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NSAA Representative Assembly To Vote Friday on Baseball Contest Limits April 2, 2009 |
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The proposal, introduced last November by Omaha Westside High School, seeks to set a maximum of twenty game "dates" on which baseball games could be played during a season. Tournaments other than state and district tournaments would count as a single date, and teams would not be permitted to participate in more than four such tournaments. Doubleheaders would also be counted as a single "date".
The Westside proposal was originally introduced as a last-minute countermeasure to a similar seventeen date proposal that was gaining considerable momentum in various districts in the waning days of the period last fall when new legislative proposals could be introduced. In First District Meeting voting in the six NSAA districts last November, the seventeen date proposal was not passed in any districts, however, the twenty date proposal was passed in two districts, thereby causing it to be placed on the agenda of Second District Meetings held in January in all six districts. In the Second District Meetings, the proposal was passed by a majority vote of member schools in five of the six NSAA districts. Passage in only three districts was required to advance the proposal to tomorrow's Representative Assembly for final action. NSAA member schools in District II, which includes the Omaha Metro area, unanimously rejected the proposal in their Second District Meeting by a vote of 79-0. Thirty-seven of the fifty-five schools that participate in spring baseball are located in District II.
Although Westside introduced the proposal that will be considered on Friday, Westside Activities Director, Dr. Bob Reznicek, has made it clear that Westside supports the "status quo" of no contest limits for baseball. "As a baseball school, we were very concerned about the seventeen date proposal that seemed to be gathering a considerable head of steam statewide," observed Dr. Reznicek in a recent phone interview. "At the last minute we tried to find a number that we thought might be a more workable alternative, and we came up the current proposal. As it turns out, the seventeen date proposal fell by the wayside and a couple of districts approved our twenty date proposal, which caused it to be voted on by all six districts in January. The original proposal was put together to fend off something that seemed to be too restrictive. But, prior to the Second District Meetings, we had the opportunity to hear a number of concerns from baseball schools and to study the impact of the twenty date proposal more carefully. The January vote in District II, which was 79-0 in opposition to the proposal, reflects that the membership in this District -- which is where most baseball schools are located -- has very strong concerns about the effects of the proposal if implemented. We will make those concerns known to the delegates from the other districts during the discussions on the proposal on Friday."
Among the concerns that District II member schools expressed in response to the contest limits proposal was the impact that it would have on the scheduling of competition among the sixteen Metro Conference schools. "By the time the Metro Conference plays a round-robin schedule, there really wouldn't be many scheduling opportunities left to play games against other schools if there were a twenty date cap," observed Dr. Reznicek. Moreover, as more schools add baseball to their spring sports schedules, finding opponents who are not already locked into existing schedules will be made more difficult with the game limitations, Dr. Reznicek commented. "Overall, we feel that the unpredictable spring weather in Nebraska already imposes considerable limitations on how many games actually get played. Placing further restrictions on scheduling is not in the best interests of the sport." Dr. Reznicek's observation about the weather is supported by the fact that 35% of the games (59 out of 167) scheduled for the 2009 season (through Wednesday's games) have been cancelled or postponed as a result of adverse weather conditions.
District II will send seventeen delegates to the Representative Assembly. Thirty affirmative votes will be required to enact the baseball contest limits proposal, assuming that all forty-nine delegates show up as expected. Provided that all seventeen District II delegates follow the will of the member schools as expressed in the January meeting as expected, only four additional votes would be required to defeat the proposal. "We are hopeful that support for our position (to defeat the proposal) can be found in other districts," concluded Dr. Reznicek.
The wording of the proposal being voted on is as follows:
C. The proposal deals with:
Yearbook: Article 3 Section:11.2.2 Page: 13 Manual: Baseball Pg: 5
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The
Nebraska School Activities Association Representative Assembly will meet
Friday, April 3, in Lincoln to consider various proposals that have
advanced through the preliminary legislative process in the six NSAA Districts
during the past several months. On the Agenda for consideration by
the forty-nine delegates who are expected to attend the meeting is a
proposal which seeks to impose a cap on the maximum number of dates on
which baseball games can be played during the spring high school season.
If passed by a 3/5th majority of the delegates (30) during voting on
Friday, the proposal would go into effect for the
2009-2010 school year.