4A Football Editorial Comment
School Board Should Act to Make Region Nine 3A
By Dave Stott
It would be hard to find anybody who honestly believes Region Nine's dual 3A/4A format is a good thing. Why? Aside from the fact that this format gives Pine View, Dixie and Snow Canyon a two-game season and makes scheduling a nightmare, other regions are sending four and five teams into the playoffs in a single classification each year, while Region Nine's playoff teams are split between 4A and 3A.
As it now stands, Pine View's enrollment is less than 1000 and Dixie's is just slightly over the 3A threshold of 1000. Current growth projections are that Pine View's enrollment will shrink even further next year and so will Dixie's. Not only would Region Nine be better off as a whole if all schools were 3A, but Pine View should be entitled by reason of its current and projected enrollment to return via emergency realignment to 3A.
Washington County's school board should fix this mess now. The current high school enrollment for the five major Washington County high schools is 4674. Thus, if the Board were to redraw school boundaries properly it could produce an average enrollment number of about 935, which would clearly qualify all five as 3A schools. Once that has been done, the board should immediately petition to have Region Nine restored as an all 3A region.
If that does not happen, it will be because special interests prevent it, in particular one 3A school in Region Nine that has clearly shown it does not want the competition and a neighborhood that has resisted every attempt to change school boundaries. Nevertheless, the right thing and the greater good is to restore Region Nine to 3A, and the school board should make that happen now.
Created: Tue 28 Oct 2008 - Updated: Wed 03 Dec 2008
Gaming the System: the Timpview Problem
By Dave Stott
Summer 2008
Standing on the sidelines at the conclusion of Timpview’s lopsided 50-7 win in the 4A state championship and watching as several boisterous Timpview players strutted across the field, lifted their jerseys, and gestured gangsta style at the Pine View fans, I wondered how a game between two undefeated teams could turn out this way. Pine View had run off thirteen straight wins coming into the game and had beaten a good Sky View team 55-24 a week earlier in the semis. Clearly there was more than luck involved in Pine View’s season. Pine View had earned its way to the top. So, what happened?
It was not all Timpview. Its defense was extraordinary, but Pine View did not play well. Quarterback Nick Marinko had a nightmare performance with four interceptions against Timpview after leading 4A in passing all season long. He had his confidence shaken by a quick turnover on the first series and struggled the rest of the game. The team’s nose guard and most dominant defensive player, Taylor Harris, was ineligible for the game, and its middle linebacker Adam Bangerter came into the game hurt and hobbling. Maybe it was just that simple: Pine View had some bad luck and a bad game.
But the thought kept nagging at me that none of that would have changed the outcome, only the scoring differential. Why? The answer was quite simple. The Timpview team was loaded from top to bottom with quality athletes. As I checked off each position, I could not say for sure that any Pine View player could have started for Timpview. In a few cases it would be close, but not clear cut.
Clearly I was not the only one who thought Timpview was extraordinarily well stocked. Timpview fans were telling anyone who would listen that their team was as good as some college teams and the best in the history of Utah prep football. Were they delusional?
Evidently not. According to my sources seven (some Timpview fans were claiming nine) members of Timpview’s 2007 football team have received or will receive Division One college scholarship offers. In contrast, Pine View’s 2007 team, the state runner up in 4A, received none.
Let’s put this in perspective. Timpview’s program in 2007 turned out D1 football scholarship players in numbers that compare with national powerhouses like Concord De La Salle, regarded generally as the best high school program in the country. In 2007 state champions in football across the nation averaged one D1 scholarship per team, and Timpview had seven. It goes without saying that Timpview was offered more D1 scholarships than 5A champion Alta, which has a much larger student body.
If you find yourself asking the question, what are the odds, you are not alone. Is it really possible that the athletic stockpile of Utah’s top 4A team just happens to be that much deeper than the next best 4A team, or any other team in the state for that matter? Is the athletic gene pool in the Timpview area just that much better?
What are the odds that if you took a group of 1400 high school kids in Provo, Utah at random, you could come up with a football team with seven D1 scholarship players? If you said slim and none, you would be right. Except in fiction, a stockpile of athletic talent this deep at a Utah high school with 1400 kids comes about in only one way: talented out-of-boundary players must come and play for you.
Now if anyone wants to suggest that recruiting is the only possible way you get a whole bunch of out-of-boundary athletes on your roster at one time, the Timpview faithful led by its principal will immediately shout you down. And, in fairness it has to be said that no one has ever demonstrated to the satisfaction of the UHSAA that Timpview actively recruits these talented outsiders.
But, if they are not recruited, then how do they all end up at Timpview? Are we talking here about an Encounter of the Third Kind in which a mystical musical sequence draws them inexorably to Timpview's playing field? Apparently Timpview officials think so.
Recruiting or no, the fact remains that Timpview had a powerhouse in 2007 built on out-of-boundary athletes. Am I making this stuff up? Apart from the constant rumors, which are nothing but hearsay, and occasional comments from former Timpview players or their parents, which are not, in 2007 officials from Provo High School produced documentation at a UHSAA hearing in direct support of their claim that Timpview was siphoning off some of the best football players in the region.
According to these officials, Timpview had on its roster 22 (TWENTY TWO) players whose addresses were (or had been) outside Timpview boundaries. The UHSAA had no interest in that fact, however, and the hearing focused instead on the issue of whether or not the athletes had been recruited. The Timpview principal, who by the way sits on the governing board of the UHSAA, responded by producing affidavits from the parents and players stating that the athletes had not been recruited...a bit self serving to say the least.
Despite the UHSAA’s focus on recruiting, the issue is NOT recruiting. The issue is the competitive imbalance caused by one school, in this case Timpview, having on its roster 22 (or more according to some sources) players from outside its boundaries, athletes who under normal circumstances would be competing for other schools.
In case anyone wonders, this athletic migration does have long term consequences. As reported in the media, there are some areas of the country (e.g. in Washington D.C.) where the migration of athletes has destroyed competitive balance and wiped out entire high school football programs. Some think it may be happening in Provo.
So, how does Timpview come by these athletes? One can only speculate. Some detractors claim that Timpview brings in athletes BYU is looking at to finish high school in Provo. Others say Timpview actually assigns coaches to pick up players in surrounding communities and bring them to class at Timpview.
A 2005 legislative audit of the UHSAA pointed out that athletes may reach a high school outside their residential boundary by attending a feeder school in the district pursuant to the open enrollment law and the UHSAA’s first entry rule. Although school districts do have the ability and discretion to prevent that, it is perfectly kosher in the Provo School District, as I understand it, and Timpview would not be required to report those athletes as outsiders.
Others may have arrived at Timpview through later transfer under one or more of the highly subjective transfer rule exceptions (e.g. hardship or academics). Some may be the sons of Timpview coaches or other school employees and subject to exception. Still others may have transferred and lost a year of eligibility in order to play for Timpview. Finally, some may have moved with their parents and established permanent residence within Timpview boundaries.
Timpview supporters and sympathizers often argue that all of those avenues are open to every school. That, however, is simply not true. Washington County schools Pine View, Dixie and Snow Canyon, for example, all competitors with Timpview in 4A, must with rare exception make do with a closed system and in-boundary athletes.
With the exception of Desert Hills High School, which came on line in 2008 under capacity, enrollment in Washington County is closed, and kids at the feeder schools in Washington County may not attend a high school outside their residential boundaries and escape notice. According to district policy—and it is the right policy—any middle school student who wishes to attend a high school outside his residential boundary must apply for a transfer and convince the district and the UHSAA that the transfer is for reasons other than athletics.
The bottom line is that Pine View competed in the 4A state championship game against Timpview last year without benefit of ANY out-of-boundary players, while Timpview had 22. Did Timpview have a competitive advantage? It is difficult to construct a reasonable argument that it did not. Pine View was forced to play its better athletes on both sides of the ball, while Timpview platooned.
How much more competitive might the game have been if Pine View had been allowed to add players from Dixie, Snow Canyon, Hurricane and Cedar for the Timpview game? Could any reasonable person argue that filling in the gaps with players like BYU bound Adam Timo from Snow Canyon or Nate Carter from Dixie or any of the other talented athletes from other region schools would have made no difference in that game?
Better still, simply require Timpview to play the game without outside athletes; different result? Come on. Is the Pope a Catholic?
The upshot is simply this: the competitive balance will be lost not only in Provo, but overall in 4A if this kind of thing is allowed to continue, and it will continue as long as Timpview or any school is allowed to play significant numbers of non-resident athletes. What Timpview gains, someone else loses…it is a zero sum game.
It would be naïve to think that Timpview will give up its advantage, so long as it can maintain that advantage without penalty. Rules or legislation need to be put in place that level the playing field and eliminate out-of-boundary participation except in the narrowest of circumstances (e.g when a school does not provide an athletic program). The rules should have teeth and be enforced. In the interest of the game's integrity and fairness to all the student athletes it really has to be done.
