The stupidest thing your state high school association allows to happen

Dance? Wow. Cheer is sanctioned in my state as a sport (and do those state finals draw a crowd!) but dance is a new one on me.

 

KENTUCKY:

Having 6 classes for football, 3 for cross country and track, 1 for all other sports.

Allowing 0-10 football teams to make the playoffs.

Allowing softball to be double-elimination once you reach State (final 16), yet baseball, basketball, football, soccer and volleyball are all single-elimination. In softball, you can lose twice in the postseason (district championship and winner's bracket of final 16) and still win the state title.

Allowing wrestlers to win one or two matches in the regional tournament (there is no earlier qualifying tournament like conference or district. Season goes regular season >> Region tourney >> state tournament) to advance to the 32-person state tournament (double-elimination while tennis is single). State used to be 16. In a state this small, wrestler-number wise, it would be better to go back to it. You're not good if you make it to State ... you're horrible if you don't.

Having the tennis and track state championships on a majority of schools' graduation weekends. I've seen many kids no show because of graduation.

State swimming championships and state wrestling has alternates, but tennis doesn't.

Having state tennis tournament at a college (UK) and a private high school complex (Lexington Sayre).

Having the state softball tournament at a location (Skyview Park in Jeffersontown) with small bathrooms, little parking and making the kids played on a grass infield when they spend the entire season playing on dirt. This has been rectified, but Skyview is still in the rotation.

Allowing some districts to have random draw for postseason, while others choose to seed. Seed 'em all.

Allowing district/region postseason tournaments to be held at small gyms in podunk. Biggest gyms should host - not a fan of taking an hour to clear the gym - and we're within 5 minutes of a spacious 4,000-seat gym yet we have to go off the interstate/parkway to a one-lane each way locale.

Allowing two of the top high school volleyball teams in the country to be in the same district, which means one of them won't be going to State. Yet Podunk East, which hardly ever wins a match at State even against not-so-talented public schools, has an easier road.

While all other sports - with the exception of football - have a state tournament at one site once a team reaches the final 16, you could be playing on a cold Monday night and then an even colder Thursday night in who knows where if it's not your district/region/substate's turn to host.

All that being said, the KHSAA does a great job with its web sites. Rosters, schedules, scores in a fairly easy to surf manner. They're adding boxscores to the team schedule/roster page, too.

 

You must live in Mississippi.

 

Allowing excellent coaches who are great with the kids but aren't employed by the school system to be "fired" because a teacher applies to be a head coach of that sport.

 

The poor princesses who are on dance squad might have been scarred for life if the cheerleaders got to compete for a state title and they didn't.

And we still don't — and won't — cover that bullshit, even though my old line of "Well, we only cover sanctioned sports" has been shot to hell.

 

Allowing a girl to play on the boys tennis team in the spring, because she was wants to play soccer in the fall, when the girls tennis season is conducted.

Or allowing a girl to play (and win by two strokes) in the golf championships (hitting, of course, from the ladies tees ... a total of 1,500 yards shorter in two rounds) when the girls have their own state championship a few days later.

 

Allowing parents receive photo credentials through a participating school or the local weeky and then standing and cheering most of the game rather than shooting pictures.

Same thing happens on press row.

 

Where do I start?
-We have some sports with four divisions. There are 45 schools in the state.
-Classifying divisions by ability, not school size, meaning the team that wins Division I is the only true state champion; the others were the best of whatever tier they're in.
-Not assigning seats at any media events and making the print media push aside when TV shows up for events they don't even show live
-Ignoring every paper in the state except the ProJo
-Not supplying internet at state championships
-General douchebaggery from the League Director
-Not supplying results for the media after track and swimming events (thank god our swim directors know that if they help us out, we help them out)
-Having a three divisions in boys basketball, four in girls
-Having four in hockey
-No mercy rule in football or basketball (or anything else but baseball and softball)
-Adding cheerleading as a sport

 

This ... and in addition, seeding the top four teams in each region for the playoffs, but then placing the rest of the teams in the bracket by random draw.

 

Michigan - You can be disqualified from any meet in track if your undergarment has different color stitching than the main garment color. Example: Black underarmour shirt with gray stitching.

You can also be disqualified for finishing a race with no shoes on. So if you are like my friend Chris, and your shoe gets stuck in mud and you fling off the other one int he hopes to have a better gate, you get disqualified. Chris also got disqualified because his boxers showed under his shorts.

Of course in swimming you can cover your body with temporary tattoos with permanent markers but faily to check into one race and you are disqualified for the races that come after it. This happened to me, miscommunication between my coach and I. I showed up for heat 8 of the 50 freestyle, I was actually in heat 6. Got disqualified from the rest of the meet. Couldn't swim in the 100 meter back for which I was ranked No.1 in the league.

I could go on for a while with some of these rules but generally the ones from Cross Country and track are the worst - like you can't wear a stopwatch, even though 75 percent of the coaches voted to approve watch use during races (like in college),

You can also get disqualified for having tongue rings in track. Saw it this weekend. What kind of danger does that pose?

In relays only one person can have a different undergarment/uniform. So if you coach at a school with no resources and only half of your team has blue shorts (the others have the old yellow shorts) then they better not be on the same relay or it is a DQ. Here's a fun one, if there is a relay, and one runner has a white tee shirt under his jersey one has black and the other two have nothing, there is a DQ. Only one person can be different? What the fuck is that about? Even the officials hate that rule.

Oh forgot my favorite ones. Can't wear headbands with logos, that's a DQ. Can;t have hair ties that are more than one color DQ.

Can't drop a baton after a race. That's a DQ. Had a girl who ran a gutsy 600 in a distance medley relay after running an 800 and a 1600 earlier in the day. She stepped off the side of the track and was disqualified for dropping the baton - this was as she was falling over on the grass due to exhaustion. I argued the call and the call was reversed, and the team was promptly disqualified for another reason - an under armour logo was showing on the back of her undershirt.

Rules are rules but this girl was a freshman, it was her first meet of the season and it was 40 degrees out. Mind you she didn't get DQ'd in the other 2 races, but in this race when we won it - first time in school history to win this big relay at the big relay meet- it was a DQ.

 

Also Michigan, having 4 divisions all with the same amount of teams in there.

Division 1 has schools with 1090 kids competing against schools with 2,300 kids.
Division 2 has schools with 1089 to like 875.

That's real fair to the school with 1150 kids going against a school with 2,300 --- a small college. Not even close to being fair.

 

You could lose 4 in Arkansas -- 2 in district and 2 in regionals (finishing fourth each time).