Missouri Middle Schools are being banned from Nationals

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Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)
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Missouri Middle Schools are being banned from Nationals

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

I just found out from NAQT that MSHSAA is banning middle schools from attending the Middle School National Championship Tournament because MSHSAA won't allow teams to participate in a national event before the start of the summer, and Middle School nationals are held in late April. This is essentially the worst decision that the MSHSAA has made in recent memory, and is obviously going to stifle the grown of our emerging serious middle school circuit and prevent any teams that want to excel from receiving national recognition. I strongly recommend people write letters to MSHSAA, local newspapers, and state politicians about this incredibly destructive policy to convince them to rewrite the rules to allow middle schoolers to attend their national championship if they are on a team is awarded a bid. I hope to hear that NAQT will take a strong stand on this issue with MSHSAA.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
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Re: Missouri Middle Schools are being banned from Nationals

Post by Nick »

Does MSHSAA give a reason for this no-national-events-before-summer rule?
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Re: Missouri Middle Schools are being banned from Nationals

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

No.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
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Re: Missouri Middle Schools are being banned from Nationals

Post by jonah »

What is the role of MSHSAA with respect to middle schools? Is it the same as its role with respect to high schools, despite the name?
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Re: Missouri Middle Schools are being banned from Nationals

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

MSHSAA governs it in the same way, except they don't actually run any tournaments. All the imposing rules, none of the hardware that administrators care about.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
"I won't say more because I know some of you parse everything I say." - Jeremy Gibbs

"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
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Re: Missouri Middle Schools are being banned from Nationals

Post by the return of AHAN »

College Park Spyders wrote:MSHSAA governs it in the same way, except they don't actually run any tournaments. All the imposing rules, none of the hardware that administrators care about.
How does the MSHSAA have any such authority over middle schools in the first place?
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Barrington Station Middle School Coach (2013 MSNCT Champions, 2013 & 2017 Illinois Class AA State Champions)
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Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)
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Re: Missouri Middle Schools are being banned from Nationals

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

MSHSAA oversees both high school and middle school activities. Also, they define middle school as 7th and 8th grade only, so even if we were to get teams to attend nationals, an entire eligible grade will still be banned from going.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
"I won't say more because I know some of you parse everything I say." - Jeremy Gibbs

"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
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Re: Missouri Middle Schools are being banned from Nationals

Post by Great Bustard »

Do they institute the same rules for the geography bee? spelling bee? history bee? Seriously, though, this is just ludicrous. Are there any coaches out there who like this policy? I would think a petition of coaches would probably be the best way to go about changing this. Also, who overseas the activities association? They've got to be accountable to someone. Perhaps if the activities association is being completely intransigent and not even citing reasons, then maybe they could be circumvented. Odd that in a relatively conservative state like Missouri, the reasoning seems to be very infused with the spirit of Soviet communism (i.e. if some may benefit more than others, then better to keep everyone down). Maybe a Republican state legislator would get the analogy and could lean on the association to reconsider. Just some thoughts.
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Re: Missouri Middle Schools are being banned from Nationals

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

They don't institute the same rules for subject area tournaments, because the definition of scholar bowl in Missouri involves having to have a bunch of different categories. MSHSAA doesn't have oversight. There is actually an annual bill introduced by a Republican state congresswoman that attempts to break up MSHSAA because she hates that they don't have oversight. However, I think her plan would be to make MSHSAA a part of the Department of Education. Anyway, there's been talk about this before, and yes, I absolutely agree with you about the strange political state of our state's quizbowl circuit.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
"I won't say more because I know some of you parse everything I say." - Jeremy Gibbs

"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
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Re: Missouri Middle Schools are being banned from Nationals

Post by Stained Diviner »

While this is ludicrous, and people should follow Charlie's advice to write letters, this type of thing is also fairly common. Unfortunately, these rules don't generate outrage from coaches and administrators--in fact, those are the people who write and vote for such proposals. Let's hope that this rule is overturned or that a loophole is found. While we can hope that the people who did this will be held accountable or that a Republican state legislator will care, we can't expect those things to happen.
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