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A potential seismic shift in the landscape of North Dakota high school basketball, as many have known it for more than half a century, has cleared a crucial hurdle.
At the regular meeting of the North Dakota High School Activities Association (NDHSAA) board on Thursday, December 1, the governing body unanimously voted to formally accept a plan for a proposed three-class system that could be implemented by the 2024-25 school year, and possibly as early as 2023-24 if all preparations are in place.
The plan would add a third class of medium-sized schools in between the traditional Class A and B divisions, and is being put forward by a 12-member focus group that sought support of at least 60 percent of North Dakota schools as a condition of presentation of the proposal before the board.
NDHSAA’s action does not confer final approval of the new system; rather, it allows for both a finance study and impact to existing or new staff study to be conducted before a finalized plan is to be presented at a scheduled special meeting of the board on February 8, 2023.
Carrington’s stance
Voting followed over four hours of deliberation and sometimes-spirited discussion on the topic, and drew 31 speakers representing various school districts and other interested parties who spoke during an open forum period to voice their opinions on the issue.
Carrington Public Schools have gone on the record as being firmly against any proposal to add classes. Superintendent Janelle Helm and Athletic Director Karla Michaelson attended the meeting, with Michaelson speaking on the district’s behalf.
The longtime CHS AD took the floor to express CPS’s position, and gave the Independent a summary of her concerns she brought to the forefront.
“I keep hearing that this is a good plan for our athletes, but I just don’t see it,” said Michaelson. “The first concern is the added mileage. For the girls’ basketball team, our average road trip would increase from 65 to 117 miles, and would add an extra two hours on each trip. This alone, I believe, would cause a drop in participation numbers at CHS.”
She also said that the new travel obligations would lead to a loss of school time for athletes and coaches, and would cause a significant hit to CPS financially.
“It means added fuel for the buses, and payment to bus drivers and substitute teachers when it’s getting harder to find subs and drivers,” said Michaelson, who also noted that costs for hotels might go up since she might have to schedule more Friday and Saturday games.
Michaelson addressed the focus group’s desire to create competitive balance, but countered that point with an example from Region 3 girls’ basketball.
“There have been seven different winners in the past 10 years,” she said.
Michaelson also warned of the unintended consequences of passing a three-class system and seeing the idea extend to other varsity sports in the state.
“Will it mean that volleyball, cross country, golf, baseball, wrestling, etc., will also want three classes?” she asked.
Her final point of emphasis centered on the somewhat controversial multiplier, which counts private school and open-enrolled “out of zone” students as two students for the purposes of enrollment figures.
“The out of zone formula concerns me that some school boards will deny students into their school district because it could put them into another class,” said Michaelson. “That saddens me.”
While she acknowledged that the committee has been trying to do what is best for student athletes, Michaelson said that there are better ways to address it than to pass a plan for the sake of passing something.
“I believe this plan falls short of that goal, and it is my hope that the board will form a committee or committees to study this plan before implementing it to the member schools,” she concluded.
About the proposal
The enrollment cutoffs for the plan are 575 students and above for Class AA, 180-574 for Class A, and 179 students and below for Class B.
According to the most recent enrollment figures, Carrington would be the smallest school in Class A, just above the 180-student cutoff. The division would be divided into two sub-regions for both the East and West regions.
In the new plan, the top four teams in each region would advance to the Class A state tournament, as opposed to the winner-take-all format of the regional championship that the present Class B employs in most team sports.
The regional structure for the new Class B would drop from the present eight regions down to four, representing the four geographic quadrants of the state, with eight total districts. The top two teams in each region would earn state tournament berths.
Class AA would largely remain unchanged with much of the WDA and EDC intact, albeit slightly smaller with the loss of the lower-enrollment schools that make up a good bulk of Class A membership presently.
Other business
In another December 1 board decision of importance to the CHS athletic department, the NDHSAA approved an Executive Board Committee recommendation to add an individual regional tournament and team dual state tournament for girls’ wrestling.
The sport currently combines Class A and B schools in one class, and the board’s action creates East (Class B Regions 1 and 2 plus EDC) and West (Regions 3 and 4 plus WDA) regions.
The NDHSAA will be sponsoring individual regional qualifiers to be held on Friday, February 10, with the top eight in each region qualifying for the state tournament Thursday-Saturday, February 16-18, in Fargo.
Along with that, the top four dual teams in each region will advance to that tournament, to be held on February 18. The West Region will use season dual records to determine their qualifiers, while the East, of which Carrington is part, will have a dual tournament at a to-be-determined location.
The date for the East Region dual tourney will be Friday, February 3, and the site revealed at the NDHSAA’s regular board meeting in January.
CHS is currently in its inaugural season of sponsoring girls’ wrestling, and North Dakota held their first girls’ individual tournament last February.