to be "AA" or not.....

[scruffy]

It sounds like Trinity will petition up to continue to play in the "AA" ranks. Their male enrollment would allow them to play class "A" and if the co-op with New England would cease, they would be small enough to drop to nine man. However, current sentiment is to stay "AA". Still no word on Belcourt, Bowman, Bismarck Saint Mary's, Fargo Shanley and several other teams. Schools have until March 1st to announce their intentions for the next two years.....

[champ24]

Word that I've heard is Watford and Hazen will be in "A". Their male enrollment over the next few years is enough to allow them into "A". Region with Killdeer, Bowman, Grant Co., Hazen, Watford, Heart River and not sure who else. This is early information, not set in stone.

[scruffy]

That's a shame. Watford and Hazen competed fairly well in the "AA" ranks. That's why Trinity is leaning towards staying "AA". They feel they compete to well at that level to drop down, not saying it won't happen in five or ten years if they're still open, but for now they feel the belong in "AA"....

[wc45]

Word that I've heard is Watford and Hazen will be in "A". Their male enrollment over the next few years is enough to allow them into "A". Region with Killdeer, Bowman, Grant Co., Hazen, Watford, Heart River and not sure who else. This is early information, not set in stone.

that is what i heard also.i dont know much about "A" how good are heart river and grant co. cuz i know that kildeer is decent and hazen is good and same with wc and bowman was not that good in "AA" this year so that is good they are moving back down

[scruffy]

I thought Watford City and Hazen had fairly competitive younger teams?? Why would they want to drop down a class as long as they can be respectable in "AA" Is it just to win at all cost????? That would be a huge shame...

[Mauer07]

I thought Watford City and Hazen had fairly competitive younger teams?? Why would they want to drop down a class as long as they can be respectable in "AA" Is it just to win at all cost????? That would be a huge shame...

so you are saying possibly that watford city and hazen could be playing in "A" this upcoming season??

[cubsfan]

I thought Watford City and Hazen had fairly competitive younger teams?? Why would they want to drop down a class as long as they can be respectable in "AA" Is it just to win at all cost????? That would be a huge shame...

so you are saying possibly that watford city and hazen could be playing in "A" this upcoming season??

This next year is set as far as team placements are concerned. It would be for the 2009 football season.

[champ24]

Mainly because of numbers. The way it is set up for 2009, the 32 teams in class A would have a male enrollment from 72 (smallest) to 110 (watford city) largest. Hazen would be #4 or 5 in terms of male enrollment. AA would range from 116 (Lisbon, Kindred) to 310 (Devils Lake). Watford and Hazen could compete maybe one year. After that, the numbers just aren't there. I don't care what people say, this is the best move for both schools considering all the facts. AA would consist of schools like: Devils Lake, St.Mary's, Fargo Shanley, Wapheton, Valley City, and the other private schools (oak grove, bishop ryan and trinity) It isn't about winning at all costs. I totally resent that statement. It is about being able to compete. yes, dix trinity has fewer male enrollment, but the pool to draw from is much larger. I have no reason to ever believe the people who say dix trinity recruits, however, I will contend that there pool of athletes is greater. Again, just my opinion

[ndsportsfan14]

Mainly because of numbers. The way it is set up for 2009, the 32 teams in class A would have a male enrollment from 72 (smallest) to 110 (watford city) largest. Hazen would be #4 or 5 in terms of male enrollment. AA would range from 116 (Lisbon, Kindred) to 310 (Devils Lake). Watford and Hazen could compete maybe one year. After that, the numbers just aren't there. I don't care what people say, this is the best move for both schools considering all the facts. AA would consist of schools like: Devils Lake, St.Mary's, Fargo Shanley, Wapheton, Valley City, and the other private schools (oak grove, bishop ryan and trinity) It isn't about winning at all costs. I totally resent that statement. It is about being able to compete. yes, dix trinity has fewer male enrollment, but the pool to draw from is much larger. I have no reason to ever believe the people who say dix trinity recruits, however, I will contend that there pool of athletes is greater. Again, just my opinion

Carrington should be A

[champ24]

Carrington will go wherever the male enrollment puts them.

[scruffy]

Projected enrollment at Trinity shows we could drop to "9" man football. Although it would save a ton on travel expense, we don't think it would be right at this time. I think the larger schools who want to go "A" are doing it simply for winning at all cost...I'm sure the smallest 11 man teams are impressed!! We're in the same boat as far as competing in three or four years but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, as we've proven we feel we can compete well in "AA"........

[HeHateMe]

Mainly because of numbers. The way it is set up for 2009, the 32 teams in class A would have a male enrollment from 72 (smallest) to 110 (watford city) largest. Hazen would be #4 or 5 in terms of male enrollment. AA would range from 116 (Lisbon, Kindred) to 310 (Devils Lake). Watford and Hazen could compete maybe one year. After that, the numbers just aren't there. I don't care what people say, this is the best move for both schools considering all the facts. AA would consist of schools like: Devils Lake, St.Mary's, Fargo Shanley, Wapheton, Valley City, and the other private schools (oak grove, bishop ryan and trinity) It isn't about winning at all costs. I totally resent that statement. It is about being able to compete. yes, dix trinity has fewer male enrollment, but the pool to draw from is much larger. I have no reason to ever believe the people who say dix trinity recruits, however, I will contend that there pool of athletes is greater. Again, just my opinion

Agreed.

[scruffy]

The pool to draw from is much larger??? The number of males in the school determine the size of the pool! There's no magic there. For example, Trinity's freshman male enrollment is about 17. I don't know how to make the pool larger.......

[champ24]

Scruffy: Population of Dix 16,500
Population of Watford and Hazen: 2,500
That is the pool i'm talking about. And you can think what you want. It isn't about winning at all costs. Look at the numbers. Good for Trinity that they want to stay in AA. We know, everyone in the state bows to Trinity. It isn't like those small 11 man schools are so much outnumbered. 72 male enrollment vs. 105? That is not a huge difference when compared with 110 vs. 310.

[scruffy]

champ24, we don't have the number of "strong farm kids" to pull from. Thats a huge advantage. The bottom line is we have 17 freshman kids to pick from..Also here's another important stat..ACTUAL enrollment. Trinity 161, Watford 204..uhm!!!! And who's complaining about "big" schools??..

[champ24]

are you including New England in your figures? Or aren't those "strong farm kids" worth anything to Trinity?

[NDSportsFan]

I think the problem most people have with Private schools for one is that they attract kids that are pretty much more achievement oriented, both academically and athletically, than an average public school. That's not saying that there aren't some great public school student/athletes. But when you factor in tuition costs for a student, and fundraising costs throughout a year, you are getting people that are, on average, more motivated to make the best use of that experience. A public school may sport impressive numbers but out of those people there are usually a group that have no interest in sports or academics whatsoever. You probably all know that clique that I'm talking about. Now if you hypothetically removed that group from the enrollment numbers, then you might get a private school with a bigger pool of potential athletes than a public school. That is my evaluation on why some folks will not stop arguing the private school enrollment number debate.

I myself transferred from a public school to a private school while I was in high school a long time ago. I was amazed at the differences in the student body makeup.

[scruffy]

champ24, you're the type of individual who thinks you can't find a good restaurant in a small town because of a lack of people who can cook, small towns can't find anyone good to work at convenience stores because of a small pool of laborers, small town clinics aren't good because there's no doctors to choose from or you can't find good teachers in small town schools because of a lack of a "pool" of teachers to choose from. I disagree with that. What's really sad is that some people feel those who go to private schools are more "driven" to succeed. I don't know if I agree with that or not. Some maybe are, but we have the same problems among our student body as any other school when it comes to drugs and alcohol etc. We might be smaller then most schools, but if you look at percentages of kids with problems I'm sure we're the same as anyone else, jand I bet we have the same percentage of kids who take part in sports or fine arts. I'll let you in on a secret....the kids at private schools put their pants on one leg at a time too. They're no different! To answer your question, when I estimated our freshman male enrollment at 17 I was just using our numbers. I don't know how many New England has. On our freshman team last year, New England conributed three or four individuals. Without them, we'd be 9 man for sure....

[Tide04]

I didn't think champ 24 said that at all. Maybe he doesn't think there are 11 good "restaurants", "convenience store workers", or "doctors", but that would be obvious because THERE AREN'T AS MANY PEOPLE IN A SMALL TOWN. I don't know about the freshman numbers at Trinity, but I believe there were about 58 kids out for jr high fb. Hazen had about 22 on their 7th & 8th grade team, and Watford didn't have a whole lot more than that. I think the move down has something to do with numbers. Wasn't Trinity a "Class A" team that moved down to the B ranks because of numbers? Or did they just do it with a "win at all costs" attitude? I think we both know the answer to that......but if you can make the statement.......

[champ24]

Well, thank you Tide04. You said it better than I would have. My buddy in Dix said Trinity had 52 kids out for Jr.High football. So Scruffy, that means that in 2 years, Trinity could potentially have 70-80 kids out for football. Compare that with WC's projected numbers of 35-40. And Tide04 said exactly what I was going to say about Trinity's move from Class A back in the early 90's.

[tellmeaboutit]

I would like to comment on the "larger pool" of numbers to draw from. Before any of you decide to believe that statement you should look at how long the students from the private schools have attended their school. Most, (if not all), have been in the system from Kindergarten on. Their parents have chosen a religious education. I know that when I enrolled my children at one of the Trinity Elementaries it had nothing to do with their athletic or fine arts programs. It was because they employ quality educators that care about the kids, teach a program based on our families beliefs (Catholicism), and their teacher to student ratio was smaller. I also have found that the families that send their kids to Trinity are very supportive of education

[hp fan]

enough about the Private/public junk. I think that has been hashed over as long as this site has been up. And it has gootne us nowhere. Lets try to get some ideas to solve the problem.

I, for one, feel that 4 classes of football is too many. I feel it is watered down. I wish NDHSAA would make three classes. 9-man, 11-man B, 11 man A. Then you need to take the schools that ride the fence (Valley City for class A, Heart River, Grant COunty, Hettinger for class B) and somehow set it up where they can choose, or mandate that more of them go 9 man.

If we are trying to even the playing field, I think Killdeer (Class A) could compete with Trinity, Ryan, etc (Class AA). I also think that MR, RT, TLM (9-man) could have played with Grant County, HEart River, Etc. (Class A).

I just think the more classes we have the less competition we have, The competition is what builds character.

By the way, Kudos to Trinity for petitioning to move (stay) up. No wonder your sports programs are so successful, You build them on hard work and dedication, not taking the easy road!!!

[letsgosox]

personally, i think it should go back to class A class B and 9 man. a lot of great rivalries were lost with the 3 class system.

[ndlionsfan]

Mainly because of numbers. The way it is set up for 2009, the 32 teams in class A would have a male enrollment from 72 (smallest) to 110 (watford city) largest. Hazen would be #4 or 5 in terms of male enrollment. AA would range from 116 (Lisbon, Kindred) to 310 (Devils Lake). Watford and Hazen could compete maybe one year. After that, the numbers just aren't there. I don't care what people say, this is the best move for both schools considering all the facts. AA would consist of schools like: Devils Lake, St.Mary's, Fargo Shanley, Wapheton, Valley City, and the other private schools (oak grove, bishop ryan and trinity) It isn't about winning at all costs. I totally resent that statement. It is about being able to compete. yes, dix trinity has fewer male enrollment, but the pool to draw from is much larger. I have no reason to ever believe the people who say dix trinity recruits, however, I will contend that there pool of athletes is greater. Again, just my opinion

Champ, have you actually seen the enrollment projections for all the teams for 2009? If so, could you share this information with me? I'm always interested in seeing how this stuff plays out. I have the enrollment numbers for all the divisions from 2007 and it looks like a lot has changed. From what you say in your numbers, it looks like Watford and Hazen has lost a few kids and Kindred and Lisbon are increasing enrollment. I'd like to see how other schools have changed, too.

[letsgosox]

enough about the Private/public junk. I think that has been hashed over as long as this site has been up. And it has gootne us nowhere. Lets try to get some ideas to solve the problem.

I, for one, feel that 4 classes of football is too many. I feel it is watered down. I wish NDHSAA would make three classes. 9-man, 11-man B, 11 man A. Then you need to take the schools that ride the fence (Valley City for class A, Heart River, Grant COunty, Hettinger for class B) and somehow set it up where they can choose, or mandate that more of them go 9 man.

If we are trying to even the playing field, I think Killdeer (Class A) could compete with Trinity, Ryan, etc (Class AA). I also think that MR, RT, TLM (9-man) could have played with Grant County, HEart River, Etc. (Class A).

I just think the more classes we have the less competition we have, The competition is what builds character.

By the way, Kudos to Trinity for petitioning to move (stay) up. No wonder your sports programs are so successful, You build them on hard work and dedication, not taking the easy road!!!

i agree with everything you said here.