ok here's something for you hard core Class B people to think about, Youre whining about playing a school who has been Class A for a while now, and most have probably played VC and most likely won the games there, Great! Yet now that VC is playing schools with 1000-1400 kids all is fair, yet VC moves down to Class B and plays teams (or schools) with maybe a 100 more kids than your school and jeez the dang world is ending as you knew it before. I bet this reallignment or whatever they want to call it doesn't amount to a hill of beans when it comes to Class A VC playing sports against your Class B schools teams.
Are they going to win a few more games?? Maybe, are they going to win some championships?? Maybe, but it sure is raising a stink with some of you people. this is kinda funny.. As far as St. Mary's or Shanley moving down, the way it sounded to me they were going to anyway, but wanted to see what havoc was raised over VC moving down.. If you consider yourselves beneath Class A then times have changed dramaticly since I was in school. In class B!
Thank goodness my kid will graduate this year and won't deal with the Class B controversy.