JH Rose New Conference

I have greatly enjoyed learning from TBR and although I do not post often, I thought that the following information should be shared in the baseball and HS sport community. I had to shorten this to meet space limitations.

The Greenville Daily Reflector Tuesday, December 02, 2008
An entourage of J.H. Rose and Pitt County School Board representatives pleaded their case to the N.C. High School Athletic Association on Tuesday that a proposed realignment of high school conferences would negatively impact Rose student-athletes in the classroom. Rose athletics director Tommy Peacock, Rose baseball coach Ronald “RV” Vincent, Pitt County superintendent of schools Dr. Beverly Reep, Rose principal Dr. George Frazier and city-county athletic director Bob Dailey attended the first day of the NCHSAA’s winter meetings to address their concerns about the new realignment, which would start with the next school year. Rose High Athletic Foundation members Darryl Harrison and Greg Steele also attended the meeting. According to Peacock, it was the first time that the board has heard an appeal based on a proposed realignment. During today’s meetings, the J.H. Rose proposal, as well as several others, could be voted on during the afternoon session.
In the proposed conference realignment, athletes at J.H. Rose will spend more time on an activity bus than any others in the state — by far. Currently, the Rampants play in the split 3-A/4-A Coastal Conference. With two opponents in county and another four in a neighboring counties, the lone long trip is the jaunt to Carteret County to play the West Carteret Patriots. If the 2009 realignment plan sticks, however, J.H. Rose will join a league with the Wilmington quartet of Ashley, Laney, Hoggard and New Hanover. The Rampants’ average conference road trip would jump to 208 miles, up from the current 71. That’s just not right,” Vincent said.
To put the travel of the new proposal into perspective, the 3-A school with the longest average travel would be Franklin with 107 miles. In the 2-A ranks, Clinton would travel an average of 113 miles. Among the 1-A schools, Thomas Jefferson Classical would go on 118-mile round trips. The second highest average travel mark in the state under the new plan is New Bern’s 158 miles.
We didn’t even bring up the financial side,” Rose athletic director Tommy Peacock said. “Our biggest thing was the loss of instructional time. If you look at games that start at 4:30, right now our student-athletes are missing about seven hours of school time in a season. In the new conference, that time would go up to 14 hours.” Peacock presented these figures to the NCHSAA board, which is headed by executive director Charlie Adams. The lost scholastic time is based upon when Rose would have to dismiss student-athletes to make it to away sites in time for pregame warmups. Peacock said that Rose offered several solutions to their problem, one being that the Rampants would play in the new conference in football only.
"They were nice and listened,” Vincent said. “I just explained to them that it’s not in the best interest of the student-athletes. We’ll lose a lot of potential people because of the travel. I don’t feel good about it. I still think (the proposed realignment) is going to stay like it is now, personally.”
And then there are the late nights. "Talk about getting the kids back late, around midnight,” Vincent said. “It’s about 1 a.m. before they get to sleep after eating and a shower. (If the proposal goes through) I’ll have to see how it goes the first year. I just don’t know about riding up and down the highway all hours of the night. I normally drive the bus, and that’s a lot of riding.”

Rose appeal denied by NCHSAA
Greenville Daily Reflector, Wednesday, December 03, 2008
CHAPEL HILL — The N.C. High School Athletic Association denied Wednesday J.H. Rose’s appeal of a proposed realignment that would have the Rampants join an athletic conference with four Wilmington schools. According to NCHSAA president Charlie Adams, the board denied the appeal because it could not find a suitable alternative. Rose officials pleaded their case to the NCHSAA on Tuesday, stressing that the move from the Coastal Conference to one including four Wilmington schools — Ashley, Laney, Hoggard and New Hanover — would greatly increase the amount of time that student-athletes would be out of the classroom. The board voted down the proposition Tuesday. The official announcement was made Wednesday. I’ve had better days,” JHR athletic director Tommy Peacock said. “I’m a little disappointed. I feel sorry for the kids. It’s going to have a big impact.”
After the Rose appeal on Tuesday, the NCHSAA board spent several hours talking about the Rampants’ situation “off and on” as time allowed, according to Adams. The board then voted down the appeal, but not without exhausting all the possibilities, he said. ]“There was not a person in there whose heart doesn’t go out to Rose,” Adams said. “They’re school people. They all said it’s tough; it’s hard travel. If we took a vote, it’d be 25-0 we feel sorry for Rose. This is a bad situation. “But then everything you looked at affected somebody else adversely. We tried everything in the world. If they’d gone independent, they wouldn’t have been able to find football games. Everything else would have been easy, but football is the only one (with a schedule that’s done) two years (in advance).”
Under the first draft of the 2009-13 realignment proposal, J.H. Rose was slated to join a conference with schools from Wake, Johnston and Harnett counties. After the initial draft was released in December 2007, members from several of the schools in the proposed conference objected, Rose included. Trips west would have increased the average Rampant ride to 154 miles. With the new conference, going to Wilmington four times brings the Rose average trip up to 208 miles. In their current league, the Rampants have average road trips of 71 miles. “The deal with that whole thing, going to the Wake County schools also doubled our average miles,” Peacock said. “Wake didn’t want us, and we were happy with where we were. We relayed that to the realignment committee. They should have said, ‘No you’re going to stay in the Wake County deal.’ "No one called and asked us if we wanted to go Wilmington’s way. If they’d called and given us a choice, I would have stayed with Raleigh. Wilmington was never discussed with us.”
"When it was first was put on the table, I couldn’t see how it could come about,” said Rose boys’ soccer coach Charlie Harvey, whose son Warren also plays four sports for the Rampants. “It just didn’t make any sense to put a bunch of high school kids on the road that long. As a coach, I’m doing four (trips to Wilmington) per season. As a coach and parent going to Wilmington, it’d probably be cheaper to rent a condo down there. But my biggest thing as a parent is the safety. The road to Wilmington is not a good road. I think you’re asking for trouble.” Some parents are simply disappointed with the decision to go forward with the realignment based on the message it sends. “I think it’s a sad statement that the decision by the realignment committee would be upheld by the board,” said Hale Stephenson, who has two daughters playing sports at Rose. “I think the administration of the school has done a super job evaluating the data. The statistics are compelling, and it’s hard for me to believe that a leadership group that subscribes to the mission statement of the NCHSAA would not see that this was not in the best interest of the student-athletes nor the dedicated coaches who put in the time to try to lead these kids.”
Stephenson went on to say that some, even in his family, may have to choose between student and athlete. “Personally, I’m not sure if my middle daughter (Anna) will be able to participate in sports due to her commitment to a rigorous academic schedule,” Stephenson said. “My oldest daughter (Elizabeth) is a senior, so this won’t affect her. We may find that some of the more talented students may opt out of athletics."

One possible avenue, albeit a way off, is the midterm appeal which can take place two years into the new realignment. It’s probably a little early to say, but if they’re not going to change it now, why will they in two years?” Peacock said. “We’ll still probably go forward with the appeal.”

 

Really stinks for Rose. It will be a strong conference athletic wise putting Rose in there with those Wilmington programs, but really wish there was a better alternative.

 

how about new bern bears where will they have to go play

 

New Bern will be in the same conference as Rose. New Bern will have the second highest traveling distance in the state, as mentioned about halfway down in the first article (sorry I had to condense to meet space limitations). Rose will travel about 210 miles for each conference event and NB will travel about 160. This is much higher than any other schools in the state.

This conference alignment is not good for either school. I see many kids electing to not participate and good coaches just not being able to sacrifice all their personal and family time for this type of travel. Obviously, my kids go to Rose and I am biased; however, the explanations provided by the NCHSAA don't fill me with confidence that student-athletes are the priority here.

Enough venting, lets just hope the kids education and athletics do not suffer too much here.

 

You have to believe there will be side effects to this decision. If I was a parent of an athlete at Rose/New Bern and my child wasn't getting home till after midnight...or if something tragically happens during transportation because of the long, late drives. I might have to reconsider how important playing HS sports at those two schools really is

 

Unbelievable. I think we average about 12 miles to each school in our conference, and that's only high because of Lee County.

 

absurd

This is just absurd. I don't get why a school has to travel that far. I wonder what they look at sometimes. It surely isnt in the best interests of the student athletes.

 

It's very difficult to read this and see any benefit to the student athletes involved. This is a darn good example of administrators making decisions with little or no thought to the long term negative impact it has for the players and parents! If possible, I hope another appeal is filed.

 

NCHSAA is a Voluntary Organization

The NCHSAA is a voluntary organization - it is NOT run by the state of North Carolina Department of Education.

They have a several million dollar endowment fund, although I am not sure what exactly this is for ????

Has the NCHSAA lost their way or are they on the right track?

 

Several million? Try over 11

NCHSAA is a joke. Was my sentiments even before this.

I am still so ticked off about it, I can't write anything about it... maybe later...lol

Looking forward to new competition in Wilmywood... but the travel... sheesh