Number of $tate Qualifer$ to Increase this Fall.....
- Thread starter stickman80
- Start date
It's not a big deal, but instead of qualifying the top 15 individually, I think they should change it to the top 7 for individuals from a non-qualifying school. That's do something similar like that in college and it makes more sense.
Well.....they could go back to no qualifying and just run every school at the State Meet like they did years ago. Someone else might know, but I think the last time they did that was in the early 70's.
Well.....they could go back to no qualifying and just run every school at the State Meet like they did years ago. Someone else might know, but I think the last time they did that was in the early 70's.
You could not be farther from the truth. Every athlete added will cost the IAHSAA/IGHSAU an extra state participant plaque. A very nice 8x10 photo plaque (photo included) for the boys (and another for their coach) and a very simple 5x7 plaque for the girls (but not one for their coach). On top of that, the association pays a meal reimbursement to each athlete. Further, every athlete from an additional school cost the associations reimbursement costs for travel and possibly accommodations if the distance is far enough. In exchange, each extra athlete probably brings 1 or maybe 2 cars of spectators at a cost of $10/car.
There is no way this is bringing in extra money.
When did the associations start providing each runner with a plaque for the State CC Meet just for participating? To me it sounds a little excessive.
The meal reimbursement, I completely understand that and I agree it makes sense. That's something they have been doing for a long time.
The meal reimbursement, I completely understand that and I agree it makes sense. That's something they have been doing for a long time.
I'd like to know that too, my son didn't get one either of the last two seasons. He got a medal for the district meet, but no plaque.
Contact your coach. He may have been from one of the schools that is heard repeatedly over the loudspeaker to "come have your photo taken". If he qualified solely as an individual, they may not have announced him. BUT, individual qualifying athletes also receive photo plaques (if boys). If your coach does not have these or is unaware of them, then contact the IAHSAA person in charge of XC (Jared Chizek)
I'll have to do that. He qualified individually both years and I know he had his picture taken (he wasn't exactly thrilled with having to go do that), but I haven't heard anything about a plaque. I should see his XC coach tonight, so I'll ask about it.
Looks like an excuse to expand to full Football Playoff$ to me. $pend a little more money for Cross Country (and create support from their participants and parents) while you not only generate more administrative work for yourself but also a need to add more revenue than the wee bit you lost from expanding the non profitable Cross Country qualifying field.
Very clever move. Kind of like the ca$inos giving a portion of their earnings to the charities in order to make it harder to decouple and close them. (Plus it sounds like the boys association gets to "1 up" the girl's association on awards).
Whoa...only the state champion and state runner-up receive individual plaques for their players. Individual players only receive a medal for qualifying for the playoffs.
Let's see, roughly 50 guys per team (more in 4A, but less in 8-man, A, 1A) receive a medal regardless of their playing status times 32 playoff qualifying teams in each of 6 divisions of play. This is roughly 9,600 medals. Then, champ and runner-up get plaques. This would be 12 total teams x 50 guys per team (600 plaques).
On the boys XC side of things, there are 4 classes x 5 sites x 10 individual qualifiers (200 medals) plus 15 teams x 4 classes x 7 runners (420 medals). They are giving out 620 medals for qualifying. Football is giving out 9000 more medals. Then the runners who compete at state get a plaque. This is about 500 runners because some who finished in the top 10 were also on a qualifying team. So, 500 plaques. Only competitors get the plaques, not state alternates (they can buy theirs), not the entire squad like in football.
In basketball, every state qualifying team (32 teams) get autograph basketballs (x15 players + coaches). Roughly 550 signature balls.
I think the big takeaway here is, the athletes in Iowa are very fortunate with the awards program our state provides.
I agree...provide the awards...all the awards. Every sport is different so award them accordingly. Just don't take away from one sport or bash one sport over another. That was all I was saying. End of story.
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The point I was trying to make was you don't even have to be average to make FB playoffs anymore. You can be 4th out of 7 teams and you are in and you get a huge banner from the State to hang up in the gym for being less than average.
Some of the awards are sponsored awards so the $tate pays nothing for them. Who would be surprised if the company making the medals has some connection to the boy$ in Boone? Friend, relative, business partner etc.
All teams that qualify for boys state basketball receive 15 medals for qualifying, a banner, a trophy, 17 photo plaques, and 17 autograph basketballs.
On the girls side, the plaques again are not photo plaques, but rather a smaller participation variety. There is also no mention in the girls awards about the basketballs, but I think they are included. The medals/banner/trophy is the same on each side.
Boys also play a 3rd place game whereas girls do not get the opportunity.
On the girls side, the plaques again are not photo plaques, but rather a smaller participation variety. There is also no mention in the girls awards about the basketballs, but I think they are included. The medals/banner/trophy is the same on each side.
Boys also play a 3rd place game whereas girls do not get the opportunity.
I'm just stating I believe that the basketballs are paid for and provided by the Farm Bureau, not by the IHSAA. As for the consolation game in boys basketball, some coaches and players like it, others would rather go home. The photo plaques must come later. I haven't seen one.
Just remember, it came in 2 days before graduation. He and his teammate that qualified both got one. It has a picture of the two of them and their coach.
I say open up all state tournaments/meets to everyone that wants in. Many will not for a variety of reasons. I bet you'll actually have fewer participants and less gate as well as expenses. I can tell you many kids/coaches don't want that extra race, game, match etc... and are ok with not participating in a "championship" event when they know they don't belong.
Now tell me what drives the tournaments, brackets, qualifiers etc... Some sports are just more participant friendly while others should have a true championship tournament.
As someone who coaches in the sport in question, I guarantee you the fields would be much larger. I have 12-15 on my team alone that want to run at state every year. The all-comers format junior high "state meet" charges each entrant brings more athletes in than the official high school state meet.
What percentage of Jr high runners do you retain every year into high school? Still a limit of seven to a team/school at the varsity level. Most non varsity kids are ready to move on beyond the cross country season once conference is over. That's cool if your runners still want to train and compete for an additional Couple weeks but I dont think most teams that aren't that good or their non varsity athletes want to extend their season into the coldest weather of the season so they can finish at the back of the pack again.
We've grown in athletes every year. We lose about 15% of our 8th graders but 25% more sign up that hadn't been out before and then grow from there.
For example, two years ago there were 18 8th graders. We got 15 of those, but also got 4 new ones for a freshman total of 19. Next year, I have 18 of those coming back and will add 7 more for a total of 25 sophomores.
Generally, about 15 athletes choose to stick around after conference to train with the team through state qualifying and state.
If you open it up to all comers, you could potentially double the number of full teams that show up. If 3-4 teams qualify in a district, then who's to say the teams that are 4-6 don't feel they can run better and want to run? Add in another 10-15 individuals that want to run, but their whole team does not.
Yes/So....Some sports are more participant friendly such as Cross Country and may actually have a lot more entrants if the doors were opened wider. How about an open race at the conclusion of the state championship races? Not so sure about football or other sports like wrestling etc.. where you can actually get your head kicked in and embarrassed because you aren't very good.
Send them to the Senior All-Star meet for an open race:
http://www.iatfcc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=120
My kid's team actually adds runners going from Jr High to High School. Each of the last four classes to go from 8th to 9th grade gained kids. The football team loses a lot of players at that age and a couple each year switch to XC.
In our district last fall, the team standings from 3-6 (boys side) were separated by around 8-10 points, and each of those teams in the 4/5/6 range had a runner just miss individual qualification. Just out of our district I'd bet you'd add 15 runners minimum if you opened it up to all runners. That district had 2-3 ranked runners not qualify for state (I think there were 13 ranked runners in our district) and 2 ranked teams not qualify.
Of the 3 teams that did qualify, what place at state did they get?
I hate seeing a team miss state by 3-4 points and then the team that bumped them out ends up in the top 10. Gives a strong argument that the next team belonged there.
Our district's champ won state and the other two teams finished top 10. IIRC, the district also had 8 of the top 30 finishers at State.
I just looked at the District results, the champ (the state champ team) won by 22 over 2nd, the next 3 teams were separated by 12 points, the 5th place team finished 8 points out of qualifying, the 6th place team finished 15 points out of qualifying. It was a fairly tough district.
On a side note, the 6th place team, had gone something like 5-1 against qualifying teams in other districts earlier in the season. And they were one of the 5 ranked teams in that district. Their problem was having 2 SRs and 5 FR/SO in their top 7, over half their team had not run in a district meet before.
