MINNESOTA STATE HIGH SCHOOL LEAGUE Region 8AA

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1 MINNESOTA STATE HIGH SCHOOL LEAGUE Region 8AA Dave Harris, Sec Fairway Ln NE Alexandria Mn (Fax) (Cell) MEMBER SCHOOLS Alexandria Becker Bemidji Brainerd Detroit Lakes Fergus Falls Little Falls Monticello Moorhead Rocori St Cloud Apollo St Cloud Tech Sartell-St Stephen Sauk Rapids-Rice Thief River Falls Willmar At the July Region 8AA Meeting: The Region Committee at first didn't make any motion for change regarding "swing" school. Later in the discussion regarding speech, Doug Froke moved, Mike Biermaier seconded, to have Dave Harris gather information regarding the recommendation from the coaches on a swing school for speech to balance the number of participants in both Sub-Sections. The motion carried. I sent out the following to the Activity Directors: Activity Directors are asked to have a discussion with their Speech coaches regarding this issue and questions listed below. Please return all information to me by September 1. I will put it together and put it on the agenda for the meeting on September 23. There are 14 schools registered for speech (7 North, 7 South) North - Alexandria, Bemidji, Brainerd, Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls, Moorhead, Thief River Falls South - Little Falls, Rocori, Sartell, Sauk Rapids, St Cloud Apollo, St Cloud Tech, Willmar 1. Should Region 8AA balance the North and South Sub-Section Speech contests to have an equal number of participants in each contest or should it be balanced by number of schools as other activities? 2. Should the balance be based just on total participants or balance in each category? 3. If the Region determines that the sub-sections should be balanced, how close does that have to be? 4. Should more than one school be used to balance the sub-sections which would put (Example 5 in North, 9 in South)? 5. If 2 schools (Brainerd and Alexandria) do not have enough to balance the sub-section, would another school be added - which one? 6. Do you have any other questions or comments that you would like to have discussed regarding this issue? Here are the responses: ALEXANDRIA Our speech coach is brand new and really doesn t have much input. I do feel since he is new it would be better to not make the switch late in the season. I m in favor of having it be like other sports where the sub sections are balanced by the number of schools. BEMIDJI We discussed this in Alex in April. The answer is ABSOLUTELY. We are currently in a situation where the stable, larger, or growing programs are in the North Sub-section, and the recommended "swing" idea would theoretically

2 level the playing field from North to South. While it would not address a quality imbalance, it certainly would address a quantity imbalance, which has been fairly consistent over the past ten years. BRAINERD 1. I think the number of schools would be the first priority as schools are limited to how many competitors they can bring in each category. The balance shoukd be better this year as Tech experienced problems. 2. I could be wrong, but the only category that sticks in my mind as unbalanced was extemp speaking. The lack of numbers in South just meant that our alternate was able to compete at sections 3. The answer depends on question number one. If it is schools, even or one off is fine. With contestants, the number could be very large as there are thirteen categories. 4. I am not sure what this question means. It sounds like question one talking about balancing schools. 5. Again, depends on what balance means. If we are balancing contestants, geography will then take a backseat to numbers. 6. I am not in favor of moving schools after the season has started because the subsections are on different dates. If we are planning on having the tournament on one date and then it gets moved, our numbers will change and they may change drastically depending on conflicts. Also, speech schools are notorious for having kids drop and add at the last minute, so the numbers being used to make the decision to change the subsections may not be very solid. DETROIT LAKES 1. Yes, I think there should be a better balance between the north and the south. 2. Balance should be based on total numbers, otherwise we would be faced with sending half a team North and a few speakers South. 3. I think we want to get the number of entries as close as possible, but that number will probably be in flux from year to year. We want each category to be competitive. 4./5. Yes, more than one school should/could move. I don't foresee more than two schools needing to move, but I don't know... Fergus? We also don't know what could happen in the future - we should establish which south schools move north. 6. If we are going to continue to have subsections, they need to be balanced for fair competition. I think that this policy will help that issue. FERGUS FALLS 1. It is more important for a smooth tournament and equality of speakers to have each sub section close to the same number of speakers (contestants) regardless of the number of teams. 2. In a perfect world, by each category would be best but would leave the potential of the swing teams dividing between 2 sub sections. Total number would be acceptable. 3. I would guess within 25 or 30 contestants, which is an average sized team. 4. That would be fine if the number of speakers balances out. 5. This is provided that the North remains bigger than the South. In that scenario, Fergus Falls would be the logical one. If South is bigger, Little Falls, Roccori and Willmar??? 6. It is supposed to be a competition of the speakers on the teams, I am against any micro managing to provide a competitive advantage for anyone.

3 LITTLE FALLS 1. YES. The number of schools participating in each tournament is not nearly as important as the number of competitors. It is crucial that the two tournaments be balanced by number of competitors as much as possible. 2. In very general terms, the category balance will mirror the total balance. As there are 13 different categories in MSHSL speech, there won't be perfect balance in every category. We should aim for overall balance of total participants. 3. I'd say we'd want to aim for the registration at the smaller tournament to be at least 80% of the registration at the larger tournament. But... that's just the number that popped into my head. What I *do* know is that the smaller tournament this year was about HALF the size of the larger one, and that was grossly unfair to the competitors at the larger tournament. That's what we need to prevent. The speech coaches' recommendation was to have the section tournament committee (section host, south host, and north host) meet to hash out the numbers and come up with the best solution based on that year's numbers. 4. I don't think so, no. But... if the other coaches wanted to have more than one school move, I wouldn't be opposed to it either. I just don't feel strongly either way. 5. Again, the recommendation of the coaches was to have the section tournament committee decide what would work best based on the registration numbers for each year. LF, Brainerd, and Alexandria were suggested as possibilities because we're the most "central" geographically. The coaches agreed that even if moving one of these schools wouldn't necessarily create a perfect balance, it would at least help ease the situation and would be better than nobody moving at all. Once again, I'll be fine with whatever the committee recommends here. 6. My preference would be to have the committee accept the coaches' recommendation as it was written. We discussed this at length in Alexandria and agreed upon a solution that we all thought was fair and workable. The committee did NOT move either way on that recommendation, so as far as I am aware, it could still be moved on at the next meeting. MOORHEAD ROCORI 1. Balanced by the number of participants as close a possible. 2. First balance on number of participants - there may always be some smaller categories. 3. The northern schools tend to have more participants - therefore the two subs may never be the same in numbers let s just try to even them out somewhat. 4. Yes - if that is what it takes. 5. I think those 2 schools will help balance out the two tournaments. ST CLOUD APOLLO

4 ST CLOUD TECH We feel that speech should be the same as every other activity, same number of schools. We are not as concerned about the number in each category, but do feel that if a sub-section doesn't advance 6 in a category, the other section can advance more. If the Region determines the sub-sections should be balanced, they should try and be relatively close, within 2 or 3 speakers. Question 4: This depends on how many need to be used. Question 5: Little Falls should be the other, as they are furthest north. We also feel that Tech and Moorhead (or any other school, for that matter) should have to limit the roster to 3 students per category. SARTELL Sartell is in favor of a swing school but not balancing entries. Below is my coaches response. From John Ronyak, Sartell Speech coach: I feel that it should be balanced by schools only. Every school is allowed to have X amount of participants per activity and Speech should adhere to this policy. We have so many moving parts. At times schools will be involved in state tournaments or trips or Spring Break that make it almost impossible to plan for numbers. I know that the numbers I submitted and those that went were different for a variety of reasons. Also Tech had a down year numbers wise and ROCORI was on a band/choir trip while we were in Spring Break. Will that be the case this year? SAUK RAPIDS 1. Equal number of schools would be best only if we want to be treated like the sports teams. There is no way to make thing "fair". If there was we would all have the same length of season. 2. I feel the only way you should balance things are if a sub is lower than 6 participants in more than 2 categories and then one school at a time should move until such a balance is achieved. 3. With in 20 total participants. 4. NO 5.NO 6. If a track sub sections are imbalanced do you balance them? I don't think we should shift anything because there is no way to balance things out fairly.

5 THIEF RIVER FALLS 1. I m combining questions 1 and 2 in this answer. The balance should be based on the participants in each category. Speech has 13 categories, and even if we even the subsections according to number of schools, this can leave a significant discrepancy in categories. For example, I do not have the specific numbers in front of me, but last season the North and South were uneven in Dramatic Duo (just one of the categories there were more). The top six from each subsection advance to the Section tournament where the top three go on to State. The North had many entries in Duo while the South had only 3-4. The South automatically advanced every competitor in the category to Sections while the North had competitors who did not even make it as alternates. As stated before, Dramatic Duo is not the only category where this happened; it s an example. 3. I would feel more comfortable deferring to the answers of those who have been in the 8AA longer than I such as Jody Waltman or Tom Lucas. Drawing from my own knowledge, this is my opinion. We are allowed to place up to 5 competitors in each category with a team cap of 52. Of our entire section of 14 schools, only Moorhead and St. Cloud ever have teams large enough to hit the 52 leaving the rest of us at a disadvantage already. I think the numbers should be for overall teams and as close as possible. I am hesitant to give an exact number as there are teams who will bring 52 entries and other who will bring 13, but looking at the overall number of contestants in each subsection will help balance the numbers. 4. I think we should be more concerned with numbers of students rather than number of teams. 5. Possibly; I think we would want to review the overall numbers before deciding conclusively. This could be determined on a year-by-year basis depending on team enrollments. 6. Thank you for checking with us and taking our answers into consideration! WILLMAR