Sangamon Valley Conference

http://www.pblunit10.com/jeo/svc.htm

 

Minutes of the March 7, 2007 Principals’ Meeting:

 

The meeting started at 8:20, all schools were present except Tri Point.

 

1.  Mr. Hawkins of Iroquois West made a motion (seconded by Mr. Millage of St. Thomas More) to approve the minutes of February 7, 2007 meeting.  The motion carried unanimously.

 

2.  Mr. Buchanan of Watseka made a motion (seconded by Mr. Millage) to approve the Treasurer’s Report as presented.  The motion carried unanimously.

 

3.  An update on the Scholastic Bowl Update was given.  Final results have not been posted yet.  The conference owes Clifton Central $32.40 for expenses for the season.  This check will be mailed this week.

 

4.  An update on the Honor Band update was given.  A check for $500 for the Conductor was given to Mr. Buchanan.  The concert is next Monday March 12th at Watseka High School at 7 pm.

 

5.  The SVC Track Meet will be on Tuesday May 8th at Watseka at noon. There will be a required coach’s meeting at 11:15 am.

 

6.  The 2007 SVC Scholarships were discussed.  The pages have been updated online and are in word and pdf format.  The Principals at the May 2nd meeting will select the 5 winners.  Scholarships are due to local Principals in late April.  Each Principal should bring at least two copies of the applications to the meeting in May.  Committees will be assigned at the meeting.

 

7.  A discussion of the 2006-07 calendar and meetings was held.  There will not be a meeting in April due to the Easter week and possible breaks.  The next meeting will be the May 2nd meeting.   The tentative 2007-08 calendar was discussed.  Several sites for events will need to be decided.  The 2007 Social will be held again at Shagbark Golf Course.  SVC Principals meetings will be held at the Tea Room in Paxton.

 

8.  A discussion of Watseka/St. Joseph-Ogden boy’s basketball game that was not played was held.  This game was cancelled and reschedule twice, the last time being on the Saturday before the regional.  Due to circumstance beyond the control of both schools, the game was not played.   Mr. Uphoff of St. Joseph-Ogden (seconded by Mr. Millage) made a motion to declare Co-Champions (St. Joe and CPCI) for this year.  Upon a roll call vote, the motion carried unanimously.

 

Mr.  Schuricht of Clifton Central (seconded by Mr. Mauer of CPCI) to change the by-laws to add the following language: (added to:  Article III Section 2 Volleyball,  Article VI Section 2 Basketball, Article VIII Section 2 Baseball/Softball and Article X Section 1 Scholastic Bowl)

 

If a game can not be played due to scheduling conflicts and all reasonable attempts have been made to reschedule the game(s), the tie breaker will be head to head amongst the teams tied.  If this does not resolve the tie, then co-champions will be declared.

 

Upon a roll call vote, the motion carried unanimously. (see Constitution//By-Laws)

 

9.  A discussion of a  possible by law concerning the filming of games by non competing schools was held.  The concern is here is the filming of games by non competing schools coaches, parents or even an independent third party and the possible abuse.  The Athletic Directors proposed the by law change as presented.  This position is supported by the IHSA, see text of email from Asst. Executive Director Kurt Gibson. (see #2 of AD report)  This would prevent SVC schools from filming SVC regular season contests and during any SVC tournament.  This by-law would not affect non conference games and the IHSA state series.

 

Mr. Uphoff of St. Joseph-Ogden made the motion to accept (seconded by Mr. Buchanan of Watseka) the by-law as presented.  Upon a roll call vote, the motion carried unanimously.  This was added to:  Art III Volleyball—Section 11 and Art VI Basketball—Section 6

 

10.  Discussion of possible by law concerning the night of the freshman football games. (see #3 of AD report)  The discussion centered on whether to leave freshman football games on Friday night or move them to Thursday night and allow for any change of night to be by mutual consent.  Mr. Buchanan of Watseka made a motion (seconded by Mr. Uphoff of St. Joseph-Ogden) to accept the first sentence of the proposed by law (concerning freshman games).  A roll call vote was taken:

 

Voting yes:  St. Joseph-Ogden and Watseka

Voting no:   Clifton Central, Iroquois West, Momence, PBL, St. Thomas More.

Abstaining:  CPCI

 

The motion failed.

 

11. Discussion of possible by law for the site of Monday night football games. (see #4 of AD report)  Currently the site of the sophomore game is the same as the varsity.  The proposed by law would make the site the opposite of the varsity.   (example:  if PBL play Clifton Central in Clifton on Friday night, then the sophomore game would be in Paxton on the following Monday)  The concern was for the wear and tear on the fields with two games on Friday, possible JFL games on Saturday and then again on Monday.  The original proposal last year was to play at opposite sites, but the concern was the cost of painting the field—most schools already paint their field every week and that was not a major factor.  Mr. Buchanan of Watseka made the motion (seconded by Mr. Hawkins of Iroquois West) to accept the second sentence of the proposed by-law.  A roll call vote was taken:

 

Voting yes:  Clifton Central, Iroquois West, Momence, PBL, St. Joseph-Ogden,  St. Thomas More and Watseka

Voting no:  none

Abstaining:  CPCI

 

The motion passed. (Article II Football Section 5 has been updated)

 

12.  A discussion of a possible by law concerning “sophomore” v “junior varsity” games in volleyball, basketball, softball and baseball.  (see # 5 of AD report)  The arguments for the proposal are that some schools need to play juniors in some sports due to numbers, some schools use the juniors to develop them for varsity their senior year, therefore the junior year would be a “lost” year and that some schools already play juniors in non-conference games.

 

The arguments against the proposal are that in rare cases does a school not have enough freshman and sophomores to play the prelim games in volleyball and basketball, that the concept of the SVC has been to play these games a freshman-sophomore contests, that if you play juniors in these games, then the sophomore year would the “lost” year and that schools could still play juniors in non-conference games and that schools could play freshman and varsity reserve games as some already do.

 

The numbers in the by-laws proposal allowing a certain number of juniors to play come from the IHSA concept of how students make up a team and how many can be at a camp or clinic.

 

The Principals felt that in spring sports, schools can play juniors in baseball and softball since these games are not scheduled by the conference. 


 

Mr. Overstreet of PBL made a motion (seconded by Mr. Buchanan) to accept the by-laws as presented.  A roll call vote was taken:

 

Voting yes:  none

Voting no:  Clifton Central, CPCI, Iroquois West, Momence, PBL, St. Joseph-Ogden, St. Thomas More, Watseka

 

The motion failed.

 

13.  A discussion of 2006-07 tournaments was held.  (see # 10 of AD report for full discussion of questions of the format and sites)

 

Some of the concerns that can be addressed and “corrected” for next year in the basketball tournaments:

 

The semi finals in the consolation round will be played at the same site, regardless of who is hosting.  The semi finals in the championship side will be at the same site, regardless of who is hosting.  This will allow for schools to scout their next opponent.

 

The 8 v 9 game in both the girls and boys tourney will be changed.   The girl’s game will have to be played on the Saturday prior to the tourney (January 5, 2008) and the boy’s game would be played on Monday January 28, 2008. 

 

Another concern was some schools traveling past a site to play.  Example:  Momence went to PBL and St. Joseph-Ogden went to Gilman.  This happened due to keep the true seeding of the tourney. 

 

Other concerns:

 

Mr. Uphoff discussed that other schools might want to host the tournaments.  He felt that schools should have the chance to apply for the chance to host the tournaments. 

 

The discussion included: 

 

Should the tournament move to just one site for the entire tournament, including the last Saturday currently at Parkland?  This would add to the “tournament atmosphere” some felt.  The major concern was the 5 games on Saturday.  Using this concept, the winner of the 8/9 game would have to play twice on Saturday—one game early in the day and then have to come back and play the #1 seed that night.  It was felt that this was not fair to that team.


 

A drawback to one site was the possible travel to the sites 3-4 times in the same week in the winter and the cost to schools, the late nights during the week and the affect on gates.  The SVC used multiple sites from 1999 to 2002 in the first rounds and then two sites in later rounds.  Beginning in 2002-03 Paxton and Gibson City were the hosts until the finals at Parkland.  In both years, 6 games were played at each site on the first Saturday.

 

In 04-05 and 05-06, 4 games were played in Paxton on the first Saturday and then later rounds at PBL and GCMS, with the final Saturday at Parkland.

 

Saturday games were not needed this past year due to only 9 teams.  This allowed the games to be played during the week on more normal girl’s nights (Monday and Thursday) and boys (Tuesday and Friday).

 

Minutes of the February 2003 meeting concerning the change to two central sites:

 

4. Mr. Roberts expressed concern at the travel of some teams in the basketball tournaments.  Some schools travel past a site to play.  He suggested brackets maybe adjusted to reduce travel.  In a later discussion Mr. Gibson asked the reasons why the SVC went to 2 games on Saturday.  He stated that he had heard several coaches were not happy with the format.  The reason for the change to Saturday was to reduce the number of weeknights that schools played.  Some schools were playing 3 to 4 nights in one week.  Originally the plan was to have games at Parkland and Huff in Champaign, but the conference was not able to get Huff, so the games were moved to Paxton, Gibson and Fisher.   It was also stated that the reason was to eliminate multiple sites in the tourney like last year where games were at many different sites.  Also, in 2004-05, if the SVC has 12 teams the format will need to be changed to adjust for fewer games.  The 2 games on Saturday may not be necessary.  This will be discussed by the Athletic Director at their meeting on February 12, 2003.

 

Also Principals discussed the final Saturday at Parkland and were in agreement that Parkland has been a very good host and is very reasonable in cost.  It was agreed that to maybe look at playing the final Saturday north one year and south the next.  This will be looked into.

 

Mr. Hawkins made the following motion, seconded by Mr.  Schuricht of Clifton Central:

 

“To retain the current format of using two sites and Parkland as used in 2006-07, with changes in the date of the 8/9 game and playing the semis at the same site for the 2008-09 and 2009-2010 school year.”

 

Upon a roll call vote the motion carried unanimously.

 

Any change in sites would not occur until the 2008-09 school year.  The sites of the tournaments for next year will stay as is due to officials already being hired and the fact that Iroquois West and PBL already had made arrangements to host the tournaments in their gyms.  Discussion of sites will occur at future meetings of the Principals.

 

13.  Principals were reminded to make sure that they have updated any COOP agreement with the IHSA.  These are required every two years.

 

The Meeting adjourned at 10:45 am.