Moving tourney gets support

An ad hoc committee of the Maine Principals’ Association has made preliminary recommendations that could change the face of the state’s high school basketball tournaments beginning in 2006.

Those recommendations would move the Eastern Maine Class A tournament from the Bangor Auditorium to the Augusta Civic Center, shift the Western B tournament from Augusta to the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, and move the Class A regional tournaments from early March to February vacation week.

“This is just one stage in a process,” MPA executive director Dick Durost said. “All recommendations must go to the full basketball committee, and any changes would require a vote of the full [MPA] membership in November.”

The recommendations were made during the ad hoc committee’s meeting Monday and have been forwarded to the MPA’s Basketball Plenary Committee for its consideration, according to Dick Durost.

The plenary committee is expected to consider the recommendations at its next meeting, and has the option to recommend none, any or all of the proposals to the full MPA membership.

The plenary committee is scheduled to meet in late October, but that may be moved up to early September at the suggestion of the ad hoc panel, Durost said.

The full MPA membership would vote on any recommendations it receives at its fall meeting in November.

Two other issues considered by the ad hoc panel were not sent on to the plenary committee. One would have reduced the number of teams qualifying for postseason play and moved all preliminary-round games to Bangor, Augusta and Portland.

A proposal to hold a separate private-school basketball tournament was referred to the MPA’s Interscholastic Management Committee. Durost said the ad hoc committee felt this was a topic of interest in all sports, not just basketball.

The ad hoc committee is an eight-member panel of representatives from the MPA’s four basketball subcommittees. It was formed earlier this year to review possible changes in the high school basketball tournament format and sites in conjunction with the start of negotiations on new five-year contracts between the MPA and the three tournament sites.

The current five-year contracts expire after the 2005 tournaments.

The ad hoc committee made its recommendations with input received from four informational meetings held statewide in early May and a subsequent survey of MPA-member high schools. Of the 152 schools surveyed, 113 responded.

“By most standards that’s a pretty good response,” Durost said.

Results of the survey included the following:

. A proposal to move the Eastern A tournament from Bangor to Augusta beginning in 2006 was supported by 90 of the 113 respondents, or 79.6 percent.

. A proposal to move the Western B tournament from Augusta to Portland beginning in 2006 was supported by 98 of the 113 respondents, or 86.7 percent.

Durost said support among survey respondents for moving the Eastern A and Western B tournaments had largely geographic roots, with the goal of moving those tournaments to more central locations for the schools involved.

. A proposal to move the Class A regional tournaments to the third week in February to coincide with the B, C and D tournaments was supported by 85 of the 113 respondents, or 75.2 percent.

Under this scenario, the Eastern B, C and D tournaments would be held in Bangor, the Eastern A and Western C and D tournaments would be held in Augusta, and the Western A and B tournaments would be held in Portland.

Survey respondents said moving the Class A regional tournaments to February vacation week would reduce conflicts with other activities such as major music and drama events also held in March, Durost said.

The current Class A tourney dates also conflicts with the Maine Educational Assessment testing used by the state to measure student proficiency in conjunction with Maine’s Learning Results standards. The MEAs also are used to gauge student achievement as part of federal No Child Left Behind legislation.

. A proposal to decrease the number of teams that qualify for postseason play and move all preliminary-round games to Bangor, Augusta and Portland was supported by only 46 of the 113 respondents, or 40.7 percent.