Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Change is coming to N.D. high school basketball much like a freight train rolling down the track. Sports Reporter Erik Gjovik broke down the details of the latest proposal to move to a three-class system for basketball in a feature story this week.
As he was unpacking all the information in the 22-page proposal, Gjovik discovered that the change would also greatly affect our newspaper coverage of area teams. Right now, the New Rockford Transcript primarily covers New Rockford-Sheyenne basketball. However, the Independent covers four different teams: Carrington, Griggs-Midkota, Medina/Pingree-Buchanan and Harvey/Wells County. That's five teams to cover with three staff members.
Gjovik explains, "Realignment of area teams under the new proposal could complicate providing coverage at tournament time, particularly for Independent readers.
"The main potential hurdle, journalistic and travel-wise, would be that Division A and B tournaments have the exact same run dates.
"To illustrate that point, M-P-B has been placed in Region 1 – District 2 with many of its current District 5 and 6 rivals, but Griggs/Midkota, a fellow Region 3 school for the past few seasons along with CHS, is now in Region 2 – District 4, along with past traditional geographic foe NR-S.
"HWC would see perhaps the most radical realignment destination, moving to Region 4 – District 8 and playing Minot-area adjacent schools.
"For the Independent, this would mean that there would be four separate regional tournaments to cover, all occurring at the same time, as well as concurrent state events."
Readers, this isn't ideal. Basketball isn't the only winter sport we cover, and this spreads our available staff even further. There's also wrestling, archery and dance.
Making decisions about who to cover and when is not easy as it is for a small, community newspaper like us. Now we will have to choose which team(s) to cover each night of district, regional and even state tournaments, and we will most definitely miss key moments in order to balance the coverage.
Let me translate this into basketball jargon. Right now, we mostly run man-to-man coverage. We put one reporter on each tournament, and we sometimes prioritize a home game in one area school over an away contest for photography purposes if they overlap.
Under the new system, we'd have to switch to a zone. We will need to have one reporter cover two different tournaments, and decide whether to attend NR-S' third place game in Class B District 4 or a region qualifier for the Cardinals in Class A on one given day.
Harvey/Wells County will be the hardest to cover under the new plan, as they will move to a new region and consistently play games more than one hour away from where our reporters live. As a native of Fessenden, this is a hard one for me.
I note that this is not intended to be an editorial "for" or "against" the proposal. As with balancing coverage, we also have to balance the needs and perspectives of the teams and communities we cover.
Carrington Public School has publicly voiced its opposition to the three-class system as it stands, with the Cardinals moving up into the Class A division. Officials cite increased travel time and financial expense to the district, as well as a perceived drop in participation due to the increased travel commitment, among the reasons they oppose the plan.
New Rockford-Sheyenne, on the other hand, is in favor of the proposal. One major perk is that Region 4 rival and reigning state champion, Four Winds/Minnewaukan, moves to Class A under the plan.
Travel time is not as much of a factor for NR-S, as both the Rocket boys and girls are both already traveling 200 miles per night at least twice per season, with St. John, North Prairie, Langdon and Dunseith all in Super Region 4. Rocket athletes also consistently travel distances outside of their region for other contests. This season, the girls have traveled to Napoleon and Minot, while the boys have games in Enderlin, Wilton and Northwood.
With the new system, NR-S would travel to May-Port-C-G, Larimore and Hatton/Northwood in district play. There are also other region teams quite a distance away, including North Border, Drayton/Valley-Edinburg and Park River/Fordville-Lankin.
Therefore, we cover two communities with vastly different perspectives on the move to a three-class system, and at this point the decision is out of our hands. One thing's for sure, though: no matter how the lines are drawn, the reporters at the Transcript and Independent will continue to show up at every game we possibly can, and we'll make sure that area athletes are recognized for their accomplishments.
