MINNESOTA STATE HIGH SCHOOL COACHES ASSOCIATION INC.

PO Box 519

Detroit Lakes, MN  56501

Fall Delegate Assembly October 3, 2009

The Fall Delegate Assembly of the MSHSCA was called to order by President Don Tangen at 9:00 a.m. at the Sheraton West Hotel, Minneapolis.  All officers were in attendance except Dave Johnson past president:  Delegates that were absent:  Milo Larson, Canby, Janet Golden-Landquist,  Park Rapids, Jerry Utecht, Harding, Mark O’Niell Champlin Park, Mark Solberg, Cambridge Isanti, Dave Blank Wabasso,  Bruce Belseth Sleepy Eye, Derek Parendo Proctor, John Cassellius Winona, Tim Johnson, Mankato East, Greg Miller, Robbinsdale Armstrong, Gregg Martig, St. Cloud Tech, Mike Peterson, Perham, Dan Stiffter, Aitkin, Chuck Kuehne Coon Rapids.  The following delegate positions are open: 6AA Girls Sports Rep., 8AA Girls Sports Rep, and 3AA Boys Sports Rep

Others in attendance:  Dave Stead, Executive Director MSHSL

Don Tangen welcomed all in attendance and introduced Dave Stead

The minutes of the spring delegate assembly were approved after a motion to do so by Bill Bauman, and second by Gordy Klomps. 

Dave Stead MSHSL Executive Director:  Dave reported that the Board of Directors just met and at the present time they are conducting Area Meetings around the state.  Dave reported that the 1960 Edgerton Basketball team will be having a reunion during this year’s basketball tournament.  They are trying to get Austin’s team together as well.  This is 100^th year of basketball in the state.  Dave spoke to the requests that have been made to have one web site for schools to enter their scores and stats so that they do not have to contact multiple news sources after a game.  The MSHSL is advocating for each school to have a student sports information director to take care of entering the data. 

The League is look at going to three class for consistency.  There is an attempt to look at creating administrative regions that would provide competition within the administrative region.  It would cut down of travel as well as provide consistency during the tournament season.  There are a lot of different variables to be considered when looking at all the different sports.  This will be looked at during the next  year.  There will be a review of the class assignments so that there is some consistency in determining the number of schools needed to decide the number of classes. 

Dave spoke about the web casting for the tournaments that will start this year with some sports.  Live web casts of FB, VB GBB  BBB, Hockey, Wrestling, SB.  At the end of four years every sport that has a state tournament will be web cast.  There will be some opportunities for students to be trained in the web casting effort by schools. 

The conference placement went well and not so well.  Dave clarified that the idea of placing schools in conferences was a directive from the state legislature.  It is the League that must place the school in the conference not Dave Stead.  The process is written and was reviewed and modified in 2007.  Dave reviewed how past history has been that schools are happy with their conferences and don’t want someone placed in their conferences.  Dave is trying to find a way to keep everyone together and keep the legislature out of the business.  Football seems to be the sport that drives most conferences.  Iowa and Nebraska schedule all of their football games at the state level.  The only thing the League can do at this point it to follow the directives given to them by the state legislature.  There were questions regarding the difficulty of filling schedules was asked and Dave talked about some of the options that could be looked at. 

Dave was asked what could be done about a home and home contract that is not honored when it comes time to travel back.  Dave explained that the League can hold the school to the contract.  Soccer asked about the “opt down” issued with free and reduced lunch and how it impacts the number of teams within a section.  Dave reviewed how the free and reduced lunch formula is used in determining the student number used to determine classification.  Dave was asked the number of teams in a conference.  The League does not have a policy regarding the number of teams in the conference.  There is policy regarding five teams needed for a conference.  Wisconsin puts all their school into conferences. 

The question of travel restrictions was asked.  Dave said that if travel plans have been made for this year you can still go if you follow the prescribed procedure.  Next year the policy will be in place.  The question was asked why fine arts activities are not held to the same rules.  Dave explained that the fine arts are not subject to the same rules.    There was a question regarding Title IX in terms of one team traveling and not their counterpart team of the opposite sex.  This becomes an issue with the department of education.  Dave reviewed some of the compliance issues with Title IX and how schools should do a good job of monitoring their own schools so they don’t go through a compliance audit. 

The question regarding double elimination was asked.  Dave reminded those in attendance that it is a school program and the superintendents are going to have the say in a lot of what goes on in terms of how much school can be missed etc.  Dave said that all possibilities were looked at that a lot of it is driven by school economics now.  The superintendents and principals are looking consistency. 

There was considerable discussion on the summer black out period.  There was a lot of discussion regarding summer baseball and how the kids will play on but the coach can’t be there.  Dave reviewed the question regarding reducing the number of games. 

John Schumacher addressed the makeup of the board of directors and how many different voices there are speaking to the issues.  John stressed the importance of the saving a life program and getting the information to you.  There is coaches education program on site called the coaches clipboard on the League web site.  Becky Leuer and Jim were involved with the development of this and spoke to coaches education.  John reminded people in attendance that they need to nominate officials for award

Donna Johansen Sports Medicine update.  Donna is her last year in the rotation.  There are two meetings a year.  They would like a pre-participation form on line.  Donna spoke to the “anyone can save a life program” and the importance of all know where the AED is located in their school. 

John Erickson, Executive Director

Erickson reported that the final 2008-09 membership was 8,276.  Erickson stated that the membership has started to level off after the merger.  The current membership for the 2009-2010 Year is 5,708.  The fiancé report was reviewed and the current balances were discussed as well as the cash flow and cash flow comparisons.  Tim VanErp, chairman of the finance committee reported that the finance committee had reviewed all reports and asked for the approval of the assembly.  A motion was made and seconded to approve the finance reports as presented.  The motion was passed unanimously. 

Erickson reviewed the Sport Association hand book with the delegates and stressed that they were to serve as the resource contacts for the coaches in their sections. 

First call was made for Vice Presidential candidates.  There will be one candidate from each of the following areas:  Girls sports, Boys Sports, Class A sections 5,6,7,8   Class AA sections 1,2,3,4 and one at large candidate.  Anyone interested is asked to contact Erickson.

There was a motion and second to name all scholarships in the name of the associations past leaders.  Becky Leuer and Shelly Hotzler will help Erickson in coming up with possible names.

Scholarships to be named after association icons. Jim Baker motion.

President Elect Project:  Shelly Hotzler and Becky Leuer are working together to see if they can get together an all star game extravaganza.  There was discussion regarding where and how would affect eligibility if we use Juniors. 

Web site review by Rob Nielsen.  Rob provided the data regarding web site use.  Rob reviewed the number of hits that each association gets.  Associations that have kept their information up to date get a lot of hits and those that don’t keep current get much less activity. 

Jim Baker reviewed the Hall of Fame winners and banquet information.  Jim made a plea to have coaches nominate deserving coaches for consideration for the Hall of Fame. 

Delegate Reports:  6A  There is a concern about section alignment.  We cover the state.  6AA  A reminder that we are all aware of the you can save a life CD.  Very few of the coaches attending indicated that their AD has shown them the CD.  There was a question about liability for administering AED to a victim.  The Good Samaritan law protects you if your try.  No other sections had comments.