Advantage Butte holds October meeting

By Bruce Sayler of The Montana Standard - 10/22/2008

The chief executive director of the Montana High School Association told Advantage Butte members that he did not believe political sway had to do with the awarding of state tournaments, or that any anti-Butte sentiment prevailed on the MHSA Executive Board.

Beckman addressed Advantage Butte during its October meeting Tuesday at the War Bonnet hotel. He asked to do so after reports from the September meeting were that Advantage Butte was unhappy with the MHSA selections for the coveted tournaments, that the group thought it did not receive its fair share.

Beckman is a Butte native who served on the Butte District School board, and taught and coached at Butte Central and for the Butte American Legion baseball program. He also taught and coached at Anaconda High School before joining the MHSA staff.

"It's really important to emphasize your attributes," he told the group about landing the tournaments, the state track meets and other state high school championship events. "For example, the auxiliary gym at the Civic Center is something the coaches really like because they can have it for warm-ups. Or, the closeness of Anaconda and its fields for an alternate softball facility in the event of rain." Beckman has no vote in the awarding of the events. The Executive Board does. It is made up of enrollment class representatives elected to staggered four-year terms by the 181 member schools, and of three appointees from state government.

The board is currently made up of Class AA representative Fred Anderson, principal at Great Falls High; Class A representative Duane Walker, activities director at Hardin; Class B representative Glenn Hageman, superintendent of See ADVANTAGE, Page B5 Glasgow schools; and Class C representative Dave Perius, activities director at Gardiner. Also, the appointed members are Karen Sanford Gall of Stanford, the governor's appointee; Doug Reisig of Missoula, the Office of Public Instruction appointee; and Dave Fern of Whitefish, the state School Boards appointee.

Anderson and Fern are in the final year of their terms.

The state events sites are decided each April for two years in advance.

"When bids are received, usually two or three board members and a (MHSA) staff member first go through them," Beckman said, adding that neither he nor associate director Joanne Austin, take part in the screening process.

The chosen Tuesday morning after the bid deadline is when the subcommittee then submits recommendations to the full board for review, Beckman said.

He reminded that such is not necessarily a stagnant process as popularity levels of the involved sports and tournaments change over the years.

"When I first came to the office 12 years ago, the highest attendance as at the state Class B boys' basketball tournament," Beckman said. "Now it's the Class C boys.' " Beckman listed the criteria for considering the bids are "adequate gym facilities for purpose of holding competitions, adequate community facilities for spectator housing and eating, reasonable assurance of financial success, definite invitation showing local community support and geographical rotation when feasible." He noted that some communities have adequate gym facilities, but lack necessary lodging and eating places. He said girls' basketball tournaments have gone often times to smaller communities because of not needing the larger seating capacities. However, Beckman said, the thought is beginning to change.

"Girls' basketball attendance is growing every year," he said. "You can't put them in the smaller facilities so much anymore." He said the MHSA enjoys no financial gain from the tournaments. Profits, if any, are returned to the schools, he said. Those attending the tournaments receive $30 per athletes, to a limit, if the stay is overnight, $15 if not.

"That why we have to be so careful about siting tournaments," Beckman said. "The profits go back to the schools." He said some events have been established in a certain location, such as the state all-class wrestling tournament at MetraPark Arena in Billings every February. Recent years have seen Brick Breeden Fieldhouse on the Montana State University campus in Bozeman hold the state all-class volleyball tournament. Beckman said consideration has been given to Butte for the volleyball tourney in recent times.

"But you need to find a way to have four courts and have it feel like each is its own tournament," he said, adding that such a feel exists with the fieldhouse.

Only a few arenas in the state are capable of seating the larger state boys' basketball tournament crowds. They exist in Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, Butte, Bozeman and Belgrade. However, Missoula rarely bids because of difficulty in securing the Adams Center on the University of Montana campus for such events due to potential scheduling conflicts with Grizzly athletics.

Beckman said that The Metra in Billings is definitely the favored venue by most schools for a state tourney.

"Our surveys show that the schools want to keep the wrestling in Billings," he said. "The Class C schools, with the biggest (tournament) attendance, would like to go to Billings every year. But we try to rotate it and give it a chance to go to the Civic Center, to the Four Seasons in Great Falls, etc." Advantage Butte member Jeff Gorman of McDonald's asked if Billings had done anything significantly better to receive five state events in the near future.

Beckman said he could tell him that the bids were awarded just on what the board saw.

"The executive board will look at the bids, and say that The Metra is $2,000-$3,000 higher for a bigger building, cleaning costs, etc., (is low enough) to make a difference," he said.

Another Advantage Butte member, Viriginia Karlsen of the War Bonnet, questioned whether the amped-up hospitality efforts are valued.

"That does make a difference," Beckman said. "Letters and e-mails that have come back to me come back with nothing but praised for the hospitality (exhibited in Butte). Community support is important.

"But it also exists in other communities." And though Butte has experienced some losses in the hospitality industry with the closures of some eateries and the Copper King hotel, such has not created a negative impact on MHSA Executive Board decisions or considerations, Beckman said.

Karlsen noted that the Copper King not always participated in the lodging of tournament followers and competitors.

Questions arose from Advantage Butte concerning the awarding of events, including the 2008 state AA basketball tournament to Great Falls, and the the state swim meet to Hardin and the state track meet to Great Falls over competitive Butte bids in coming years.

Beckman answered.

"The schools told us not exclude eight-lane tracks," he said, referring to the Great Falls facility. "Most of the country runs on eight-lane tracks." Bulldog Memorial Stadium has a 10-lane track as does most of the other larger track facilities in the state.

"Also, Great Falls has not had a state AA track meet for nine years and Butte has had it twice in that time," Beckman said.

He said the recent Class AA basketball bid forwarded by Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls was the first by the facility that included girls' basketball.

"And the board was pretty excited about that," he said.

He said the new YMCA pool in Butte is a top-notch pool and the timing system "is fantastic." But, he said, the design for the staging area, which holds athletes not swimming at the time, was not acceptable as it created too much congestion involving spectators trying also to watch the meet. He said a swim meet expert accompanied him to view the plan as put into effect for a Tarpons club meet earlier this year.

Universal Athletics Service representative Don "Moose" Petritz, vice president for Advantage Butte, asked whether community presentations to the MHSA board would be advantageous.

Beckman said he thought such would be only if the community "had been shut out of the tournaments for two years or so.

"For the most part, community presentations to the board aren't beneficial," Beckman said. "Most of the members have been to the facilities and know them."