Meeting was convened at 4:30 p.m. by Chairman Majikes
ITEM 1 Chairman Majikes called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m.
Absent but accounted for: Jim Marcks, Don Kanavy, Vito Quaglia, Frank Victor, Jay Starnes and Joe Farrell
Advisors Present: District II Solicitor Don Rogers
Press Present: John Erzar, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader; Mike Rudolf, Wyoming County Examiner
ITEM 2 Chairman Majikes began the meeting by updating the committee on the status of a potential hearing involving Tunkhannock and Dallas. There was a potential for a hearing during today’s meeting, but both schools requested a continuance and asked Chairman Majikes to arrange a date after speaking with the Committee. After discussion, committee members were asked to communicate their availability for a hearing on either December 7th or December 9th. Chairman Majikes will review the responses and arrange a date. Attorney Rogers then updated the committee on his discussions with Wyoming County District Attorney Skumanick as well as Wyoming County Detective Ide. They both indicated they were nearing the end of their extensive investigation into the matter.
ITEM 3 A motion was made by Tom Jenkins, seconded by Jim Higgins, to approve the minutes of the October 21, 2009 meeting. All Ayes
ITEM 4 In Frank Victor’s absence, there was no treasurer’s report at this month’s meeting. Chairman Majikes reported that Frank has been working closely with the state auditors over the past few days as they conducted their annual audit of the District II books. The District II audit is part of the annual PIAA state audit that is conducted.
ITEM 5 The following motions were made granting immediate eligibility to student-athletes in accordance with Article VI, Transfers and Residence, principal to principal sign off, of the PIAA By-Laws:
· A motion was made by Frank Galicki, seconded by Jeff Gregory, granting immediate eligibility to Morgan Hatton, Honesdale to Wallenpaupack, in accordance with Article VI. All Ayes
· A motion was made by Bill Schoen, seconded by Dino Galella, granting immediate eligibility to Jakob Null, Lewis Mills HS to Wallenpaupack, in accordance with Article VI. All Ayes
· A motion was made by Danielle Adams, seconded by Maureen Williams, granting immediate eligibility to Lukas Smith, Pottsville to Wallenpaupack, in accordance with Article VI. All Ayes
· A motion was made by Tom Jenkins, seconded by Frank Galicki, granting immediate eligibility to Rachel Butkiewicz, WVW to Holy Redeemer, in accordance with Article VI. All Ayes
ITEM 6 SPORTS REPORTS:
· Field Hockey (Jeff Gregory): Jeff reported that the recently conducted championships went very well. The only concern was in the scheduling of venues for the championship events. With soccer being conducted at the same time, the process of securing fields for all of the championships is difficult. Chairman Majikes will coordinate the efforts of both the soccer and field hockey committees next year in order to alleviate this concern.
· Cross Country (Bill King): Bill reviewed the recently conducted Junior High and Varsity Championships and discussed a number of concerns that were created as a result of the weather conditions at the time of the events. The weather forced the postponement of the junior high championships and they were eventually scheduled in conjunction with the varsity championships. Following the completion of the competition, Scranton Municipal Golf Course informed Bill that they no longer will be able to host the championships. The wear to the course that is caused by the number of runners, etc. is of concern. Bill publicly thanked Scranton Municipal for their gracious hosting over the past years and will begin a search for a new location. There was also a concern raised with the running of one of the junior high events 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time which caused one competing team to miss the start of the race. Again, many factors contributed to that scenario and Mr. Majikes asked Bill Schoen, District II Male Officials’ Representative, to look into the matter and report back to the committee with a recommendation at the December meeting.
· Football (Tom Jenkins): The Football playoffs are moving into the final weekend of district competition and the championship venues in A, AA and AAA are set. The AAA final on Saturday afternoon featuring Abington Heights and Dallas will be televised live locally at 1 p.m. from Scranton Memorial Stadium.
· Volleyball (Maureen Williams): Maureen presented the financial report for the recently completed District Championships and thanked all those who assisted.
ITEM 7 Chairman Majikes announced that Frank Victor, District Basketball Chairperson, will be holding a meeting of the District Basketball Committee in the near future in order to discuss the format of the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 tournaments.
ITEM 8 Chairman Majikes reported that following the October meeting, he contacted the administration of the Mid Valley High School and provided them with the letter reviewed by the District Committee at that meeting. The Mid Valley administration then investigated the allegations raised in the letter and reported back to the Chairman with the results of their internal investigation. They reported that they found no evidence substantiating any of the allegations that were brought forward in the correspondence.
ITEM 9 Chairman Majikes distributed a listing of the current medal allocations in each of the District II sponsored championships and asked each sport’s chairperson to review the information and get back to him as to the accuracy of the medal count for their sport.
ITEM 10 Chairman Majikes reviewed the results of the PIAA survey of member schools regarding Girls Soccer. According to the information distributed, there are 361 schools that will sponsor Fall Girls’ Soccer in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years; and 184 schools that will sponsor Spring Girls’ Soccer in the 2010-2011 and 2011-12 school years. The Fall programs are located in all 12 PIAA Districts, while the Spring programs are located in Districts I (8), II (20), III (103), XI (34) and XII (19). Member schools were required to notify the PIAA Main Office by Monday, November 2, 2009 if they planned on moving their program from the Spring to the Fall. All Girls Soccer will be held in the Fall Sports Season beginning with the 2012-13 school year.
ITEM 11 Chairman Majikes distributed the PIAA High School Sports’ Enrollment Classification data to the members of the Committee for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years. He advised the committee that the assigned classifications are tentative in that member schools have until Friday, December 11, 2009 to apply, in writing, to the PIAA for the opportunity to upgrade to a higher sports’ enrollment classification.
ITEM 12 Mike Ognosky provided an update on the upcoming Sportsmanship Seminar to be conducted at the University of Scranton on March 10, 2010. An invitation will be released prior to the Christmas Holiday inviting member District II schools to attend. All coaches and administration from District II schools will be invited to attend this evening seminar. Mike also reported that Dr. Jack O’Malley has provided the district a wonderful opportunity to link the “Positive Coaching Alliance” website to the District II website for the upcoming year. This will provide member schools with the opportunity to access all of the terrific coaching educational tools available on that site through the District II site. Thanks to Jack and his wife for donating the first year cost of this venture. Also, a discussion was held regarding the potential to sell advertisement space on the webpage. Mike Ognosky indicated that it was possible to do so and the committee will further discuss the subject at a future meeting.
ITEM 13 Chairman Majikes reviewed the schedule for the upcoming Fall Sports’
Workshops to be held at the PIAA Offices on Thursday, December 10th.
The schedule is listed below:
10 A.M. Tennis
10 A.M. Cross Country
Noon Volleyball
Noon Soccer
2 P.M. Field Hockey
2 P.M. Football
ITEM 14 Chairman Majikes asked the committee members to hold Sunday, December 20th as a tentative date for the annual Christmas get together.
THE COMMITTEE THEN MOVED TO EXECUTIVE SESSION IN ORDER TO DISCUSS A CONFIDENTIAL MATTER REGARDING A STUDENT-ATHLETE.
ITEM 15 Upon returning from executive session, a motion was made by Jim Higgins, seconded by Mike Costanza, to adjourn the meeting. All Ayes
Meeting was adjourned at 5:36 p.m.
THE NEXT MEETING IS SCHEDULED ON WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16TH AT 4:15 PM AT CARBONDALE AREA HIGH SCHOOL.
Respectfully submitted,
Mike Ognosky
Mike Ognosky
District II Secretary