Girls’ wrestling season is among proposals at district NSAA meeting

    One of the proposals at this area’s district meeting of the Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA) was adding girls’ wrestling as a new sanctioned activity of the NSAA, which oversees high school athletics.
    Troy Hauxwell, Activities Director at Chase County Schools, attended the District 5 meeting Nov. 5 in McCook, and reported at the Nov. 12 CCS board meeting on some of the proposals considered by area schools.
    Adding girls’ wrestling as a separate sport with its own season failed in the District 5 vote but it was close, 11-11.
    That was a closer vote than a similar proposal that came up last year, he said.
    Hauxwell believes a similar proposal in another district passed. After some tweaking, he thinks it will probably come up for a vote again at the next District 5 meeting in January.
    Hauxwell was one of the “no” votes on the proposal at this month’s district meeting.
    He said if it would get to the state level and passed as it’s now proposed, it could mean adding an additional coach and other school expenses that go with that. Some of the smaller schools are concerned what adding girls’ wrestling would do to their basketball programs, he noted.
    He also wonders how many events are going to be added to the already full school calendars.
    “There are a lot of things people need to think through,” he said this week.
    At CCS, there are two girls on the roster for the Longhorns’ 2019-20 wrestling team.
    In order to gauge interest across Nebraska, Hauxwell said some type of exhibition state tournament for girls might be a good idea.
    With an 11-11 tally, it was the closest of 10 proposals District 5 school representatives voted on at the meeting.
    One of the other proposals that did pass (13-8-2) at the McCook meeting was adjusting number of cross country teams in Classes C and D, and changing Class D scoring from the top four runners to the top three with the team consisting of five versus six athletes.
    A proposal that failed would classify track teams individually by gender. That could possibly mean girls’ and boys’ track teams from the same school could be placed in separate districts, he said.
    The state NSAA board makes the final decision on all  such proposals. At their meeting Nov. 7, none of the above were acted on.
    Hauxwell said a proposal usually gets to the state level if it passes in several of the individual districts.
Officials still a concern
    Lack of officials, especially for basketball and football, is not getting better across Nebraska, Hauxwell said.
    With basketball games played five of seven days each week, that sport is where the lack of officials is seen the most, he said.
    Average age of a basketball official in Nebraska is 54, he said.
    Younger officials are not joining the ranks to replace those who are retiring or cutting back on number of games officiated, he added.
    Social media has not helped the situation, he said, with people taking video, pictures and making comments on sites.
    “Who wants to step into a gym and officiate with all that out there now?” he asked.
    “It’s up to us as a community and school to know what the expectations are at a game, and how we treat people,” he said. “We have to stand strong in our sportsmanship,” he said.
    Neither officials nor athletes have perfect games, and the crowd needs to remember that, he added.
‘Attitude of gratitude’
    Hauxwell also took time to present an “attitude of gratitude” list that included a lot of the student successes and gifts to the school in recent weeks.
    Among the list were the FFA team’s national championship, $11,633 auction proceeds from the weight/shop equipment sold (with auctioneer Preston Smith donating his time), a successful musical performance, bus drivers/subs and more.
    Also noted was the recent gift of a new camera from Allo that’s been installed in the Longhorn gym.