Missouri State High School Activities Association

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The Missouri State High School Activities Association (a.k.a MSHSAA) is the governing body for all high school activities throughout the state of Missouri. 580 schools claim membership in MSHSAA, spread out among several classes by size. The number of classes varies by the number of schools that participate in a sport: for example, girls' field hockey and lacrosse only have one class because very few schools offer these sports, while basketball (far and away the most popular sport) has five classes, numbered from "1" (smallest schools) to "5" (biggest). Football is an exception to this rule, as it has six classes plus Eight-man football, which have a capped number of schools (either 32 or 64) due to its playoff format.

Prior to 2003, the classes were divided into four classes from "A" to "AAAA" (popularly referred to as "1A" to "4A").

The organization was formed in 1926 by a number of schools, both public and private, to oversee state tournaments. Its first final was in boys' basketball, held that year at Washington University in St. Louis. MSHSAA removed the color barrier in 1952, allowing schools from the MNIAA (Missouri Negro Interscholastic Athletic Association) to join. In the late 1960s, the group unified football tournaments (previously only held locally) to form the state championship we know today, arguably its biggest achievement. Its current president is Kerwin Urhahn, from the Southwest district of the state.

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[edit] Sponsored sports

MSHSAA sponsors 13 sports statewide: baseball, basketball, cross country, football (both 11-man and 8-man), golf, girls' lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field, wrestling, and girls' volleyball. It also "endorses" championships in boys' volleyball and girls' field hockey, and runs competitions in music, speech/debate, and academic competition (quizbowl).

[edit] Finals sites

[edit] Criticism

MSHSAA has come under fire for some of its policies, including the "250-mile rule", which states that "a team may not compete in an event where more than one other team is participating within a 250-mile radius of the Missouri state line". Track, cross-country, academic team, and swimming coaches have decried this rule for being biased towards sports such as football and basketball, where it would be impossible to play 2 teams at the same time, but restrict them from going to large meets such as the Penn Relays.

Some schools, notably in Kansas City where Rockhurst High School is a dominant force in athletics, have proposed separate playoffs for public and private schools in some sports (mostly soccer). This, however, has met resistance from most of the other parts of the state, especially St. Louis where the gulf between public and private schools is less noticeable than in KC. Instead of separate championships, MSHSAA uses a 1.35 multiplier for school enrollments in determining classes for private schools. In addition, like in most other states, the enrollments of single-sex schools are doubled to better reflect how they would compete against co-ed public schools (hence, the "largest" school in the state according to MSHSAA's method is DeSmet Jesuit of St. Louis, which is listed as having over 3,000 students when in reality about 1,200 boys attend the school).

The football playoff format, where one team advances out of four- or five-team districts to a final knockout competition, has been subject to the wrath of many in almost every corner of the state, especially in 2005 when three teams ranked in the top 10 in St. Louis (Vianney, Lindbergh, and SLUH) were kept out of the playoffs because they were in a "group of death" with Kirkwood High School, who beat all three schools soundly in district play: oddly enough, DeSmet, the eventual state champion, was beaten by SLUH and Vianney during "regular-season" play. MSHSAA has responded to these criticisms by forming a committee to devise a new playoff system, which hopefully will take effect in 2008.

Other criticisms levied against the organization include that girls' lacrosse is recognized by MSHSAA, while boys' lax, despite having far more schools sponsor it, has to turn to the Missouri Scholastic Lacrosse Association for a tournament. Similarly, ice hockey is run by the Mid-States Club Hockey Association, while field hockey is state-endorsed (meaning that MSHSAA runs a tournament for St. Louis schools but does not have full statewide competition). Girls' swimming was moved to the winter season effective 2006-7 so that athletes could be able to swim club tournaments, while moving water polo to spring, which effectively displaced male swimmers. Competitive cheerleading was removed from the list of sponsored sports in 2006 due to "safety concerns," and MSHSAA now recognizes cheerleading as only a "sideline activity." Since MSHSAA took over Academic Competition/quizbowl for the 1995-96 school year, numerous restrictions have been implemented that treat it as an injury-inducing sport, which restrict otherwise qualified teams from attending national competitions or competitions on certain dates. These are but a few of many allegations that MSHSAA does not care about non-athletic activities. Also, there is a feeling in the bigger cities that smaller, "out state" schools hold a disproportionate amount of power and that the organization is hardly "voluntary" since virtually every school in Missouri is a part. This "voluntary" nature of MSHSAA makes it less subject to legal rulings regarding constitutional rights of equal protection and the First Amendment, among others.

[edit] External links

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