Kentucky Lacrosse Association
Board Meeting
January 18, 2011
The meeting was called to order at 6:45 p.m. in Lexington.
In attendance: Wayne Coffey, Ann Fleming, Loren Hincker, Jacob Knight, Byron Miller, Chris Niblock, John Peabody, Jeannine Schaefer, Ryan Smith, Bill Stewart, Jeremy Thompson, Tim Thompson, and Dean Walker.
Guests: Chris Aldridge, Linda Borkosky, T. J. Burns, Erik Johnson, Terry Justice and Dusty Wethington.
Absent: Steve Auden, Russ Davenport, Brandon Davis, Jonathan Henry, Lesley Kurtzahn. Lisa Manning, Bert Severns and Anne Sheridan.
Ann Fleming called the meeting to order. The December 14, 2010 minutes were presented and a motion for approval was made by Wayne and seconded by Tim and unanimously approved.
Ann distributed the U.S. Lacrosse Conflict of Interest Statements for all Board members to complete and return, to be sent to USL.
Presidents Report-
Byron asked who was planning to attend the U.S. Lacrosse National Convention next week in Baltimore. Wayne said that he was and he thought 6 members from BLOA. Chris said that he was and thought about 5 members from KLUB. Byron will try to attend now that his trial schedule has cleared.
Byron has not received any word back from Metro Athletics after his meeting with them. No one else had heard anything about the issue. Jeremy has heard that KHSAA is planning to add lacrosse within 36 months. It was agreed that this would be beneficial to KLA to free up time from running high school leagues and focus on development, although it would eliminate our revenue stream of the State Championship games.
Financial Report-
Chris distributed the revised 2011 proposed budget. Ann made a motion to accept, Dean seconded and it was approved unanimously. Byron asked that Chris present a budget vs. actual report monthly to see how we are doing.
Chris reported that the following grant allocations were approved by electronic vote:
Dixie Heights $2,000 (of $3,250) Woodford $1,500 (of $3,000) Noe $1,500 (of $2,340) Kammerer $1,000 (of $1,700)
All programs have been notified and Chris has begun to order the equipment requested.
Liaison Reports -
HS Boys- no report
MS Boys- Jacob announced that he and Ryan are having a meeting next week with the coaches for Youth & Middle School. There was a concern from Oldham County regarding having USL memberships for tryouts and it was agreed that if their school insurance would not cover and there was a concern, they should require players to join USL before tryouts.
Youth Boys- Ryan expressed a concern of a coach handpicking parochial school players to form a select club team. He proposed holding a one-day in-person registration for KLA teams for anyone who does not have a school team. There was much discussion on how to hold registration and how to divide players. It was agreed to be on February 16th from 12-5. Wayne made a motion that “if the school has a team, the player will play for the school team. If not, you will be assigned to a KLA club team, with every intent to be to keep players together by school. Assignments will be made by the KLA league liaison”, Jeremy seconded and the motion passed unanimously. (the LOP will be revised to include this change)
Ryan discussed the issue of different school systems handling grades differently and where to place players. Wayne made a motion to “consolidate the three divisions into two with Youth being 3rd, 4th & 5th graders and Middle School being 6th, 7th & 8th graders”, Jeremy seconded the motion and it was approved unanimously. (the LOP will be revised to include this change)
HS Girls- Ann reported that there is a coaches meeting scheduled for this Saturday to finalize the schedule, review the LOP, forms & website. She asked for a confirmation of the electronic votes that were submitted regarding the roster exemption request made by KCD for seven of their 8th grade players to move up to JV. The exemption was approved by the Board.
MS Girls- Dean reported that the coaches met last Saturday and revised their divisions into Youth as 5th, 6th and novice 7th grades and Middle School as 6th, 7th & 8th grades. Some of this change is due to the change from Jefferson County Public Schools in not allowing 5th graders to play on Middle School teams. (1.5 of the LOP will be revised to include this change)
The coaches also approved using the 2 pass rule again this season.
Website- Ann reviewed the documents that have been sent out for coaches to login & enter their rosters onto the website. Although High School stats are required to be posted on the KLA website, there are links to Laxpower and Maxpreps as well. Ann reminded everyone that the site is still a work in progress and the goal is eventually to get all forms for online completion, there was not time for the start of this season. Please review the site and give her any feedback. Byron encouraged everyone to think of potential advertisers and Jacob may be able to help determine rates. For now, we will post text announcements as news.
League Operating Procedures- Wayne distributed copies of the latest revisions to the three LOPs. The following changes were suggested:
HS Boys
1.6 amend “All players must be members of US Lacrosse through May 31”
8.5 revise wording to “…shall be classified as forfeitures.”
10.2 revise wording to “…will be considered as non-divisional games…”
Girls-
1.7 amend “All players must be members of US Lacrosse through May 31”
add 1.9 “No high school senior can play on a JV team. Players listed on a Varsity roster may not play JV, but players on a JV roster can play Varsity.”
2.5 amend to replicate HSB- delete “Such conduct could lead to subjecting the head coach and/or team to penalties included in Rule 9.” and add “The KLA Executive Committee may penalize such conduct by players, coaches or team personnel by imposing sanctions that include, but are not limited to, forfeiture or suspensions.”
Byron made a motion and Dean seconded to adopt these changes. The motion was unanimously approved.
New Business-
Erik Johnson stated that although CPR certification is required of Head Coach, he would like to see it required or encouraged for all coaching staff. There was a discussion that many programs already have this requirement, but it could pose a hardship to newer or smaller programs. He also expressed that although KHSAA physicals are required to be on file, they should be carried with the coaches. It was agreed that is the standard practice of programs. In regards to the KLA Player Registration & Waiver form, since the Player registration information will be completed on the website and the coaches have the KHSAA medical form, only the waiver portion is necessary. It was agreed that if coaches wanted to only complete last name, first name, school & signature of waiver that would be acceptable, but that form must be submitted to KLA for liability.
State Championship- Tim led the discussion of when, where and how to hold the tournament for the 3 divisions of High School boys. It was finally decided to send out the RFP for Saturday, May 21 with DIII at 11am, DI at 2pm and DII at 5pm.
Education & Training (P.E. Grant)- Dean reported that he will be meeting with the Middle School Athletic Directors and Donna Benton again in mid February. Since the Continuing Education credit cycle in July 1-June 30, the best time to offer the curriculum would be in the summer. Dean has priced starter stick sets at $250 for 12 and the program manuals are $35 each. Ann asked Dean to research what the USL reporting requirements are for the grant money. It was agreed to go ahead and order 3 sets of loaner equipment ($750) and some manuals now.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 p.m. The next meeting will be February 15th.