The death of the SW4A Conference

jumpstart, you are all over it..........

undoubtedly all about making everybody equal. If we aren't careful they will be telling us we cannot keep score.
I, for one, wish that one of you guys who are respected and has a bit of clout would formally request an explanation. You know, CMS officials work for us and we have a right to an explanation. Just what criteria did they use? Probably the ACLU twisted a few arms. The more I think about this the more pis..d I get.
I am reminded about a saying some TBR member used a while back that is appropriate here: BOHICA!!!
(Remember: Bend Over Here It Comes Again)

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Nothing new under sun.

 

LOLLIE, my post irritate you?

Does your "nothing new under the sun" refer to my post?
If so, please help me understand. I did not try to be "new". Just to make my point. And why the Bla....Bla,Bla?

 

JUST A HUNCH

This is just a hunch, but I think MINCMI's comment explains exactly why CMS changed the realignment.

Having respect for your parents, school, teachers, administrators, coaches, etc. is commendable. Fundraising like the $30k raised at the AK Dance Marathon for the Children's Miracle Network is outstanding. Having the vision, skills, drive and the means to pull that off for a charity is amazing. I wish I were more like those kids.

But everyone is scratching their head at the mindset that would split up the SW4A. Thankfully, I'm not "in tune" with the mindset of CMS. But I can speculate.

My wife and I give "normal" contributions to my son's school. We buy boxes of paper when I see a sale at Office Depot or Staples. She is always at the middle school, knows everyone, buying supplies for and working the school store, volunteering her time as a PTSA officer, and during this year's basketball season every Monday and Thursday for home games she's boiling 100 hotdogs and wrapping them in our kitchen stinking up the house and driving the dog nuts.

What I don't understand is why CMS allows LARGE contributions to SPECIFIC schools for their sports facilities. MINCMI said it himself. $1 million. Over time...granted. Fences, walls, sprinkler systems, etc. Large donations I assume. According to wikipedia, AK "is the first high school in Mecklenburg county to have an artificial turf athletic field on-site". I doubt this group of TBR members have ever been to Garinger's gym. Also a CMS school. Let me paint a picture. The panels look like they could fall down an any moment. Everything could use a spit shine. I'm pretty sure Olympic cannot host track events because the track has severe cracks. This is not about their student's lack of pride. I don't think Garinger's students are climbing in the gym rafters to tear up the ceiling. Nor are Olympic's students digging up the track surface to be spiteful. No, when the money is spent, it appears to be spent unwisely or unequally or both. So, I encourage you to visit Garinger. If you feel uneasy, it's because things are not equal.

I can understand a communities donating to their local school. I can understand why better coaches gravitate toward better facilities and why better athletes gravitate toward better coaches. Same for non-athletes.

But the CMS "community" is both Garinger & AK. Just as it is Providence & Harding. Myers Park & Phillip O'Berry. Olympic & S.Meck. What...don't like the pairing? The CMS funds come out of the same pot, correct? So why are the sports facilities so VASTLY different. And WHY does CMS (one community) allows BIG facilities donations to SPECIFIC schools? We are not talking about a few hot dogs, new uniforms, or paper for teachers. We are talking about $1million in sprinklers, walls, fences just as MINCMI said.

Having that sort of autonomy around large facilities funding leads to the inequities that cause resentment. It also seems like possibly a good way to get your son a starting position (via the boosters) on a very competitive team. Power corrupts and absolutes power corrupts absolutely. I'm not accusing anybody. But isn't that what NCAA is investigating all the time? Money corruption around sports. What makes you think HS is so much different?

See, I didn't really realize how much it meant to coaches to have nice facilities until my son's MS athletic director explained his dream of having a small secure building by his baseball and softball fields. I thought "really...that's your dream?" Seemed kind of small to me. But the dugouts don't have a roof, no benches either, no bleachers for fans, and they don't have a fence around the two entire fields so any nut with a vehicle can practice doing donuts on the infields he works so hard to maintain. It's happened. That's not a parent, nor a student. That's a field being vandalized because it's not designed and constructed to be secure by CMS. So this AD and coach (a former Braves minor leaguer) has to haul his gear by tractor about a 1/4 mile everyday up the hill to his fields. He jokes "the thieves around here are professionals". Yet his softball teams compete with the best in the city. And are well disciplined. And well coached, and they have feeder systems of rec and travel teams. We'll see how the baseball teams fair with the MS realignment. Most of the boys play for the best teams of the better showcase organizations in Charlotte. And their dad's work with them just like the southeast Charlotte dads.

I guess my point is that SW4A is a good conference now. Ok, lets say it's a great conference. But if you want to know why it got realigned....maybe you need to take a hard look in the mirror.

Or better yet, one night, go to Garinger and take your shoes off and walk onto Garinger's fields a while in the dark. Then do the same down at AK's fields. See if you can tell the difference. Same community right? Same pot of money, right?

You people act surprised. And that tells me you don't get venture out much to the other side of the CMS community. I think you should.

On a side note: I think Catholic using Jack Hughes Park their home field is pretty innovative. What a facility. I'm sure no one will mind playing Catholic. I'm wondering if they'll get some transfers from East Meck or Myers Park with the realignment?

 

EO 95 it was just a general statement concerning special interest in youth sports period.

 

I find it hard to believe that the reasoning behind the 'proposed' SW4A break up is an attempt to redistribute funds, or however you want to word it. You have referenced the significant amounts of ‘donated’ funds that some of the current SW4A schools receive. Is it too farfetched to imagine a family, which saw the positive impact that being a part of a particular team has taken on their son or daughter’s life, is wanting to provide the same opportunity to kids in the future? While most people (even those in the south charlotte area) are not able to make these ‘abnormally large’ contributions to a program, some are fortunate enough to be in that position, and I don’t think giving money to a trusting organization that helps guide teenagers through some of their most malleable years should been looked at in a negative spotlight. The kids that are lucky enough to be a part of these programs will benefit from them for life. The atmosphere and the surroundings these young players enjoy and cherish is something that they are proud to be apart of and that they will remember for life. To suggest that parents are donating significant amounts of money to ‘buy’ their kids playing time is a little out of bounds, and furthermore very hard to believe. Try and reference one SW4A game where any coach didn’t put his best lineup in the field. There is no way any team in the league would be able to do that and have the success that they all have enjoyed.

I completely agree that some CMS facilities are obviously in better shape than others and I wish there wasn’t such disparity between fields like East Meck and Garinger for example. Some situations are obviously more advantageous that others (which is why the best coaches flock there) but I truly believe that every school has the chance to prosper athletically in this city when proper AD’s and coaches are put in place. Look at South Meck for example. The demographic there has changed dramatically over the last 5 years. First the addition of AK took a lot of students and ‘money’ because, who wouldn’t want to go to a brand new school and get to use brand new facilities for education and athletics. Secondly the closure of Waddell led to most of their students being redirected to South Meck and Olympic. For those of you who don’t remember or were not around during this era, I would compare Waddell to the likes of Garinger in terms of athletics. Both had some very talented athletes but this rarely translated to athletic success for their schools in the early 2000’s. The point is, while South Meck may not have the best facilities around, they make the most of what they do have and what money they do get to provide an atmosphere that any player can feel proud of and I really believe this is a product of the coaches they have left at that school from the previous era, and the good hires they have made in the past few years. Their baseball field is back to being a sense of pride for the school and the product they put on the field is right there with it. Many including myself wondered if they would survive all the change they endured but they have. While South Meck isn’t the perfect example of the hardships that some schools experience, they do show how a school can survive and prosper athletically and provide the haven athletics is, without big dollars.

Lets stop wasting our time comparing apples and oranges and rather, try to get the right people in place from the little league level on up to HS level that will provide the best opportunity and atmosphere for the youth of today and the future

 

Just when I had everything quieted down! Ditka!

 

You know its not the coaches or AD, its the parents. My kids went through both types of schools, i.e., the Harding and Prov / AK types. Basically, here is what I saw - Parent teaching conferences, Harding (we were the only parents attending) and my children were expected to teach the other kids. Prov / AK, you have traffic jams trying to attend these meetings.

It doesn't take a lot of money to keep the fields and gyms looking good. A big check turns a good field into a great field, but you can't tell me the players can't rake, or paint, or plant grass seed and then buy a cheap hose with a cheap sprinkler and improve the fields?

 

Socialism in Baseball?

Post, you have absolutely gone off the reservation.

The DNC will host a convention here in the Queen City in September. I am certain the guest of honor would be grateful for your social policy advice.

Ronaldus Magnus is disturbed.



The limo is departing from AK tomorrow at 3:30 for the friendly confines of Mt. Pleasant (if we can afford $4 a gallon for gas!)

 

tru dat

PHP:

Tru Dat Bro.