FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Minutes from Minnesota Coaches Association Spring Meeting

1. Meeting Called to Order 9:40 am—Paula Anderson
2. Welcome By Mora Vasaloppet & Wade Weber
3. The minutes from winter 2008 meeting were approved 1st Terry Waslund, 2nd Bob O’Hara
4. Members of the Board and Advisory Committee introduced.
   1. President - Paula Anderson, Ely (Term Ends Spring 2010); Past President - Matthew W. Laue, Orono (Term Ends Spring 2008); AC Member-at- Large - Joe Teff , St Cloud Cathedral (Term Ends Spring 2010); AC Member-at- Large - Jill Hanson, Buffalo (Term Ends Spring 2008)
   2. Award Chairs: Dave Johnson- Duluth Marshall, Victor C. Dunder & Coaches’ Awards; Fred Kueffer Roseville, All-State Awards; Kevin Brochman, Mounds Park Academy- State Rankings Chairman
   3. Nordic Skiing/MSHSL liaison, state meet manager, MSHSL rules interpretation – Bob O’Hara
5. The AC is changing as Paula moves to Past President, Jill Hanson’s term ends and currently there is no President or President Elect. Matt Laue offered to stay on the Advisory committee being appointed to the vacant member-at-large. Paula has offered stay on as the interim President with the hopes that someone will step up and fill the role ASAP….. After the meeting Mike Hecker announced he was willing to take on the position of President. Paula will continue on thru fall and work to make the transition during and post the fall meeting. The President Elect position still needs to be filled.
6. The Victor C. Dunder award was briefly discussed and coaches were asked to pay particular attention to the rules of the application and make sure athletes of the appropriate need are applying.
7. Awards for Academic Teams of the year were introduced and distributed. An award to Fred Keuffer for assistant coach of the year was sent with Jamie. Paula Anderson was recognized as coach of the year. John Strand was present to give an acceptance speech and see his plaque posted to the Hall of Fame.
8. Numbers of member schools and coaches was discussed

   FINAL MSHSNSCA MEMBERSHIP STATISTICS FOR 2007-2008 
   
   Total number of members:  96 
   
   Total number of member head coaches: 66 
   
   The following schools are NOT represented in the coaches' association this year: 
   
   Section 1 -  Simley 
   
   Section 2 -  Saint John's Prep 
   
   Section 3 - Henry Sibley, Mpls South, Mpls Washburn, Richfield 
   
   Section 4 - Forest Lake, St.Paul Harding, White Bear Lake 
   
   Section 5 - Blaine, Mpls Patrick Henry, Robbinsdale Cooper 
   
   Section 6 - Blake, Bloomington Jefferson, Breck, Mpls Southwest, St. Louis Park 
   
   Section 7 - Duluth Denfeld 
   
   Section 8 - Ellefson Home School, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle, Coop 120: Brainerd, Pillager 
   

9. Update Section Reps: Currently all sections except Section 6 have active Section Reps
10. Finances: Actual account statement was not on hand but reported to be approximately $2900. Our big fundraiser the State Meet Awards Banquet is no longer as much of a fundraiser for us now that we are at the Ridge. However, this year we had a great banquet and still made a couple of bucks (approx $200-300)…..Although the Charlie Banks Coaches Relay was cancelled due to cold wind chills and that not only meant lost revenues but we incurred cost for the awards that were already produced for 2008. Hopefully those awards can be used for 2009.
11. The State Meet date change was discussed. Currently Alpine skiing has a proposal to change their State Meet Date by two weeks later into the season. That means their season will start two weeks later allowing them to get onto man-made snow almost immediately. The meeting consensus was that while those changes work great for Alpine it is not the case for Nordic Skiing. We as Nordic skiers do not have the same availability to artificial snow early and particularly later in the season (conference champs section and state). The cost to metro schools could be high if all conference and section meets needed to take place in the Northland. No mention the added cost to finding available snow for training. The following action items were discussed
    1. Survey—Paula is going to issue a coaches survey to have “official “ results to pass on to the MSHSL
    2. A.D.’S -- It is important that coaches discuss the impact of the potential date changes with their AD’s so they pass on their wishes as well to the MSHSL
    3. MSHSL Board Section Reps—Coaches and Ad’s should also contact their Section Representative s to the MSHSL Board. Bob O’Hara will supply those names to Paula for distribution.
12. Ben Dubay discussed and made some suggestions for the rules.
13. Rules were discussed both in general and specifically in accordance with the current uniform marking rules. The following suggestions were made.
    1. Uniforms – to follow the guidelines set forth by FIS with some modifications we would allow up to the uniform manufacture 100cm square total of logo on the racing suit. Since many suits are two pieces or have markings on them in two locations the total area of both markings must not be larger than 100cm square.
    2. Hats- are to follow the guidelines set forth by FIS with some modifications, as well. The hat shall not have more than two areas of manufacture logo on them in excess of 15cm square each. In the event a hat only has one logo marking, it shall not be in excess of 15cm square.
    3. Additionally it was discussed to continue pursuing the switch of rules from NCAA to FIS.
    4. Particular interest was shown in having a written procedure for rules infraction violations. Currently the options are limited and the additional rules of verbal and written sanctions which are in the FIS rules would be a nice addition.
    5. In general it was stressed by many that coaches and skiers need to have a better understanding of the rules and guidelines.
    6. Many in attendance favored the continued goal of switch to FIS rules to help clean-up and clarify all of the current issues as well as many unforeseen that are not covered by NCAA since they do not cover all of our current race formats.
14. A short five minute break was taken to allow coffee and restrooms 11:35-11:45
15. Discussion was started on the Standardization of scoring meets. Kevin Brochman who had asked this item to be discussed was not present. The members present decided to briefly discuss the item while also planning to re-visit the discussion in the fall. Currently there is a set standard for scoring the Section meets; however, there is no set standard for conference meets. Many of the members present understood the scoring confusion from conference to conference; however most felt it was a conference issue to set their own scoring system and it should not be dictated by the Coaches Association.
16. Additional scoring of the state meet was discussed. The Questions were brought up Doug Boonstra, and commented on by Bonnie Fuller-Kask, Terry Waslund, Kevin Kos, James Keyes, and Bob O’Hara. The questions concerned why skiers who qualify for the state meet as individuals do not score team points. It was mentioned this past year as many as 8 schools with at least 3-4 skiers were at the State Meet but did not score as they all qualified as individuals. The Answers rest with our current designation as a team sport by the MSHSL. Currently the MSHSL has Nordic Skiing specified as a team sport meaning we only score those teams that advance from each Section. Sports such as Track are individual sports and do not advance teams only individuals. Those individuals score points and then are added to other team mates to build a team score. The MSHSL is very adamant that a Sport is either a Team or an Individual and not both. We would have to ask to be changed to an Individual sport like Track or Swimming in order to resolve this issue. It was stressed by Paula and Matt that the MSHSL is ironclad on these designations and that there is no middle ground. It was decided by the members to include questions regarding this issue in the survey Paula sends out asking about season shifts. It will also continue to be discussed at the fall meeting.
17. Amy Cichanowski gave a presentation on the MYSL and how we can help them and they can help us!
18. 12:45 Lunch was served followed by a presentation from Bryan Fish of CXC
19. 2:30 adjournment.

Some additional information from John Filander: Mesabi East X-C race will now be called the Giants Ridge High School Invitational (my boss’s idea), and the event will be held on Sat. Jan. 10.  Same race specs as last year, 20 total members / team(boys /girls) in classic and Free T. races, Varsity and Jr. Varsity classes just like last year.  Fees,  Online registration, everything the same.  Trail will be widened out of the stadium to make way for outgoing and incoming courses (because of golf Cart Building).  GR is working with the MSHSL on dates/days for another 5 year contract for the state Meet, so plan on keeping the section race here as well.   GR is bidding to host the Midwest CCSA XC divisional champs the weekend after the state meet (President’s weekend).