North Dakota Preps

http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=13429&section=sports

PREP FOOTBALL: Football futures on the line
By Greg DeVillers, Herald Staff Writer
Published Sunday, October 15, 2006
North Border's bid for a berth in the North Dakota Class A high school football playoffs ended Friday with a loss to Langdon in its final regular-season game.


But, for the North Border football program, there's something bigger this week than Saturday's opening round of the playoffs. For North Border, its about how many players the Eagles will have to put on the football field for the next two seasons.

North Border currently is a Class A 11-man program. Whether the Eagles will return to 9-man football, which they played prior to the 2005 season, or remain an 11-man team will be determined Thursday in Bismarck.

Classifications are based on schools' male enrollments. After input is received at a general assembly meeting, the board of directors of the North Dakota High School Activities Association will vote for either a three-division or a four-division alignment for the 2007 and 2008 football seasons.

[size=17]“We feel this will have a great impact on us,â€Â

VERY INTERESTING article. You can see the pros and cons of both plans, and I dont like how in America they celebrate mediocrity. In the 4 man system I understand it uses school enrollment to determine classes, but then each year there are 4 state championship teams. There is little difference between the competition at the A and AA levels. But with Devil's Lake droping down, that would be intimidating for the co-oping Rolla-Rock Lake- Rolette- Walford teams who have bene having some great succes the past couple of seasons. I am fine with the system as is and it would be a shame to continue the restructuring of classes when they did just this past year.

i think my biggest problem with this whole deal is that i wish the ndhsaa would just friggin pick something and stick with it.

if you look at the 2005-07 football structure on their website, it took one year for changes to occur.

and that is what turns me off about this whole discussion. does it really matter what they do? because won't they just go back and change it a year later anyway? and so basically you have the entire state in this constant state of movement. to me it sounds like job security.

i understand that the population of schools will fluxuate. so be it. lets take a look at changes every five years then and make the changes then. lets not tweak it every year so it gets to the point where their website no longer reflects what the actual state of the football classes are.

in all seriousness...they still list new rockford as a nine-man school on the standings page, enderlin and maple valley are still listed as seperate co-ops. and these are just a couple of things that i have come up with off the top of my head.

or...i suppose they could hire someone to actually update the site (snicker, snicker).

i'm all for 3 divisions...maybe devils lake won't be all that great. look at valley city for example. they aren't exactly tilting the scales toward unfairness when they have to go and play lisbon or hatton-northwood.

[align=center]NDHSAA at it again
[url=mailto:daves@jamestownsun.com]David Selvig[/url] The Jamestown Sun
Published Tuesday, October 17, 2006
[/align]
[align=left]A long time ago I quit trying to make heads or tails of some of the decisions the North Dakota High School Activities Association makes.
[/align]
Why? Because many of the things they do are as perplexing as those green sport coats they parade around in. What’s the deal with those things? Did each one of them win the Masters or something? I know the answer to that one, unlike many of the decisions they’ve come to in recent years.

The original plan to move Jamestown High School to the West Region left many people scratching their heads to the point of needing Neosporin.

Well, here we go again.

On Thursday at the NDHSAA’s Board of Directors Meeting in Bismarck, the four-person football committee is scheduled to meet and likely pass, or more appropriately, fumble, the Blue Jays back into the East Region for the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

The deal is not believed to be completely sealed, but the adhesive appears to have been licked to say the least.

Due to the demographics of this state, finding a perfect and permanent solution to everyone’s problems might be virtually impossible. But for the NDHSAA to turn Jamestown into North Dakota’s version of the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders is simply not fair.

[size=17]When asked last year why Jamestown was being moved into the West Region, about the best answer I could pull out of any NDHSAA big-wig went something like this: “Well, it was going to happen eventually.â€Â

Both Dave and Greg have excellent points, the key is getting the NDHSAA to become visionary, rather than reactionary. They continue to react to scenarios and only to find out that two years later circumstances change (Jamestown) and another change is needed.

The common denominator is that HS athletics are changing more rapidly now than ever before. And all due to student populations.

If City Planners were as inept as NDHSAA at predicting future trends

we'd have no parking at Kirkwood Mall and the Alerus Center would have a gravel road leading to it.

Proposals for North Dakota high school football team divisions
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) - Proposals for a four-division alignment and three-division alignment being considered by the North Dakota High School Activities Association for football:

[align=center]Four Division Alignment[/align]
[align=center]Division AAA[/align]
East Fargo North, Fargo Shanley, Fargo South, Grand Forks Central, Grand Forks Red River, Jamestown, Wahpeton, West Fargo.

West Bismarck, Bismarck Century, Bismarck St. Mary's, Dickinson, Mandan, Minot, Turtle Mountain, Williston.

[align=center]Division AA[/align]
East Bottineau, Carrington, Central Cass, Devils Lake, Fargo Oak Grove, Grafton, Rugby, Valley City.

West Beulah, Bowman, Dickinson Trinity, Hazen, Minot Ryan, New Town, Standing Rock, Watford City.

[align=center]Division A[/align]
Region 1: Enderlin-Maple Valley, Kindred, LaMoure-L-M, Linton-Hazelton-Moffit-Braddock, Lisbon, Milnor-North Sargent, Northern Cass, Oakes.

Region 2: Cavalier, Larimore, Mayville-Portland-C-G, Midway-Minto, North Border, Northwood-Hatton, Park River-Fordville-Lankin, Thompson.

Region 3: Des Lacs-Burlington, Harvey, Kenmare, Langdon, New Rockford-Sheyenne, Rolla-Rock Lake-Rolette-Wolford, Surrey, Velva.

Region 4: Beach, Belfield-South Heart, Berthold, Garrison-Max, Grant County, Killdeer, New Salem, Stanley-Powers Lake.

[align=center]9-man[/align]
Region 1: Edgeley-Kulm, Ellendale, Napoleon, Shiloh Christian, Steele-Dawson-TTP, Strasburg-Zeeland, Wishek-Ashley.

Region 2: Barnes County North, Hankinson, Hillsboro, Hope-Page-Finley-Sharon, Richland, Sargent Central, Wyndmere-Lidgerwood.

Region 3: Adams-Edmore-Edinburg, Central Valley, Dakota Prairie, Drayton-St. Thomas-Valley, Griggs County Central, Lakota, North Star.

Region 4: Dunseith, Maddock, North Central Benson, St. John, Towner-G-U, Tri-County, Wells County.

Region 5: Divide County, Glenburn, Mohall-Sherwood, Parshall, Tioga-Ray, Trenton, Westhope-Newburg.

Region 6 Center, Hettinger, Mott-Regent, Richardton-Taylor, Underwood, Washburn, Wilton-Wing.

[align=center]Three Division Alignment[/align]
[align=center]Division AAA[/align]
East Fargo North, Fargo Shanley, Fargo South, Grand Forks Central, Grand Forks Red River, Jamestown, Wahpeton, West Fargo.

West Bismarck, Bismarck Century, Bismarck St. Mary's, Dickinson, Mandan, Minot, Turtle Mountain, Williston.

[align=center]Division AA[/align]
Region 1: Central Cass, Enderlin-Maple Valley, Fargo Oak Grove, Kindred, LaMoure-L-M, Linton-Hazelton-Moffit-Braddock, Lisbon, Milnor-North Sargent, Oakes, Valley City.

Region 2: Carrington, Cavalier, Devils Lake, Grafton, Hatton-Northwood, Langdon, Larimore, Mayville-Portland-C-G, New Rockford-Sheyenne, Rolla-Rock Lake-Rolette-Wolford.

Region 3: Berthold, Bottineau, Des Lacs-Burlington, Harvey, Kenmare, Minot Ryan, New Town, Rugby, Stanley-Powers Lake, Velva.

Region 4: Beulah, Bowman, Dickinson Trinity, Garison-Max, Grant County, Hazen, Killdeer, New Salem, Standing Rock, Watford City.

[align=center]9-man[/align]
Region 1: Edgeley-Kulm, Ellendale, Napoleon, Steele-Dawson-TTP, Strasburg-Zeeland, Wishek-Ashley.

Region 2: Barnes County North, Hankinson, Northern Cass, Richland, Sargent Central, Wyndmere-Lidgerwood.

Region 3: Central Valley, Dakota Prairie, Griggs County Central, Hillsboro, Hope-Page-Finley-Sharon, Thompson.

Region 4: Adams-Edmore-Edinburg, Drayton-St. Thomas-Valley, Lakota, Midway-Minto, North Border, Park River-Fordville-Lankin.

Region 5: Dunseith, North Central Benson, North Star, St. John, Towner-G-U, Westhope-Newburg.

Region 6: Maddock, Tri-County, Underwood, Washburn, Wells County, Wilton-Wing.

Region 7: Divide County, Glenburn, Mohall, Parshall, Surrey, Tioga-Ray, Trenton.

Region 8: Beach, Belfield-South Heart, Center, Hettinger, Mott-Regent, Richardton-Taylor, Shiloh Christian.

SCC wrote:Football will continue to be organized into four divisions.  There will be some shuffling of teams, such as Devils Lake moving down to Class AA.  What are everyone's thoughts?  I still think returning to the three-class system would have been better, but its day will come again someday.

I'm glad that they decided to keep the 4 class system in play, but would have preferred having the 32 Class A alignment, rather then the 24 Class A teams that they had agreed upon on Thursday.  In this alignment for Class A, there is 4 regions of 6 teams apiece, and from what I understand the top 3 will make the playoffs.  I am very skeptical to find out what will be done with non-region games.  With 5 region opponents teams will find either 3 or 4 non-region games to fill their schedule.  I'm looking at the regions and let's pick out Beach, who do they schedule for non-region games? they can probably find a Montana team (maybe two) then who? Probably have to play up to AA and play Bowman,  Watford, or Trinity.  I know there is NO way to please everybody, and I do not envy the NDHSAA for having to make these decisions, but I do think that they need to have some continuity with the alignments.


 

Editorial - Football proposal puts additional burden on area high schools
The Dickinson Press
Published Saturday, October 21, 2006Given the lower gas prices as of late, area high schools should start stocking up on the commodity for next year because they’ll be burning more fuel thanks to the North Dakota High School Activities Association.


The NDHSAA announced Thursday its reconfiguration for the upcoming football seasons, and the end result for area teams is extra miles. This also means extra time away from the classroom for students and teachers/coaches.

In the 9-man realm, Belfield-South Heart, Richardton-Taylor-Hebron, Hettinger and Mott-Regent will now travel during the regular season for games across the river. For those of you who may have forgotten, that also means Central Time Zone.

Underwood-Turtle Lake-Mercer, Washburn and Shiloh Christian are all “East Riverâ€Â

Sounds like a bunch of cry baby's to me. (in that editorial) Pretty soon people are gonna want teams in regions to be within 100 miles of each other. Travel is part of football, if ya have to make a COUPLE long trips every year it's not the end of the world. (to some it may)

i was confirmed of the new 9 man Region 3 alignment:

DP, CV, DSTV, AEE, Lakota, Thompson, Midway Minto, and North Border

[user=1103]razorback[/user] wrote:

i was confirmed of the new 9 man Region 3 alignment:

DP, CV, DSTV, AEE, Lakota, Thompson, Midway Minto, and North Border

Three of those teams Thompson, Midway Minto, and North Border are all class A region 2 teams this year. Who replaces them?

Also, the NDHSAA is dropping Class A from the current 32 teams to 24 teams next year.

Does anybody have a link where it shows who is gonna be where next year? I have yet to see anything that gives where teams will be. I've heard Midway, Thompson, Griggs County Central, and North Border are all going to 9-man. Hatton Northwood moving to A i thought also.