Contact current staff with questions.

601 SW Commerce Place, Box 495 Topeka, KS 66601-0495
PH: 785 273-5329, FAX: 785 271-0236 E-Mail: kshsaa@kshsaa.org

Administrative Staff

Gary Musselman, Executive Director
General administration; Activities requiring Board action; Financial matters; Policy interpretations; Transfer approval; Investigations, Disciplinary & Sportsmanship Matters; Rule 10 Coach Approval; Student insurance inquiries; National Federation business; Governmental affairs and public relations

gmusselman@kshsaa.org

Secretary: Mindy Nichol



Cheryl Gleason, Assistant Executive Director
KAY Program; Girls Volleyball, Girls Gymnastics, Boys and Girls Bowling, Golf, and Tennis program administration; KSHSAA Hall of Fame; Area Supervisors program for volleyball

cegleason@kshsaa.org

Secretary: Jeanette Swarts



Rick Bowden, Assistant Executive Director
Football, Wrestling, Boys and Girls Track & Field program administration; Football & all-school classification assignments; Supervision of Officials and track and field interpreters; Area Supervisors program for football and wrestling.

rbowden@kshsaa.org

Secretary: Sheryl Gudenkauf



David Cherry, Assistant Executive Director
Boys and Girls Soccer, Scholars Bowl, Boys and Girls Swimming and Diving administration; Student Council; Supervision of eligibility registration; Coaching School program and clinician administration; Liaison to Student Advisory Team; State Football, Basketball and Track & Field Program organization; ASEP and KIAAA liaison

dcherry@kshsaa.org

Secretary: Nita Sellens



Francine Martin, Assistant Executive Director
Boys and Girls Cross Country, Boys and Girls Basketball, Boys Baseball, and Girls Softball program administration; Area Supervisors program for Basketball Program; Supervision of officials

fmartin@kshsaa.org

Secretary: Shelly Shaw



Reggie Romine , Assistant Executive Director
Speech and Drama, Music, Debate, and Piano program administration; Spirit Spreader Clinics; Summer Cheerleader and Drill Team Conferences; Drill Team performances and Sportsmanship programs at State Basketball; Approved Events; Radio contracts

rromine@kshsaa.org

Secretary: Kathy Wilhelm



Brent Unruh, Office Manager
Personnel; T-shirt Merchandising; KSHSAA awards and plaques; Governor's Scholar program

bunruh@kshsaa.org




Rest of Staff



Nancy Weishaar, Official's Registrar
Registration and administration of all officials; Maintenance of
school membership directory database

Donna Schmidt , Bookkeeper
General bookkeeping; Membership applications, dues and
insurance payments; Publication orders; TV contracts

Bob Maendele, Printing and Information Technology Supervisor
Computer Networking, IT Director, Programmer, Database Administrator, Webmaster (Secure Section), Print shop management

Kellen Lundry, Publications/Web Design
KSHSAA Activities Journal, Games Wanted/Teams Needed, Miscellaneous KSHSAA publications, Webmaster (Public Section),
IT Support

Edward Juarez, Printer
Offset Printing, Printing room supply inventory

Darlene Stottmann , Receptionist

No argument on this one. I think those that argue private schools don't have advantages need to call a spade a spade. Yes, they have good coaches and good athletes, no they don't receive tax money, St. James gives academic assistance for those that can prove they have a need, as I am sure many of the private schools do. And even though the coaches may not be recruiting, the parents have no limitations and they know who the good athletes are and they recruit like it's nobody's business. Kids shouldn't go to a school because of it's athletic opportunities, but realistically many do. Advantage private school.

Brent:

Athletes go to public schools too because of the athletic opportunities. Some of those good coaches from public schools have attracted good athletes too because of their coaching and the strength of their programs. I think we can all think of examples of this even recently in wrestling. Public schools parents try to recruit kids to their schools for athletics too. I know the public school parents would not have as much chance at being successful due to the geographic limitations which would require the athlete and his family to move into the area.

I am not saying that the private schools do not have any advantages. The geographical limitation on public schools would be an advantage for private schools but a private school has to draw students from a larger area to survive. Private schools do not get nearly the percentage of students in their immediate area attending their school in comparison to the public schools in the same area. Yes it is an advantage that a private school could draw a good athlete from a larger area than a public school. But it is also a disadvantage that a private school will lose good athletes within its immediate area because the families cannot afford the higher tuition at the private high school. We have kids that attend the same private grade schools but do not go to the private high school due to the higher tuition. Instead they attend the local public school. Private schools lose athletes that way.

One of the problems I have with this is that it tends to lessen the accomplishments of the good coaches and athletes from the successful private school athletic programs. I happen to believe that the reason that the Miege girls basketball program has been so successful over the last twenty five years or so has to do with a great coach by the name of Terry English and the hard working girl athletes who have been part of his program. The same can be said of the Miege girls volleyball coach and her athletes over the years. And it can also be said about the SM Northwest cross country coach and his fine athletes, the SM East mens swimming coach and his athletes, and all the other public school successful long term athletic programs that I have previously mentioned.

would this have any impact on 6a

It would make 6a the toughest class! Lol. Will, you can move to Lawrence and bring your boys with you!

Six state tournaments is ridiculous. We should cut down on classes and lengthen the qualifying process for wrestling follow a format similar to PA. Then we could even medal 7-8 kids.

Is Hutchison a private high school? Smith Center? I know they are not but surely there is NO way they can win so many state football championships without the advantage of being a private school. How about Ark City? Didn't they have a dynasty in wrestling? How about Beloit? Dynasty in the 80's. Liberal High Shool won 14 straight track championships. Were they recruiting?? "Hey, you are a great sprinter. Move on down to the Pancake City and we will get you a job on the kill floor of NBP." Most of the significant sports dominations have been accomplished by public schools. In the 90's, in 5A, no private schools made it to the state finals, not in any year! In fact, the whiners at Bishop Carrol pissed and moaned because they couldn't beat Liberal to the point that we have a football playoff system that already includes 50% of the schools for Pete's sake!!! Enough is enough!

The only advantage private schools have is their appeal and lack of district restrictions. Those and the slight advantage that private schools, for the most part, do not offer special education programs so they don't have any special needs students being counted for their classification count. I cannot imagine that this figure is very significant.

Penalize the private schools and water down the competition even more. Lets just hand out medals and trophies to everyone that goes to practice! Lets not teach our kids that hard work and dedication will pay off. Just show up and you will be rewarded. Seriously folks!

Brent Lane you are so full of crap! Recruiting is when you reward a student by getting them to attend a school. PROMOTING is telling the truth about the opportunities. The most ambitious parents send their kids to the school that gives their kids the best chance to excel. This might even mean quitting your job and getting a new one hundreds of miles away. What is wrong with that? Ambitious parents have ambitious kids.

Everyone needs to quit whining. Remember, excuses are like a certain part of your anatomy, everyone has them. Find solutions.

Will,

You are digging up bones that have been buried. Without private schools "promoting" their athletic programs, those kids would go to their neighborhood schools where they live. Recruiting, promoting, call it what you will, but you can't deny that it doesn't happen and that it's not an advantage. I'm not trying to get into a pissing fight with you Will, but call a spade a spade and quit hiding behind what you feel you say are disadvantages when in reality you have what you consider the best possible situation. Not all private schools offer that, and not all public schools can compete with it. You mention the dynasties and powerhouses, but what about the disproportionate amount of private school championships won. Could those ALL have occurred if "promoting" your athletic program didn't happen, Honestly? For the record, I think putting private schools in a classification all by itself is a horrible idea, but letting private schools compete in the same population is not fair either because of the larger pool of students private schools draw from and more importantly the "ideal" situation private schools have. But remember this, my opinion doesn't count, I'm not on any board, I am just a coach trying to do the best I can with the students that come to our doors.

Brent,

You are crazy. There is NO WAY private schools are pulling from a larger student population. Lets take a vote:

How many of you will pay $8000 a year for your wrestler to go to high school?

Ok, that eliminated a bunch. Still not satisified. Johnny is a great wrestler. Please bring him to St. James. Drive right by Public HS A, Public HS B, etc. Pay the tuition provide your own transportation because private schools DO NOT have busing. At St. James freshmen are NOT allowed to drive, no exceptions so Johnny's mom or dad will have to drive out of their way or maybe on their way to work.

No pissing match, just common sense. The real advantage is that there isn't a giant bureaucracy called a school board, a superintendent, and host of wasted dollars on administrative and figure head costs. Private schools are more efficient and more common sense based than public schools.

You know what? I really do not care what they do at this point. We will adapt. I might lose some students whose sole identity rests on a KSHSAA state championship or I could gain some kids who would rather play 40 basketball games instead of 20 and not have to worry about scheduling for "seeding" purposes. I am really sad that there seems to be this push to put the private schools together in one division away from the public schools. All the years (12) I coached at public schools, I never cared whether we competed against public or private schools, I just knew we had to get better than we were. My first wrestling coaching experience was a humbling 76-0 defeat at the hands of SFT. It was a hard pill to swallow, but I never took them off the schedule because that would be CS. We just tried to get better. If we are forced to move up in classification, I will just challenge my students that much harder to work that much harder to prove a point. The point is that hard work will take you further in life than whining about fairness will.

I can't wait for the IOC to kick the United States out of the olympics. Maybe all of those other countries who can't recruit like the US can will finally win some stuff. What they might do is only allow the US to count .75 medals for every one they get.

I sound bitter here because I am. TMP is supported by 8 local parishes and no tuition. Translation: if you tithe to one of those parishes, your tuition is paid for. Meaning: we don't refuse any Catholic parishoners, special ed or otherwise. We also have 60 international students who participate in very few sports and keep us from making the almighty Standard of Excellence in reading every year. Because of that fact, we basically are already up one classification as it is and are only about 20 students from being 4A again or perhaps 4A1. So put us wherever. We are just going to work at getting better.

Surprisingly, we do very well in math.

I am sending a copy of "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut to all of the public schools who vote in favor of this measure.

Will,

No I am not CRAZY, I too like to take the common sense approach. What I was getting to is without private schools those kids go to their neighborhood schools. But many students' parents have the means to pursue an education at one of the private schools rather than the public schools. Can you honestly say that 100% of the attendants at St. James Academy pays 100% of their tuition? I live and teach in an area with high poverty, high rates of free and reduced students so no, 100% of our students don't pay for their "free school". I am not spited by the fact of private schools, I too relish the competition like Bill said in his post. My days at Salina South we were very competitive with Bishop Carroll and Kansas City Turner and Ark City. We had very skilled wrestlers, but we also developed them and we competed.

But for the second time I ask, explain the disproportionate amount of championships won by private schools? Is it just their time, or what?

Brent,

Turning this back on you, can you illustrate the disproportionate number of State championships that you cite?

Sure there have been runs like BC Wrestling from 2002 through 2008, but that was a reflection of just a rare pool of talent no different that Hutch's current domination of football. Our place at the State tournament this year illustrates that we have run through that talent for the time being.

At times, there are talented schools, just happens that way.

I do feel that that there is one advantage private schools have, motivation. As Will states, when parents are making the sacrifices to get their kids this opportunity, they tend to be very involved. That is a great form of motivation for the students, and in my opinion can (but not always) drive a higher level of achievement.


Chuck

Kansas State High School Activities Association
BOARD OF DIRECTORS AGENDA
MEETING LOCATION�KSHSAA OFFICE, 601 SW Commerce Place,
Topeka Kansas
Friday, April 23, 2010�4 p.m.
(hearings and discussion only)
Saturday, April 24, 2010�9 a.m.
(final action and Executive Board elections)

who cares about the private schools let them compete where ever! how about the fact that we r going to have 8 state champs! that is a joke and KSHSAA is a money hungry beast !

The left hand does not know what the right hand it doing!!!! Did everyone realize there is a bill in the KS state house right now. I believe it's #5778 but I could be wrong on the exact number. Anyway a proposal is being debated to make all school districts consolidate until they have at least 10,000 students. That is right 10,000!!! That means all of Leavenworth Co would be one school district if approved. Leavenworth, Lansing, Basehor, tonganoxie, and maybe I am missing one would all be one district. The goal is to cut out all the overlap of management, boards, etc and increase purchasing power, etc. Now I don't know that this will pass, and I would actually say I don't think it will, but something is coming to help schools with the budget issues they are facing. They are going to use virtual schools, etc to try to offset distance issues. Wow talk about shock the system.

Now compare that to the KHSHAA plan. Sounds like we might only have 1 class when we are done. I would love that from a competition standpoint. I will hold my comment from a education standpoint. I do know schools have to do something or they are going bankrupt. It also would not address private schools.

". . . KSHSAA is a money hungry beast!"

Once again, the KSHSAA is NOT proposing these changes; it is on the BofD agenda due to the requests made by the MEMBER SCHOOLS of THE FRONTIER LEAGUE AND NCKL.

Smokeycabin's suggestion of showing up at the BofD meeting (pro or con the proposals) on April 23 is the correct one. Written statements (pro or con) can also be submitted; but please no profanity or name calling and have someone proof before sending.
Sign your name and affiliation (coach, AD, parent, etc.)

Hey Will! Your wasting your time trying to reason with a democrat! (I presume they are democrats if all they do is complain how unfair it is when someone suceeds and wants some of it for nothing) You might as well be talking to your dog. Whoops! Your dog probaly would listen!

Who cares about the private schools - pretty small thinking I am sorry to say - team takedown.

Several of the private school parents might be your employer. That employer pays taxes on his business and his home so that schools can be built and teachers, administrators, police and fireman can be paid and the so the KSHSAA can exsist. That employer also gives out pay checks so you can pay your taxes on your home, car, retail purchases, etc. If your job is in the local, state, and/or a federal government - that is because of the private industries in your area or region helps provide those jobs. When private industries are struggling - the public services of government suffers. So expansion of the class system when the local, state and US economy are in the tank is about as
wrong as hiring 10 new employees when there is only work for 2 people.


Exactly my thoughts - "that is a joke and KSHSAA is a money hungry beast !"

There can be multiple high schools in one district so that is not necessarily the case. ...

VERY GOOD POST!!

This health care bill still has me steaming..........