Athletic Directors

Minutes

February 22, 2007

 

The meeting was held at the Caddyshack on Thursday February 22, 2007

 

1.  Discuss SVC Track Meet

 

The meet will be at Watseka on Tuesday May 8, 2007 at noon.  There will be a required coach’s meeting at 11:15 am.  All seeding will be done online.  Final information will come in April. (2006-07 calendar)

 

2.  Discuss Filming of basketball games.

 

The recommendation from the Athletic Director was to recommend to the Principals a by-law that prevents the filming of SVC regular season and during conference tournaments.  According to Kurt Gibson, Asst Executive Director, (his email text) the SVC can approve a by-law that prevents this during regular season.  Non Conference games would be up to the local school to enforce.  It was recommended that schools that did not want non-competing schools filming send a letter to the school explaining their policy.  During IHSA state series tournaments, schools would have to allow non-competing schools to film as per the IHSA terms and conditions.

 

3.  Discuss football prelim game. (survey)

 

A discuss was held on the night of the freshman football game.  Current by-laws schedule the game on the Friday night prior to the varsity game unless changed my mutual consent.  The concern was the length of the night due to a doubleheader, the wear and tear on the field, the problem getting officials to do the prelim game.  Some school like the doubleheader night, it is one less night of supervision, bigger crowds/gates and eliminates one night of travel.

 

A proposed by-law changing the night to Thursday was recommended to the Principals.

 

4.  Discuss the site of sophomore game. (survey)

 

The site of the sophomore game was also discussed.  The main concern here was the wear and tear on the field due to games on Friday, JFL on Saturday and then again Monday night.  Travel was a concern—traveling twice in the same few days.

 

A proposed by-law changing the site of the sophomore game was recommended to the Principals.

 

5.  Discuss soph or jv games.

 

A discussion was held on the use of juniors in sophomore games.  This discussion and recommended changes in the by-laws concerns volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball.  The Athletic Directors did not make any recommendation to change the existing football by-law that allows juniors if there are not 15 freshman and sophomore players on a team.

 

The concerns were numbers especially in baseball and softball to allow juniors to play.  In basketball, the discussion centered on development of players and that juniors sometimes lose time.  The counter argument to that was if you allow junior to play in the prelim game, then sophomores lose playing time.

 

A proposed by-law to allow a certain number of juniors to be on the court, field or play at the same time was recommended to the Principals.

 

 6.  Discuss SVC Scholarships.

 

The basic timeline was discussed.  The Principals at the March 7th meeting will finalize the wording and rubrics.  Scholarships will be due to the local Principals in late April.  At the May 2nd meeting the scholarships will be selected.

 

7.  All Conference Dinner—Monday February 26th

 

A discussion was held on the future date of this meeting.  It is held on this Monday to avoid any possible sectional games in the boy’s state series.  Possible other dates will be looked at.

 

 8.  All Star game?

 

There will not be an all star basketball game this year.

 

9.  Basketball financial reports (girls/boys) SVC Treasurer’s Report

 

10. Discussion items/suggestions on tournament formats, sites.

 

A long discussion was held on the format of the tournaments, sites, schedules…  Below are the items that were proposed and the discussion on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           A.  Playing at two sites on same evening robs tournament of "atmosphere".  Playing at one site would seem

               to necessitate start of play on previous Saturday -- 5 matches or games in the formats presented here.

 

Some felt that playing at one site would make it seem more like a tourney.  The basketball tournaments in all but one year when games were played at the higher seed have always been played at two sites.  Volleyball in past years sometimes required a 3rd site.

 

The length of day with 5 games was discussed.  Some felt that 5 was not that many, others felt that would be a long day for the host school to get workers.  Also playing 5 games in one day would mean that one team would have to play twice (8 v 9 winner) ---that would not be fair to that team to play early in the day and either go home and come back or stay and play later.

 

Also playing at one site would mean 3 games on Tuesday—starting at 4 pm (?)  could reduce the crowd, officials.  Also this would mean that the championship side semi final games would be played on Tuesday night, and the consolation side games on Friday night.  This more than likely will reduce the crowd for the semi final games since they are on a weeknight.

 

Also the gate could be affected because of fewer sessions.  Would the admission fee be raised?  Would that cause some fans not to attend, especially if they had to pay more for just the last game?  The end result could be smaller crowds and less gate, meaning less money to the SVC for scholarships and other expenses.

 

 

          B.  Home team has advantages.


This could be the case, but that is also true in regionals and other tournaments.  In the tournaments just completed:  Girls tourney---Iroquois West was 1-2 and PBL 0-2.  In the boys:  Iroquois West and PBL were 2-1.  Any home court advantage was not overwhelming.

 

 Should more schools host? 

 

This is something that some would be willing to do.  But also due to travel, sites need to be reviewed.  If travel was a concern for Friday and Monday football games in good weather, then a school traveling from St. Joe to Momence 3-4 times in a week and then to Parkland in winter months, more than likely could be an issue.  Central sites have been used in past SVC tournaments to reduce travel for all schools.  In past years, PBL and GCMS hosted due to their central location.  One year games were played at the higher seed and the tourney did not do as well financially.  Also there were complaints about travel from the far west school to the east.  Also since games were not in a central location, the tournament lost that “tournament” feel. 

 

Are more schools willing to host? 

 

Some school may not want to host due to gym size and other conflicts at their gyms already. Others expressed interest in hosting to have the chance to host.  To be able not to travel.  To make money for local concessions and activities.  Any school hosting would be in charge of the officials, getting workers and other duties.  Officials would be assigned by the SVC, but if games were cancelled—the local host would have to get replacements.

 

 

  How would travel time be affected for various schools?

 

But also due to travel, sites need to be reviewed.  If travel was a concern for Friday and Monday football games in good weather, then a school traveling from St. Joe to Momence 3-4 times in a week and then to Parkland in winter months, more than likely could be an issue.  Central sites have been used in past SVC tournaments to reduce travel for all schools.  In past years, PBL and GCMS hosted due to their central location.  One year games were played at the higher seed and the tourney did not do as well financially.  Also there were complaints about travel from the far west school to the east.  Also since games were not in a central location, the tournament lost that “tournament” feel.  

 

 

          C.  Parkland still seems to be a viable (and popular) option on Saturday for basketball tournaments.

 

Parkland has been good to the SVC in terms of rental cost ($150 per weekend) and is willing to host again next year.  A couple of Athletic Directors said their coaches did not think that Parkland was that big of deal and would rather play at high school gym.  Games were moved to Parkland to allow for bigger crowds, less parking problems, less problems getting crowds into and out of a high school gym and to play on a neutral site.

 

 

          D.  Playing basketball semi-finals at different sites robs coaches of opportunity to scout personally, and

               also robs tournament of "atmosphere". 

 

This is a very correctable problem.  Next year, championship side semi final games will be at the same site and consolation semi final games at the other.  The reason for this was to make sure that both Iroquois West and PBL had supervision at games. 

 

Also a concern discussed was the location that some teams had to go to.  St. Joseph-Ogden went to Iroquois West instead of Paxton.  Momence went to Paxton instead of Iroquois West.  This was the case due to the way the seeding was done.  Games could be altered to allow for shorter travel, but then that could affect true seeding and possible move a game to another site, that could mean that a coach would not be able to scout that team—one of the complaints listed above.

 

Does this help or hinder gate receipts?

 

Based on discussion above, gate receipts would more than likely suffer with 5 games on Saturday, 3 on Tuesday and not playing the championship semi finals on Friday.   Also the gate will suffer due to travel, number of trips that some students and fans would not travel 3-4 times in a week 2 plus hours round trip. 

 

 

 

 

          E.  How would altering present formats affect gate receipts?

 

See above.

 

 

 

          F.  I have prepared some alternative tournament formats for conference discussion.

 

 

          G.  If acceptable, could these be implemented next year? 

John Overstreet’s opinion the major changes suggest could not take place next year.  Trying to get 15 officials for a Saturday this late would be hard to do and canceling out on officials for weekday games would not be a good practice and not fair to the officials who scheduled games with the SVC and now have lost out on income.

 

How much of a burden on John O.? 

 

See above.  Also, if games were not in Paxton, the local host would have to make the contacts and other duties during the week and at Parkland on Saturday.  I personally did this because PBL hosted and as part of my duties as Secretary. 

 

Do some teams have games scheduled on first Saturday?

 

This is very likely. And a real good chance that schools may have games/conflicts on the weeknights also.  PBL and Iroquois West have adjusted their own local schedules to allow for hosting of the tournaments.

              

 

 

 

 

 H.  Please print copies and distribute them to your coaches prior to meetings of principals (7th) and A.D.s (14th)

               in February.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Add-on item -- I forgot to mention desire of several, which is to play all first round (only proposed by basketball coaches)

          games at site of higher seed.  This might or might not get rid of start on first Saturday.  Either way, the progression of

          game 1 to game 5 to game 6 to game 8 definitely comes into play when setting dates with this method.  I have not

          shown brackets with this proposal.  Discuss all of this info amongst yourselves before the meetings.

 

See above about playing at different sites.

 

 

(Volleyball A, Volleyball B, Boy’s Basketball, Girl’s Basketball, Revised 8/9 game, discussion )

 

11.  Review of 2008-09 and 2009-10 schedules.

 

These will be reviewed in more detail at the April meeting.

 

12.  Review of 2007 Spring sports schedules.

 

These were review and a few updates were made. They have been updated online.

 

13.  other?

 

---Watseka and St. Joseph-Ogden could not get their regular season conference boy’s basketball game in.  See text of email sent on Friday February 23rd to Principals and Athletic Director.

 

---The site of the SVC golf meet next year (hosted by St. Thomas More) will be at Brookhill Golf Course in Rantoul. (see calendar)

 

---The next Athletic Director meeting will be at 11 am on Wednesday April 25th at the Caddyshack in Rantoul.