UHSAA trims small school travel

MIDVALE — There will be fewer games for some high school student athletes next year.

The Board of Trustees of the Utah High School Activities Association voted unanimously to reduce the number of games in 1A, 2A and 3A classifications next year in a meeting Thursday.

In 1A and 2A schools, baseball and softball lost two games each, while cross country lost two meets, golf lost four competitions, swimming lost two meets and track and speech each lost two competitions.

In 3A, softball and baseball lost two games, while wrestling loses two credits.

The 4A and 5A representatives recommended no cuts in the state's largest schools, and the BOT agreed with that sentiment. The change will cause a bit of a dilemma in Region 9, as it has four 3A schools and three 4A schools, and now those schools are limited to different numbers of contests depending on their size. Region 9 representative Wes Christiansen suggested the unique situation may need to be revisited in the next BOT meeting.

The BOT originally resisted the idea of contest limitations in its last meeting, due in large part because the proposal discussed came from the state's superintendents and many felt the cuts went too far. When the superintendents made their proposals in August — which suggested cuts in nearly every sport except football in all classifications — they were trying to reduce the amount of school students must miss due to travel.

But some suggested the move to make cuts was actually now gaining momentum as economic concerns became the driving force behind the issue.

"When you're talking about 7.5 percent cuts ... I'm thinking more about saving money," said Ken Adams, Morgan High's principal, in reference to recommended cuts to education by the Legislative Appropriations Committee. "I'm not so much interested in seat time, but in how to reduce travel time and save money at this point."

And, they acknowledged, most schools are already taking steps in that direction.

Several pointed out that there was no data that suggested cutting the number of games would actually save schools money. In fact, some said it might hurt schools as they hosted fewer home games and collected less money at the gate. In the end, most of the sports that were cut were non-revenue sports, meaning schools don't charge spectators to watch them.