Umpires against coaches deciding who calls games

Of the 60 proposals that clutter the 33-page agenda of the high school principals’ business meeting on Jan. 27, one caught the eye and full attention of Shane Rigdon.
 
The assignment secretary of the Crescent City Umpires Association (CCUA) was so startled by the proposal that he shot off a message to principals, athletic directors and coaches around the state.
 
Rigdon’s appeal was simple and to the point:
 
“A proposed change in the selection process of umpires for a majority of playoff games has been placed on the 2017 Agenda of the Principals’ Annual Convention. The proposed change would take the responsibility out of the hands of Mr. (Keith) Alexander and his staff and place it back in the hands of the coaches to mutually decide on which association to use.

“The LHSOA (Louisiana High School Officials’ Association), CCUA and Mr. Alexander are strongly against any changes being made in the current process.

“Mr. Alexander and his staff have been tremendously successful in placing the proper umpires in the correct games since taking over the selection process. The current process is the only fair way to place umpires. It completely eliminates any ‘jockeying for position’ by coaches and it allows for the best umpires available to be put to use.

“We would appreciate a vote against each of these proposals at the convention. If you stand behind us in this issue, please get word to your principal to vote against these two proposals.”

Alexander is the assistant executive director of the LHSAA who oversees officials in all of the sanctioned high school sports. One of his main jobs it to assign officials for championship tournaments and games.

As Rigdon explained, that arrangement has been fair both to the teams that make the playoffs and to the officials’ associations in all sports.

But, ever faithful to their mantra, the principals want to ruin another area of athletics that makes sense.

Redistribution of power
One amendment to which Rigdon refers is designed to take the responsibility of assigning officials in the sports of baseball, soccer, track and field and volleyball out of Alexander’s hands and transfer it to the participating coaches for playoff (and some district) rounds.

A similar proposal by the same author, Dr. Donald Thornton Jr., principal of Lafayette High, calls for the officials’ association to be assigned by mutual agreement between coaches of the competing schools.

There isn’t an officials’ association in this state that accepts this as doable.

What if the coaches cannot agree on which officials to use? Does it then go back to Alexander’s office where it belongs in the first place?

Bye bye, B and C?
Two principals from southwest Louisiana schools propose a division of five classifications, instead of the current seven.

That means eliminating classes B and C, the small schools that do not field football teams but have a vote in items pertaining to that sport. To that I say, “Here, Here!” and “bye, bye.”

Under this proposal, the B and C schools with small enrollments would be designated as Class 1A. Classes 2A through 5A may field football teams. The four football classes would be divided as equally as possible.

This, of course, would make all existing contracts between football schools null and void.

Contracts would have to be rewritten because districts and opponents would change under the new structure. This comes during a reclassification year, which takes place during odd-numbered years.

However, if the principals vote against this, current contracts for 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years will remain intact. And you can bet principals from B and C schools, who like their autonomy, will vote against any change in classification. It matters not that there will continue to be three- and four-team districts.

Let me throw kudos toward principals Michelle Chaisson of E.D. White Catholic and John Cavell of Opelousas Catholic who propose that a school that does not participate in a sport may not have voting rights on legislation dealing with that sport.

If passed, an item written by the LHSAA executive committee would require a two-thirds vote of the members to amend the constitution at the annual meeting.

That would make it quite improbable that the LHSAA would ever do away with separate playoffs, because two-thirds of the principals can’t agree on anything.

Ron Brocato can be reached at [email protected].