Wait Longer For District Sites

[se xc1]

It is conceivable with the last ranking before district assignments come out, that there wouldn't be a rated boys or girls team at the Knoxville 1A meet. Hopefully that won't happen, but it could. Why announce where districts will be so early. Why not wait till this week to do both? It really doesn't effect anything by telling us where they will be. I think they could wait and pick sites that will more evenly distribute the better teams. Just one man's opinion. By the way, I know they try hard and listen to the rankings, so I am appreciative of that.
This post was edited on 9/28 9:45 PM by se xc1

 

[captain_sparrow]

You make a very good point coach. How hard could it possibly be to do it this way? Surely it wouldn't be that difficult. Would make things fairer for all, in my opinion.

 

[cc_gru]

I found the new rankings to be quite interesting... possibly 7 ranked 1A teams at Panorama?

BCLUW could be sent to Knoxville - so could Earlham.... depending on how they cut it, Nodaway Valley could go to Knoxville (probably not) There are many teams in NE Iowa that are close together and above average, but no clear cut team that stands out.

It should be interesting how far in each direction the Knoxville district reaches.

Will SE go west or could they conceivably end up at DNH if BCLUW goes south?

How long should the State wait? We are within a month from districts right now. It is nice as a coach to narrow down who will be at districts both individually and team wise, also host schools need some advanced notice about teams - especially those that use automated systems with pre-entered line-ups.

 

[B-K_Teach]

Read the memo attached within. It very clearly states when district assignments will be coming out. Also, the associations will be measuring/marking the state course tomorrow at Fort Dodge, so don't anticipate them getting anything started with districts until Friday.

CC Memo

 

[se xc1]

I agree there needs to be some advance notice for all of us. But wait and see how the rankings come out this week, then decide the sites and teams to be put there. I agree, some teams could be sent to Knoxville, I have done a preliminary assignment on my own, leaving personal feelings aside and only looking at the ratings. I would have some teams going between 1.5 and 2 hours, but it splits the 15 rated teams up as good as can be expected. S Hammy could go to Knoxville too and North Linn could go to Wapello or Knoxville, I forget which one.

 

[se xc1]

Here is what I came up with to balance things out.
Boys
HOLSTEIN - West Lyon, Alta-Aurelia, Trinity Christian, Boyer Valley
PANORA - St. Albert, Riverside, Panorama
DIKE - Dike, BCLUW, St Eds
KNOXVILLE - Nodaway, Guthrie Ctr, Earlham
WAPELLO - Wapello, Marquette

Girls
HOLSTEIN - Garrigan, Gehlen, Sioux Central
PANORA - Griswold, Corninig, Eagle Grove
DIKE - N. Iowa, Jesup and another team from this strong area of the state to replace Tri-Ctr(2a) being rated in 1A unless there is something that happened that dropped them down.
KNOXVILLE - S. Hammy, Earlham, Pekin
WAPELLO - POP, Wapello, N. Linn

This calls for Eagle Grove to drive 2 hours and 5 minutes, N Linn to drive 1 hour 56 min based on mapquest, but it evens things out. North Iowa goes over 2 hours no matter where they go. I am not saying this is right, but it does spread the teams out. Any thoughts or corrections are welcome.

 

[cc_gru]

The other issue the state will have with how they cut things up will be number of teams/district... If they try to keep # of teams the same/or close to it, that will make dividing up districts even more interesting. Sending Boyer Valley North and then SE East will keep numbers in Holstein the same, but add more teams to DNH's district - which from how I see how the 1A schools are mapped out in the state, could already have 25-30 schools there. Would they give one district 30 teams and another (Knoxville's) only 20?

 

[cc coach]

I agree about situating the district sites better. I think that is the #1 issue in attempting to "even things out." I think this is especially important in 1a and 2a. I think their hands are going to be tied in 2a this year, simply because of district placement. The West Union district, on paper, seems highly likely to get #2,#3,#5,#6,#9,#10 girls teams without some sort of creative thinking. Part of the problem is that 40+ teams are on the eastern side of the state and 30 teams are on the western side, and there are basically 3 districts pushed to the west side. Gives almost zero options for spreading teams out. The 4 districts around the edges are all kind of pushed to the corners . . . and it makes any type of "option" difficult. Having districts pushed more toward the center and east at least allows for some possibilities.
I think it is important to note, though, that a lot of this may also be the result of which schools actually put in to host - I have no idea how many volunteers they get . . .but, my guess is that it is not an overwhelming number.
I think the other big issue - especially in 1A - is number of COMPLETE teams in a district. I think it is exceedingly unfair that districts like starmont in the past have had 20-24 complete teams and 130+ runners while districts in other parts of the state have had 10 complete teams and 80 runners. Not sure what the answer is here, but that is pretty unfair.
I hope they can find a way to even things out.
Guess we will see.

 

[se xc1]

Great insights fellas. I do realize it isn't an easy process and I always don't see all the angles. Thanks.

 

[Oguardrun]

I see Alta - Aurelia is listed as 1A for the boys and 2A for the girls, is that correct? They boys and girls will have to run at two separate districts? Also, from an AD stand point, does it help preparation time to know you will be hosting a district in August already, as they have to be getting pretty busy this time of year dealing with Vball, XC and football.

 

[cc coach]

Knowing host sites would probably be significant if a golf course was being used. You can't just go to the golf course a week ahead and say - "hey, how about shutting down next Thursday." I think that would be a major obstacle in waiting to pick sites.
Plus, I don't think you need to wait to pick sites - just pick sites that are hedged toward the center so you can have the opportunity to send teams in multiple directions. The second you put districts in "corners" - you have essentially predetermined the teams that have to go there.

 

[B-K_Teach]

Agreed, Pleasant Valley and Council Bluffs are horrible choices. Why is it that every year CB and SC have to end up in the same place? Put a district at Mason City (or Fort Dodge) and another at Waukee. Send CB to Waukee and SC to Mason City or Fort Dodge.

 

[cc_gru]

Well said about the 1A complete teams... this also can have a drastic affect on team scoring. The fewer runners in the race, the less exaggerated score you get if you have a #1 stud but a slower #5 runner - the more teams in the race, the more important the front pack of 5 is, (6's and 7's crucial in both cases in getting in front of others slow #5's) - you can place high without a stud up front.

 

[btail08]

Another split ranking--North Iowa girls in 1A and boys in 2A. That can't be, right?

 

[B-K_Teach]

North Iowa boys are shown to be sharing with North Sentral Kossuth. The girls do not show the same sharing arrangement according to the classification documents on the boys and girls union websites.

Another split team is Cedar Rapids Xavier with girls being the smallest 4A school and boys being the 2nd largest 3A school.

 

[West_Rocket]

B-K,

Xaiver is the largest 3A school on boys side by 4 on BEDS listing. Williamsburg also is split, as their boys are 2A and girls are 3A.

As a coach, I like knowing where we will be at for districts a few weeks ahead of time in order to prepare better for the course we will qualify on. I think a week ahead of time is too little to prep for the landscape of the course and study the competition. Just my opinion though.

 

[B-K_Teach]

WestRocket Quoted - "As a coach, I like knowing where we will be at for districts a few weeks ahead of time in order to prepare better for the course we will qualify on. I think a week ahead of time is too little to prep for the landscape of the course and study the competition. Just my opinion though."
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I think we'd all agree to that. It looks like the state is sitting on them until Monday, which still gives 2.5 weeks. We typically try to schedule invitational meets at as many of the host sites as we can so we get a good feel of the course well in advance too.

 

[West_Rocket]

B-K,

Are you able to schedule a lot of meets @ those courses? I would love to, but with contracts, etc it can be a nightmare for us. I tried this year to get in at the site where I feel we will compete for state qualifying (districts) at and was denied, due to too many teams (ended up being an 11 team meet on a Saturday)

 

[B-K_Teach]

At the 4A level, it's pretty consistent that it will be Marshalltown, Fort Dodge, or Indianola in central Iowa. We try to cover those bases every year. This year no Indianola due to poor course marshaling a year ago. The 2 leaders ran the full course and girls 3rd-end missed a turn finishing ahead. And, Fort Dodge is hosting conference so they were out too.

Our head coach actually just showed up to a meet once this year, registered online so we had bib numbers, but the host school didn't even know we were coming and we had no contract. They let us run anyway. It might be different in central Iowa than eastern. Here it seems the schools are interested in entry fees to keep the budgets firm and would put 30 schools on a course if it could hold them all (like the Heartland hosted by Roosevelt @ ISU).
This post was edited on 10/3 11:45 AM by B-K_Teach