District VI AD Meeting

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

1.         Call to Order 10:02am Wed 9/23 by President Dean Rossi

All District Six schools were present except for the following:  Bald Eagle, Belleville Mennonite, Blairsville, Cambria Heights, Homer Center, Huntingdon, Philipsburg-Osceola, Portage and United.

2.         Approval of Minutes:  Purchase Line 1st, Lewistown 2nd.

3.         Pens Valley paid dues today.  Conemaugh Valley is looking for their Principal Pass.  Johnstown new AD needs his pass.

4.         Ray Wotkowski is the new chairman for football.  Agenda item #4 to be discussed upon Mr. Wotkowski’s arrival at the meeting.

5.         Volleyball - Chuck Gojmerac presented two proposals for consideration to the current set-up of the district tournament.  After a discussion abut the need to improve the current structure for the district girl’s volleyball tournament, Mount Union made a motion to approve Proposal #1 for the District committee’s consideration.  Bellwood-Antis seconded the motion for use in the 2009 playoff year.  Dean Rossi will get it on the D6 agenda for 10/06/09.  Passes unanimously.

6.         Soccer - Don Hosterman.  Retired principal, Albert D’Ambrosia, from Penns Valley still runs the tournament.  Check to make sure everyone received an application form.  Will use the same format from last year regarding sites.  Westmont unsure if they have the application.  Schools - make sure you call in your scores so that the website could be updated for the D6 power rankings on the web.  The website is a "close" ranking to the actual D6 points used for seeding.

7.         Golf - Randy Seeley handles golf for girls.  No Sectionals for girls.  Location is State College Elks.  Date is 10/14 and 10/15.

            Boy's – Claysburg-Kimmel, Harmony and West Branch to enter an individual to Sectionals as they do not have a golf team.  These schools need to submit three scores with the pro signing off.  Coach must be approved by the school board.  Course will be closed at the Summit Country Club for the West.  East is at Sinking Valley Country Club.  Eric Kozak will assist with the East tournament.  10/01 is deadline for application.   Dress code IS ENFORCED!!!  Districts will be a two-day event with cuts after the first day.  Keep golf coaches informed of these rules.  Regionals to be held at Tom's Run in Blairsville.  States in Hershey.

8.         Cross Country.  Meet at Indian Valley Middle School.  Application packets were handed out today by Penns Valley.

9.         Tennis - Run by Eric Hovan, Tennis coach at Altoona.  Dean Rossi chairs the Tennis championships.  A weather problem moves the tourney inside at Altoona area (Blair Racket Club or Summit Fitness).

10.        Field Hockey.  the 5 schools that have field hockey should have received forms from Karen this week for districts.

4.         Revisit football playoffs with Ray Wotkowski.  Ray Wotkowski’s first talk was with Transfer Rule Guidelines.  Playoff forms (electronic) worked very well last year.  A  16 teams eligible.  D6 will not expand past 16 teams.  OK for teams with less than 500 record to enter A playoffs.   AAAA has questions where we will be for playoffs in the next two-year cycle.  Altoona and Hollidaysburg will be with D7.  State may have to stay with a sub-regional for D6 D8 and D10 in AAAA.  AA will have 8 teams and there will be 4 teams from AAA.  Mr. Wotkowski stated that teams will not be allowed to play on Altoona prior to the game, as all teams will have a chance to play on an artificial surface sometime during the regular season.  If you don’t have an artificial surface game during the year,  D6 will try to make the best with their provisions.  Bellwood-Antis questioned the 500-rule change for A.  Mr. Wotkowski said Bishop Guilfoyle requested this due to their tough schedule.  Rule was changed last year Mr. Wotkowski believes.  Letter to opt out of districts will be sent shortly.  In the past, schools had to declare by week 8 of their intentions.  Football Chairman hopes to send the forms out by week 4.  Football Chairman also discussed the $1,000 up front fee for hosting.  An excel sheet is used for financial reporting by the host game manager.  D6 sets the fees that the host school pays (tickets, chain crew, announcer, etc.).  D6 does not pay for security, ambulance, or doctor.  The $1,000 given to the school is to defray those costs.  Schools will have three checks to send (gate, programs and radio broadcasts) to the Football Chairman.  D6 program not looking to advertise as it is more of a public service to the fans (sell for $2 each... program seller gets $.50 for each one sold).  Bellwood-Antis stated “don't forget about the visitors pre sale check - therefore there should be four checks”.  Centralized meeting in Altoona on the Sunday after the 9th week for A and Sunday after the 10th week for AA and AAA.  Don't take pre-sale ticket money out of gate sales.  50 awards to be given away on the field after the championship game.  Athletic Director and/or Principal - BE ON THE FIELD AND LINE THE TEAM BY NUMERICAL ORDER TO RECEIVE THE CHAMPIONSHIP MEDALS.  Pre-game is not optional.  Each game should be run like it was the final.  Do not deviate from the guidelines.  Run thru signs at 5:45 for warm-ups are OK.... but not just prior to the game (like you may have done all season long).  The football meetings to use open Cafeteria at Altoona.  Mr. Riccio to send out information shortly to the Athletic Directors.

New Business with Transfer Rule.  Ray Wotkowski handed out a two page Transfer Rules for all Athletic Directors to review.  8th or 9th grade transfer to high school is presumptively eligible immediately.  Example - 8th at Westmont can go to 9^th at Bishop McCort.  9th at Forest Hills can go to Bishop McCort on Presumptive (at Forest Hills, 10th grade starts high school).  No freebees in the summer.  Transfer does not occur in the summer until the student steps foot in the building for school or on the field/court for athletics.    Change of residence - immediate if the family moves.  Example - Mom lives in Westmont and Dad in Forest Hills.  One time, OK.  Next time, complete paperwork.  Send Mr. Wotkowski the transcripts.... he will then see if they need to have a hearing.  District VI Chairman will send electronically to the Principals.

District VI Chairman has 12 soccer disqualifications to handle currently.  This is way too many.  A school needs to have consequences.  Fight on the field should be handled he same way as a fight in the hallway.  Examples, one day of suspension out of school to three classes of anger management.  Mr. Wotkowski is in favor of playing one player down.

Sportsmanship.  D6 may allocate some money to promote sportsmanship in our area.  Westmont created a new t-shirt design to promote it.  The design was passed around to all Athletic Directors at meeting.  D6 would like to promote good sportsmanship more so that we do not have to talk about the "bad" issues of sportsmanship much more.  LHAC has a new sportsmanship handshake in pre-game that occurs between all players (immediately after the coin toss).  Still shake hands after the game.

Chuck Gojmerac gave a brief reminder about Athletic Directors using the website to get information on member schools.

Mr. Wotkowski added that banners and towels are legal for playoffs - as long as they are pro for your team (and not bashing the opponent).  Noisemakers and such are not permitted for district football playoffs.

New Business - Ryan Welsh from State College presented information on the Student Athlete Leadership Academy.  Please contact Amiee Kimball if you are interested.  Looking at a spring date for juniors to do this academy.

John Bomboy - PSADA - detailed mentorship program for new Athletic Directors. MIAAA has a CD on critical planning at athletic events.  John asked how many schools mic their football officials (response 6).

Southern Huntingdon - is Max preps mandatory?  Mr. Rossi stated that it is strongly recommended, but it is cooperation between schools. 

Glendale - date for wrestling for AA?  Don Hosterman thinks it is the 19th and 20th.  AAA will be the following weekend.  Friday at 4:30pm for AA and earlier Sat that the past year.  Mr. Hosterman said AA needs Altoona due to the size of hosting 25 teams.  Everything is 6 days later just like all other sports.  Also, make sure you send in your $30 to the National Wrestling Association to get your weight login information.  The idea of switching AA and AAA did not work.  Johnstown, why can't we switch AA and AAA for one year only??  Mr. Hosterman said that Vince Neidmyer said it was not possible.  Discussion ended.

OPEN DATES:

            Bishop Carroll needs two Jr. High Boy's Basketball games for 2009-2010.  Contact Craig Sponsky

            Penns Manor - looking for a JV/Varsity Boy's Basketball game.  Contact Erika Talmadge

            Ligonier Valley - looking for a week 10 football game on 11/06/09 - Boosters may pay for transportation

            Somerset - looking for two baseball games for the 2010 season.

            Purchase Line - looking for a Boy's Basketball team for tournament December 28 and 29th.

Next meeting Wednesday, 1/20/10, 10:00am at Central Cambria High School.

Clearances - make sure you check!!  It will make it easier for all the other Athletic Directors down the line if we catch people that do not have their clearances.  You better have a procedure and a process, especially when they do the year-end audit to their school.  Bellwood-Antis questioned   what date to use for previously tested officials who just passed a new sport.  Mr. Wotkowski stated the first date of your first sport is the date used, so if you recently passed another test, but passed your first one prior to 4/01/07, you are granfathered.  All superintendents have the code to check on officials clearances on the PIAA website.

Somerset - jr. high mountain conference wrestling tournament does not count for points

Motion to adjourn:

            Central Cambria 1st, Bishop Carroll 2nd.  Meeting adjourned at 11:37pm.