Published: February 21, 2009 10:44 pm      

Questions arise at academic competition

CANNONSBURG — Unusual questions were being asked Saturday during the regional Governor’s Cup academic competition at Boyd County High School, although the inquiries and answers weren’t on any student’s test.

Danna Powers, Boyd County Academic Team head coach and regional contest manager, said she received a telephone call from the Russell High School Academic Team Friday evening informing her the school’s transportation director had declared no bus travel would be allowed until 11 a.m. Saturday because of concerns about inclement weather.

The delay forced regional competition officials to limit Saturday’s contest to quick-recall events and postpone the written assessment portions of the event, Powers said.

Based on conversations between coaches and parents in the corridors, the problem wasn’t the weather, however, and the written-test delay was caused by an RHS student who couldn’t be present at Saturday’s tournament.

’I am deeply disappointed in the stretching of that rule,’ said Dan Boyer, academic team head coach at Paul G. Blazer High School, who said he had to call his students and coaches around midnight Friday to let them know what was happening.

Most in the hallways agreed the problem was most troubling for the dozens of students who had traveled from Morgan and Menifee counties and spent the evening at local hotels Friday to participate in the regional tournament.

’Our kids are already at a disadvantage because of the timing,’ said Menifee County High School Academic Team coach Adam Adkins. ’We were already in the hotel rooms when we got the notice, and a couple of our kids drove independently because of senior night.

’We are from a small school and don’t have a lot of funds,’ he said, explaining they weren’t likely to have enough money to bring their team back to Boyd County for another round of competitive testing.

’The main issue is Russell stated it was a weather concern,’ Adkins said, emphasizing the travel conditions between Menifee and Boyd counties.

’There is not a weather concern. We saw a light frost at the Holiday Inn Express.’

Kathy Hill, an assistant coach for the Blazer team, said she received her first call about the situation around 11:30 p.m. Friday.

’Later I called back my head coach and said, ’Was I dreaming?’ Hill said Saturday afternoon. ’It was a shock. Morgan and Menifee County spent the night in a hotel. They’re going to have to come back or not get to participate. Russell ... they could have walked down here. This was a shocker. I’ve never seen such a thing in all these years.’

Trish Hall, who attended Saturday’s event to show support, said she could easily understand why people were upset.

’If it were my children who had traveled all that way, I would be very unhappy they were unable to test,’ Hall said.

Former Blazer academic team coach Dixie Johnson reviewed the rules about weather delays and postponements and declared, ’I feel they (Russell) should be disqualified.’

Morgan academic coaches Jennifer Spencer and Kayla Patrick followed behind an oddly quiet group of students as they left BCHS. Spencer said the ’inclement weather’ notice was a definite surprise.

’We were just shocked that it was a transportation issue. We were told it was weather,’ she said, explaining she and Patrick are first-year coaches.

’Morgan County and Menifee County had the farthest to travel,’ Spencer said, later adding nobody on her team saw anything but sunshine Saturday.

The Morgan coach said she appreciated the fact Powers was checking into the possibility of traveling to the Morgan school for the still- unscheduled written assessment portion of the competition, explaining ’It’s going to be a real hardship for us’ to return to Boyd County.

John Burgess, chief official for the regional competition and a longtime associate of the RHS academic team, said the delay causes considerable concern for officials attempting to determine which students will be qualified to continue to state level competition.

’I’ve never heard of this happening before. There have been weather delays, but not when we had good weather,’ Burgess said. ’It’s unfortunate to have this delay.’

Matt Knupp, head coach for the RHS team, said, ’We just had a transportation issue,’ and elaborated the specific nature of the forecast concern ’doesn’t really matter.’

’The main aim here is to move on to state,’ Knupp said.

TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2651.