Deseret News | Number of games may be cut

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Number of games may be cut

Old Timer | 7:37 a.m. Sept. 11, 2008

Region 9 is a lopsided mess, and it has been for years. I sat in Steve Hodson's(Formerly Canyon View's AD) office 7 years ago and looked at reasonable ways to fix the direction we were headed. It's funny he talked of people who disagreed with his position and his view of how St.George was growing. Seems now he was more right than his nemesis' in Region 9. Judging by his record on the court against them he usually was...
UHSAA has only muddled the mess. Desert Hills open with more kids than Washington County School District said they would(imagine that) They are going to have 4A numbers within 12 months, what do you do then? It's a good thing for the UHSAA that Region 9 is locked in a corner of Utah most ignore(*see Uintah)

Utah | 7:49 a.m. Sept. 11, 2008

has become a national wrestling powerhouse. For example our wrestlers last year placed sixth out of the 50 states at the Senior Nationals and crowned 10 All-Americans. This despite the fact, our wrestlers, spend less time on the mat in their high school season than just about every state. I would hate to see our wrestlers (and athletes in general) lose opportunties to compete, especially when our state is making huge strides competitively in many sports, particularly wrestling.

I also believe in site-base management. Let individual districts and schools take a crack at their own travel and missed school issues first. I think a bottom up solution is in order rather than some state mandate.

WHAT? | 7:52 a.m. Sept. 11, 2008

Why not just cut out the out of state games that they play?

Comments continue below

Better Realignment | 8:02 a.m. Sept. 11, 2008

There is a much easier alternative to cutting games. The realignment should have been done a different way...according to geographical regions. Yes there might be some bigger schools vs. some smaller schools. BUT, it is better to play than NOT to play at all. And THEN bring the enrollment numbers back for each of the 5 state tournament, they all go to ONE site for the state tourney all at one time. No stupid games at home sites the week before and things like that.

KG | 8:28 a.m. Sept. 11, 2008

Hopefully the BOT will hear the voice of the masses and reevaluate their decision honestly. Uintah's situation is absurd. Just move them to 4A and get it over with.

True Blue Layton Fan | 9:01 a.m. Sept. 11, 2008

I'm not familiar with what pot the money comes out of for football teams to travel, but if it's in any way coming out of any funds that are budgeted for a school's football program, then the education fund is being tapped, and if the education fund is being tapped, hmmmmmm.....wonder why this state's education system is so screwed up. I love sports. Don't take away from sports, the athletes, the fans, the communities.

Take away from the educators that are running this state. Much has to change. It can either be a very slow change, or a fast acting change. But as long as the powers to be are running this state's education system, then our children and athletes will always suffer. They probably won't know any different, because that's all they, and we as ignorant parents know. I've lived out of state, seen a better education, and sports system in place. I know the difference.

Friday Night Rider | 9:17 a.m. Sept. 11, 2008

In my opinion the UHSAA is just a big joke. Yeah it is good for some things... but overall, they are horrible. We need a new governing body for high school sports. The UHSAA will never get it right... EVER!

UHSAA ran by...... | 10:14 a.m. Sept. 11, 2008

the UHSAA is ran by who? The educators in our state. If they see too much money going to sports, and not educators, then they'll pull from it. Hence, this proposal being made.

Does anybody have an email address to the UHSAA, so we can voice our opinions?

Thoughts | 10:56 a.m. Sept. 11, 2008

I think if one classification has to cut activities, all should. That seems only fair. I also think the cuts should be equal across all sports. Why is one sport more important than another? What is the message we are sending here? Schools push the equality thing when it suits them, when it doesn't matter they pull what ever they choose. Cutting out of state games is not the answer either. For those schools that are located on the border it is actually closer for them to pick up games with out of state schools than travel instate.

True Blue | 11:08 a.m. Sept. 11, 2008

It's all about money. To have the stands full week after week at football homes games brings in a ton of revenue. Money will make a lot of decisions.

Reallignment | 11:22 a.m. Sept. 11, 2008

The 4A regions would be very unbalanced if Provo was moved back to Region 7. Compare the two regions...

7
Provo, Timpview, Orem, Timpanogos, Mountain View, Lehi, Saratoga Springs. (All 1300-1500 Kids)

8
Unitah, Springville, Mapleton, Salem Hills, Spanish Fork, Payson (All close to 1000 kids)

Not very balanced!! Send Provo and Timpview to region 8 and Uintah to Region 7.

Uintah guy | 11:24 a.m. Sept. 11, 2008

we would rather be 4a this play in 3a and state in 4a is stupid, move us up.

Re: Uintah guy | 1:17 p.m. Sept. 11, 2008

We speak English in America. No idea what you are talking about.

Defining the UHSAA (again) | 1:17 p.m. Sept. 11, 2008

Remember the UHSAA Executive Directors (David Wilkey, Robb Cuff, Bart Thompson etc.) are not making these decisions, these are being made by the UHSAA Board of Trustees made up of your local administrators in most cases. Sending the directors e-mails is useless, they merely execute the decisions of the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee (also made up of administrators).

Regions need to conserve | 1:21 p.m. Sept. 11, 2008

As someone who works in a school district and orders buses for extra-curricular activities, there is something missing in this picture. In the district where I work no thought is given to having teams travel to the same venue together. For instance, why couldn't the regions arrange it so that when girls tennis is playing in one location, so does girls soccer? They could travel together. The same could be said for many combinations of teams. This would cut transportation costs for games by half!

As it is now in the region where I work, there is so much waste of gas just because no thought is given to this approach. It would mean cooperation between groups, but how hard is that? Why isn't anyone doing this? It's not that hard and programs, games and matches wouldn't have to be cut.

For the eyes of UHSAA | 1:48 p.m. Sept. 11, 2008

By cutting 4-A, 5-A baseball back 2 games here's what you'll save. Let's assume you cut 1 home and 1 away game for JV and Varsity each. You save $200 in umpires and $250 in bussing. So congratulations you save a school a whopping $450 a year and cheat the kids. Do you really expect us with knowledge to think for one second that this proposal has merit. I'll give you $500 out of my fundraisers to keep my two games. You can spend the extra $50 on more bottled water for your staff.

agree with the eyes of UHSAA | 2:29 p.m. Sept. 11, 2008

I am a coach at a high school and I want to add more games to the season and not take them away. I would gladly pay extra for those games anyway. Most states have 3 scrimmages in all sports before the season we cant even have one. Please, please think before doing this. This is a terrible idea. Add the option to add more games and not take them away. Some states play up to almost 30 games a year and guess what they play better baseball because they play more. Don't cheat the athletes.

trust the UHSAA?? | 3:15 p.m. Sept. 11, 2008

After the mess the UHSAA made of region 9, how can anyone lend a shred of credibility to them? This issue will prove once again, despite your plea coach, that the athletes are not the concern of the UHSAA.

cuts | 8:37 a.m. Sept. 12, 2008

HEY, lets cut the ENDOWMENT FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL GAMES. These are the extra games (above and beyond the scheduled games) which are allowed by UHSAA. HOWEVER to host an endowment game, all people thru the gate (including students, band members, cheerleaders, etc.) must pay the specified $6 cover charge. Then ALL gate receipts go directly to the UHSAA budget, ie- bypasses the host schools.

By my calcs, this is a huge windfall for UHSAA. Let's assume: out of the 127 schools, there are 50 FB games statewide, attendance average statewide 1000 = $300k, BB (which includes some 1A teams which don't have FB, plus add the girls teams) 100 games = $600k, total income to UHSAA = $900,000.

Do you think they'll voluntarily CUT these games for the sake of "soaring gas prices and time away from school"?????

# 1 umpire | 8:46 a.m. Sept. 12, 2008

Another cost saving measure would be use local umpires for the games, you won't have to pay the refs extra milege fees, play double headers on saturdays, soccer, softball, wrestling matches, ect. More often than you know, officials are brought in from 100 miles away, when local officals are just as qualified.

Answers... | 12:08 p.m. Sept. 12, 2008

When you have 27 varsity boys and 27 varsity girls 4A and 5A basketball games on one night, plus all of the JV, Sophomore, and even Freshman games that go along with them, pretty much all of the local refs are being used (and that doesnt include 3A-1A boys and girls of all levels).

Why not have same site games even in the metro areas? Fewer busses are used, the schools almost always make more money (because people get to see two varsity games rather than just one), and because all of the games are at one plays, refs can be used throughout the night.

Denver Area Football | 12:50 p.m. Sept. 12, 2008

I know in Colorado in football they use county stadiums starting games on Thursday through Saturday nights. Now the refs and teams are traveling to one location. Fewer refs are needed as they could work multiple games.

The same concept could be used in wrestling such as multiple dual meet sites, or in tennis, or many other sports.

my thoughts | 10:25 p.m. Sept. 12, 2008

I really wonder how much real thought has gone into this arrangement. For softball and baseball why not have double hitters. Personally I believe the Utah kids are hurt with the numbers of games they are aloud to play. You travel outside of Utah and teams in California, Nev., Arizona etc. play over 30 games. Why not have double hitters or schedule games on Saturday at one field..we have great fields in Utah..Franklin, BYU, UVU, Cottonwood, Kearns, Salt Lake CC...etc..you can manage anything if you put a little thought into it. But when you say no there is no thought..

Cutting Baseball Games | 10:33 p.m. Sept. 12, 2008

"I think there are other things to consider besides just travel," said Dean Fowles. "These kids don't have a night to themselves. They don't have a day during the summer." Can you believe this? You know what you cut baseball games because my son doesn't have free night to himself then maybe I'll just put together a travel team and he won't play high school baseball because he can play 40 games and not have to worry about your rules! Idaho plays 26 games with 1 tournament they travel and they have weather and everything else! Hey I got a good idea make sure they have a night to themselves so they can play nintendo all day and sit around hey maybe get into drugs maybe not care about grades either! Why is it always spring sports that get the brunt of this?

Tired | 10:44 a.m. Sept. 13, 2008

I can't imagine a school even considering to add a new sport such as soccer when other established sports are having the number of games being cut. If it is because of costs and time out of school, there should be a freeze on allowing new sports to be added to an existing school.

Sports Watch | 9:01 p.m. Sept. 13, 2008

Revenge of the Nerds Utah Style.

Cedar High Redman | 4:58 p.m. March 31, 2009

I play golf for the Cedar Redmen, we are a 3A school. A lot of our region tourneys are against mostly 4A schools. I think that we should be playing against other teams that are 3A and not 4A. Oh well no one will listen... But our school has the best End of level test scores in the Region! Go CEDAR!

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Number of games may be cut