[Vision2020] U of I task force: Vandals should consider I-AAfootball

[Dick Schmidt]

Tom,

It was interesting in that the Idaho Statesman picked that one item to report on. It makes sense to me because I have been involved in a highly emotional decision to change a high school from one athletic league to another.

I was on a school board and our school for years was a member of the "Thumb B" league because many community members thought it was "prestigious" to belong to that league and playing against mostly class B schools. Never mind that we were a class C School and were winning only 2 or 3 of our football games every year and our football players were being injured by larger players from larger schools.

We received an invitation from a class "C" league to join their league of 7 schools in which the farthest school away was only 70 miles. We studied it very thoroughly and decided that joining that league was the best for the future of our class C high school. We had 1,725 students K-12 and the night we held the board meeting to vote on changing to the C league there were 125  people in attendance who were against us making the decision to change leagues. Many were very angry and were allowed to speak with a 3 minute time limit per person. The idea of the B league being a "prestigious league" came up several times even though we pointed out our lack of wins in competition. We voted  and unanimously voted to change leagues. After the meeting one of the women of the group came up to my car and said a few words and started to draw back to take a swing at me but realized the car window was part way up and didn't do it. At the time of our invitation two other schools in the "B" league were also invited to join but their boards "wimped out" because of community pressure but 3 years later did decide to change. 

Three years after we changed leagues our school won the league championship in basketball and the football team won all but 2 of their games. Some members of that group were then gracious enough to tell us that they had been wrong about being against us in the decision and let us know that we did the right thing. I wonder how many people would have been there if we were to cut math from the program.

Sometimes decisions must be made that upset part of the people but you must look ahead 10 or 20 years to do what is best for the institution. I know that this question may infuriate some but, what does the University of Idaho have that would lure top athletic talent?

Dick


----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tom Hansen 
  To: 'Dick Schmidt' ; Vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 7:29 PM
  Subject: RE: [Vision2020] U of I task force: Vandals should consider I-AAfootball


  Greetings Visionaires (and especially you, Mr. Schmidt) -

   

  I have downloaded and read this 161-page report (or at least those parts I am most concerned with).  Out of the eight or nine task force recommendations concerning athletics, returning to 1-AA was the LAST one.

   

  If you (as in anybody) would like for me to quote chapter and verse, just let me know.  I will be more than happy to oblige you.  There is even something surprising (and very very nice) submitted by a couple members of the board concerning the Art Department.

   

  Waiting to hear . . .

   

  Tom "I am" Hansen

   

  We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all exist very nicely in the same box. 
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