NSAA Board of Directors Meeting Minutes - January 23, 2025

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The NSAA Board of Directors met on January 23, 2025 at the NSAA Office in Lincoln with the following members present:

District I - Kara Graham, Lincoln Southeast​

District I - Dade McDonald, McCool Junction​

District II - Dr. Nick Wemhoff, Fort Calhoun​

District II - Thomas Lee, Omaha Westview​

District III - Dr. Jon Cerny, Bancroft-Rosalie​

District IV - Darren Tobey, Broken Bow​

District V - Robert Drews, Arapahoe​

District VI - Dr. Troy Unzicker, Alliance​

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Also in attendance: Dr. Zainab Rida, Nebraska Department of Education Liaison; Bobby Truhe, NSAA Legal Counsel; Annette Eyman, Kordica Communications; and Tyler Cronin, Kordica Communications.

The meeting was called to order at 8:30 a.m.

1. Moved to approve the Consent Agenda. Items on the Consent Agenda included:

• Approval of the meeting Agenda as amended
• Approval of the Minutes of the December 11, 2024 Board of Directors meeting
• Approval of the Financial Statements
  
  
• Approval of the following new cooperative sponsorships for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years:
  
  
  • Raymond Central & Parkview Christian for Baseball
  • Lincoln Lutheran, Raymond Central & Parkview Christian for Boys Soccer and Girls Soccer
  • Grand Island, Grand Island Northwest, Grand Island Central Catholic & Heartland Lutheran for Baseball
  • Humphrey & Lindsay Academy for Boys Track, Girls Track and Boys Golf
  • Nebraska City, Johnson County Central, Johnson-Brock & Nebraska City Lourdes for Baseball|
    
    
• Approval of the following new cooperative sponsorships for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years:
  
  
  • Holdrege & Minden for Softball
    
    
• Approval of the following cooperative sponsorship renewals for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years:
  
  
  • Omaha Roncalli, Omaha Brownell-Talbot, Omaha Christian Academy & Omaha Concordia for Boys Soccer
  • Maxwell & North Platte St. Patrick's for Baseball
  • Omaha Gross & Cornerstone Christian for Baseball
    
    
• Approval of the following cooperative sponsorship renewals for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years:
  
  
  • Lexington & Overton for Softball
    
    
• Approval of the dissolution of the following cooperative sponsorship for the 2024-25 school year:
  
  
  • Grand Island, Grand Island Northwest & Grand Island Central Catholic for Baseball

Motion Carried: 7-0 (Wemhoff Absent)

2. The Board discussed the voting results from the January District Meetings.

3. It was moved to require Baseball and Softball teams to use GameChanger for scoring and statistics, beginning this spring with the 2025 Baseball season. Motion Carried: 8-0

4. It was moved to allow Omaha Marian to opt up in Journalism for the 2024-25 school year. Motion Carried: 8-0

5. The Board heard a report from the NSAA Lobbyist.

6. NSAA Staff reports included the following informational items:

• The NSAA Staff discussed statistics and score reporting for team sports
  
  
• Over 500 nominations were received for the Champions for Coaches awards program. Winners will be recognized during a halftime ceremony at the semifinals of the NSAA Boys Basketball Championships.
  
  
• The Play Production RFP was open for proposals in early January. Information will be provided at the February Board of Directors Meeting.

7. Moved to enter closed session at 11:32 a.m. to discuss the Executive Director's contract. Motion Carried: 8-0

8. The Board exited closed session at 11:55 a.m.

9. It was moved to approve a new two-year Executive Director contract, with a renegotiation of salary to occur in the second year of the contract. Motion Carried: 8-0

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:58 a.m.

The next meeting of the NSAA Board of Directors will be February 19, 2025 at the CHI Center in Omaha.

 

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Some 2025 Class A football games might be moved; future scheduling methods still far away

Some 2025 games could be moved to new dates, said Nate Neuhaus, the NSAA assistant director in charge of football, but the scheduling method for 2026 and 2027 is far

omaha.com

Spoiler: Article

Some 2025 Class A football games might be moved; future scheduling methods still far away
by Stu Pospisil, Omaha World-Herald

LINCOLN - No drastic changes will be made in the 2025 schedules for Class A football.

And looking ahead, the scheduling method for 2026 and 2027 is far from decided.

Some 2025 games could be moved to new dates, said Nate Neuhaus, the NSAA assistant director in charge of football.

"We are looking at some ways to adjust a little bit," he said Thursday during the monthly NSAA board meeting.

He cited Omaha Benson's schedule as an example. The Bunnies forfeited their final two games in 2024 and the opponents this year are the same: Lincoln Southeast and Millard South.

"That's a rough end to their season," Neuhaus said.

Benson must play those two because those are district games. District assignments are made based on the success in the previous two-year scheduling cycle and use the serpentine method to distribute teams from all success ranges into the six districts.

Those games could be split up and moved elsewhere on the Benson schedule.

Neuhaus said a meeting last week between NSAA staff and athletic directors for the state's three largest school districts -- Omaha, Lincoln and Millard -- didn't produce a scheduling plan for the future.

"I think it's all going somewhere, just without any decisions yet," he said. "There's so many things to consider that we're going to have to start narrowing it down."

NSAA Associate Director Jeff Johnson said a survey for the association's new competitive balance committee indicated 33 schools, mostly smaller ones, were interested in dropping down in classification and mostly were for football. But four Class A schools would like to do so as well in football.

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More than 64,000 seats have been sold for the girls and boys wrestling tournament that will span five days, Feb. 18 to 22, at CHI Health Center. That guarantees an attendance record.

Ron Higdon of the NSAA, in charge of wrestling, said all ticket requests from schools were fulfilled.

There are seats available for all sessions and can be purchased online, save for the boys semifinals Feb. 21 and finals Feb. 22. Those must be bought at the arena box office, Higdon said, to preclude scalping.

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Baseball and softball will begin mandatory use of GameChanger software in their next seasons. The Board will act next month on requiring mandatory use of the MaxPreps statistics service for all other sports -- primarily football, volleyball and basketball.

All teams in Class A boys basketball are using MaxPreps, but 14 of 34 in Class B are not.

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District 3, which comprises schools in northeast Nebraska, will have Brad Hoesing of Wausa as its next board representative. Bancroft-Rosalie superintendent Jon Cerny opted not to run again after six years on the board.