TSSAA Board of Control Meeting

[silverpie]

Why stop with worrying about the state tourney format? Lets address some relevant issues with the TSSAA. For instance, why are small schools penalized and not allowed to play tournament games at home, even if they have earned it with a better record, because their gyms don't fit the TSSAA minimum?

 

The minimum seating requirement for a single-A school is 1000 seats. That is 4 times the number of students in our entire school (251).

 

However, the minimums for larger schools don't follow the same formula:

AA schools must be able to seat 1250 students. For a school such as Unicoi County or Elizabethton, that amounts to about 2 times the number of students.

 

AAA Science Hill, one of the largest schools in the state must only seat 1500 people. That doesn't even provide enough seats for their student population of 2158.

 

So, there are at least two single A schools in the state that have been fined, placed on probation, and forbidden to host tournament games. Because they can't afford to have gyms that meet TSSAA requirments. Requirements that are unreasonable and unfair.

 

I couldn't care less where we play the championship, I would just like a little intelligence and justification for their actions from the TSSAA.

 

The Highlander

 

 

You seem to be crossing up two separate things. A school doesn't get penalized for having too small a gym--they just have to find a nearby location to play their game. For example, the Grace Baptist boys won their region, but ended up playing just over the river at Arts and Sciences. Still much closer to their site than to Clarkrange (their opponent). Same thing happened to the Summertown boys and the girls of Hume-Fogg and Madison Academic. (I suspect Morristown West chose to play at Walters State.)

 

What happened to Cloudland was, they told TSSAA they had a gym that met the requirements, when in fact they did not. Had they filed their papers correctly from the start, they'd probably have had the game at Elizabethton instead of being sent to Rockwood.

[The Highlander]

You seem to be crossing up two separate things. A school doesn't get penalized for having too small a gym--they just have to find a nearby location to play their game. For example, the Grace Baptist boys won their region, but ended up playing just over the river at Arts and Sciences. Still much closer to their site than to Clarkrange (their opponent). Same thing happened to the Summertown boys and the girls of Hume-Fogg and Madison Academic. (I suspect Morristown West chose to play at Walters State.)

 

What happened to Cloudland was, they told TSSAA they had a gym that met the requirements, when in fact they did not. Had they filed their papers correctly from the start, they'd probably have had the game at Elizabethton instead of being sent to Rockwood.

 

 

 

Silverpie,

Yes we are penalized. Not playing at home is the penalty!

 

You miss the point, and by the way we are about 50 seats short is all. We do not get to play at home because of a capricious and poorly thought out requirement from the TASS Control Board. Why should the smaller schools have to provide 4x or more the number of seats of their entire student body? That is utterly absurd. Cloudland isn't the only school in that situation.

 

What should be done is to reduce the minimum requirement to a reasonable level. For us, maybe that is 750, I don't know.

 

We don't WANT to play at Elizabethton, and shouldn't have to. We should be playing at home if we earn that right. It is only the small schools that suffer with this ruling, I'm unaware of any AA or AAA schools that have had to move their game.

 

We didn't play at Rockwood, by the way. Never have in my memory. We played at Oliver Springs. And guess what, their gym doesn't meet the required minimum either. They have around 460 students I believe, should seat 1000. Again about twice the number of entire student body. The TASS rules are just not justified.

 

Let's suppose it is about the money (duh). The TASS wants us to seat 1000 people. If the demand is only about 750 tickets at home, it will probably be a little lower if we play elsewhere, resulting in fewer tickets sold, and less money to pay the TASS for their "management" of our schools athletics. Where's the logic?

 

Change the rules to something approaching common sense. That is what we should be demanding from the Board of Control in all their rule-making.

 

The Highlander

[westtnbballer]

Silverpie,

Yes we are penalized. Not playing at home is the penalty!

 

You miss the point, and by the way we are about 50 seats short is all. We do not get to play at home because of a capricious and poorly thought out requirement from the TASS Control Board. Why should the smaller schools have to provide 4x or more the number of seats of their entire student body? That is utterly absurd. Cloudland isn't the only school in that situation.

 

What should be done is to reduce the minimum requirement to a reasonable level. For us, maybe that is 750, I don't know.

 

We don't WANT to play at Elizabethton, and shouldn't have to. We should be playing at home if we earn that right. It is only the small schools that suffer with this ruling, I'm unaware of any AA or AAA schools that have had to move their game.

 

We didn't play at Rockwood, by the way. Never have in my memory. We played at Oliver Springs. And guess what, their gym doesn't meet the required minimum either. They have around 460 students I believe, should seat 1000. Again about twice the number of entire student body. The TASS rules are just not justified.

 

Let's suppose it is about the money (duh). The TASS wants us to seat 1000 people. If the demand is only about 750 tickets at home, it will probably be a little lower if we play elsewhere, resulting in fewer tickets sold, and less money to pay the TASS for their "management" of our schools athletics. Where's the logic?

 

Change the rules to something approaching common sense. That is what we should be demanding from the Board of Control in all their rule-making.

 

The Highlander

 

The Board of Control is made up of administrators from schools within the TSSAA member schools, those are elected by the members, so I suggest you find other schools that have been done wrong and have them vote in new members to the Board of Controls. Ronnie Carter and Bernard Childress do not make the rules, the Boards does. It does not matter if you like the rules or don't like the rules, but you still have to follow all of them, the stupid ones, and the non stupid ones. There are penalties when you do not follow the rules, ask Bolton High School out of Shelby Co who lost a playoff spot because of "the rules".

[The Highlander]

WestTN,

We're working on it!

 

Well-thought out rules, and accountability for incompetent referees are the two biggest areas of failure for the TSSAA. Not just my opinion, but that of a number of parents and coaches. I think nearly all the coaches, parents, and school administrators attempt to do the best they can for the kids, and their individual schools. Unfortunately, we don't always see the same from TSSAA officials.

 

Thank you for any support you can lend in trying to get sensible rule-making!

 

The Highlander

[etownsparky]

WestTN,

We're working on it!

 

Well-thought out rules, and accountability for incompetent referees are the two biggest areas of failure for the TSSAA. Not just my opinion, but that of a number of parents and coaches. I think nearly all the coaches, parents, and school administrators attempt to do the best they can for the kids, and their individual schools. Unfortunately, we don't always see the same from TSSAA officials.

 

Thank you for any support you can lend in trying to get sensible rule-making!

 

The Highlander

 

Highlander - I'm from Elizabethton and I happen to agree with you on this one. Under the current playoff format, I think a team should be allowed to play on their home floor regardless of the seating capacity. Otherwise, make all the games at neutral sites.

 

You also get a big AMEN from me on accountability for incompetent game officials. Don't get me wrong, I think most officials are competent and a lot are quite good. However, there are certainly some stinkers among them and I haven't seen the TSSAA do anything to hold them accountable. BTW, just like in many other aspects of life, I think a big part of the problem is the supervisors. They don't want to upset the apple cart because they have a nice little gig going with scheduling and evaluating. Often times the worker bees are a direct reflection of the leadership (or lack thereof). I had a District 1 supervisor tell me there aren't enough officials and "if you can do better then why don't you apply." Well, that's a lame excuse. My response was that "regardless of if I can do better or not, I didn't take the job!" Officials need to step up and do the job they agreed to do. If they don't want to do it, walk away. Supervisors need to quit placating the consistent underachievers and force them to step up or get out. I know my boss demands a certain level of competence. If I can't do the job, you can rest assured he will find someone else who can. Just my 2 cents...