On the eve of the NC high school football championship games, and after waiting to see other responses, we felt we must comment on the completely asinine scheduling of games chosen by the NCHSAA.
Who in their right mind puts high school students on the road in the middle of the night on a weekday school night with Friday obligations?
Same question for forcing parents to chose between work obligations and being present at their child’s biggest event in their young lives?
What are you doing?!
Commissioner Que Tucker’s weak attempt at an explanation on Monday was typical nonsense. And she said she received little pushback. We doubt that and her expecting it proves she knew it was a poor decision.
Somewhere between beholding to television, venue availability, overlapping games, and just how busy the NCHSAA staff is, North Carolina students and families and their safety and livelihoods took a back seat.
The Friday afternoon games are super inconvenient, also.
Time off of work and schools shutting down for the day to travel makes no sense.
And you have them headed in to congested areas during the holidays.
You have three venues. And eight games.
Play 3 on Friday night ( as all are used to).
Play 5 on Saturday across three venues.
All are televised and can be recorded/replayed.
Overlapping means nothing. You have done that for years. Common sense scheduling takes priority, for students and parents.
Not television.
A child could figure this out better.
Do a better job of obtaining venues far ahead of time. You know the set up for the next three years.
High school football is the biggest revenue producer and gains the largest student and fan participation of any extracurricular events.
Yet the NCHSAA treats the playoff set up as though it is as malleable as a church dinner.
The staff at the NCHSAA has never shown the ability or expertise to handle such an important occasion.
We were part of this insanity in 1998.
Forced to play our Championship Game on Thursday night because UNC had to play basketball on Saturday, we hammered the NCHSAA for placing programs, students, families and communities in woefully unsafe and impractical circumstances.
Our complaints were printed in the Charlotte Observer.
So 27 years later the knuckleheads assume it is okay to go there again.
It is not.
As someone else posted , once again the NCHSAA has failed the very people it exists to serve and protect.
Who in their right mind puts high school students on the road in the middle of the night on a weekday school night with Friday obligations?
Same question for forcing parents to chose between work obligations and being present at their child’s biggest event in their young lives?
What are you doing?!
Commissioner Que Tucker’s weak attempt at an explanation on Monday was typical nonsense. And she said she received little pushback. We doubt that and her expecting it proves she knew it was a poor decision.
Somewhere between beholding to television, venue availability, overlapping games, and just how busy the NCHSAA staff is, North Carolina students and families and their safety and livelihoods took a back seat.
The Friday afternoon games are super inconvenient, also.
Time off of work and schools shutting down for the day to travel makes no sense.
And you have them headed in to congested areas during the holidays.
You have three venues. And eight games.
Play 3 on Friday night ( as all are used to).
Play 5 on Saturday across three venues.
All are televised and can be recorded/replayed.
Overlapping means nothing. You have done that for years. Common sense scheduling takes priority, for students and parents.
Not television.
A child could figure this out better.
Do a better job of obtaining venues far ahead of time. You know the set up for the next three years.
High school football is the biggest revenue producer and gains the largest student and fan participation of any extracurricular events.
Yet the NCHSAA treats the playoff set up as though it is as malleable as a church dinner.
The staff at the NCHSAA has never shown the ability or expertise to handle such an important occasion.
We were part of this insanity in 1998.
Forced to play our Championship Game on Thursday night because UNC had to play basketball on Saturday, we hammered the NCHSAA for placing programs, students, families and communities in woefully unsafe and impractical circumstances.
Our complaints were printed in the Charlotte Observer.
So 27 years later the knuckleheads assume it is okay to go there again.
It is not.
As someone else posted , once again the NCHSAA has failed the very people it exists to serve and protect.