February 11, 2015
Ken Hubert, A.D.
Faribault High School
330 9th Ave. SW
Faribault, MN 55021
Ken:
Thank you for taking the time to conduct a full investigation of the allegations in regard to the choreography used by your Dance Team. I understand how you and your program feel somewhat “picked on,” but we followed procedures as specified in the Dance Team rule book, and I feel strongly that it was best to go through this process so that we can bring closure to this issue.
Based on your investigation, and feeling “100% confident” that your students and coaching staff did the choreography, we will consider your certification form to be accurate.
In addition to your investigation I, along with some of our Rule Coordinators have reviewed the allegations and the side by side video, as well as the video of your entire performance and the entire performance from the Utah team. I have also had further conversations with our Dance Team Rule Coordinators. Our analysis is that there are some “moves” from the Utah team that were used, but they were small in number and in most cases they were modified. To the best of our ability we determined that there were a total of 32 counts that could be considered the same or similar. We do not feel that this creates a violation of MSHSL Dance Team rules. While the uniform, and music are similar, and the theme is basically identical, these in and of themselves are also not a violation of current MSHSL Dance Team rules.
Based on the above conclusions, our official ruling is that there will be no further penalty to your program. Your team will be allowed to compete in the State Tournament this weekend.
As stated in our conversation, on Thursday, I will send out an email to all of the teams competing in the State Tournament, to notify them of the investigation and our conclusion.
Sincerely,
Kevin Merkle
Associate Director