Mid-Maryland News Archives
LINGANORE, BRUNSWICK ARE PRESEASON POLL PICKS - 11/22/00
The final voting in the 2001-02 Preseason Poll, with nine boys votes cast, are listed below.
Six points were awarded for a first-place pick, five for second and so on. Votes with only one team listed received one point. First place votes are depicted in (). Picks, one per email address, were taken through 11/21/00.
| CMC | Votes |
| Linganore (2) | 22 |
| Windsor Knolls (1) | 18 |
| West Frederick (1) | 17 |
| Monocacy | 14 |
| Ballenger Creek | 10 |
| TJ | 3 |
| MVAL | Votes |
| Brunswick (2) | 24 |
| Poolesville (3) | 21 |
| St. John's | 17 |
| Middletown | 15 |
| Walkersville | 12 |
| Catoctin | 10 |
| MSD | 6 |
| CMC | Votes |
| Ballenger Creek | 0 |
| Freedom | 0 |
| Linganore | 0 |
| Monocacy | 0 |
| TJ | 0 |
| West Frederick | 0 |
| Westminster | 0 |
| Windsor Knolls | 0 |
| Winters Mills | 0 |
| MVAL | Votes |
| Boonsboro | 0 |
| Brunswick | 0 |
| Catoctin | 0 |
| Middletown | 0 |
| MSD | 0 |
| Poolesville | 0 |
| St. John's | 0 |
| Walkersville | 0 |
GIRLS ADD SEVEN NEW TEAMS; BOYS VOTE TO EXPAND AT APRIL MEETING - 04/08/01
The League has expanded by nine teams since the end of the 2000-01 season in March.
TJ, Frederick County's newest Middle school, accounts for four of those entries with two teams each in both the Boys and Girls Leagues. The girls have also added jayvee and varsity teams from Winters Mills and Freedom, in Carroll County, while MSD's girls program will add a varsity program this year.
Freedom has also expressed interest in joining the boys League and may play a partial non-League schedule this season in preparation for full admittance in 2002-03.
The Boys held their annual season review meeting in April and president Don Cline noted the retirement of four long-time coaches - Mike Engel of Linganore, Dan McLane of Brunswick, Dave Masser of Walkersville and Conrad Potemra of Poolesville. They were thanked for their contributions to the League in a combined tenure of more than 50 years.
In action taken by the League:
- - interim member MSD was voted full membership
- - TJ was voted in as a new member organization
- - TJ was placed in the CMC division and Poolesville moved to the MVAL
- - a home/away schedule of 24 jayvee games and 22 varsity games was approved
- - game forfieture will now result in the offending team playing both games on the road the following year
Turned down were proposals to:
- - revise the St. John's draw area
- - change the eligibility deadline dates for interims
The phased-in change of Frederick County Public School's eligibility rules were discussed and it was decided to continue with our current guidelines. Seven-minute quarters were discussed with no action taken as was a code of conduct for players and parents.
Two items pertaining to the year-end tournament were tabled until the fall meeting. One proposal would require that all tournament games from the quarter-final level on be played in a high school facility. Another would name a tournament MVP on both the jayvee and varsity levels.
The next meeting was scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 7 at 5:30P in the Worman's Mill Roy Rogers meeting room.
WEST FREDERICK, MIDDLETOWN PICKS IN 2nd ANNUAL PRESEASON POLL - 11/27/00
Six points are awarded for a first-place pick, five for second and so on. Votes with only one team listed will receive one point. First place votes are depicted in (). Picks, one per email address, were taken through 11/23/00.
| CMC | Votes |
| West Frederick (3) | 22 |
| Monocacy (1) | 19 |
| Linganore (1) | 15 |
| Poolesville | 13 |
| Windsor Knolls | 10 |
| Ballenger Creek | 6 |
| MVAL | Votes |
| Middletown (4) | 22 |
| Walkersville (2) | 20 |
| St. John's (2) | 19 |
| Brunswick | 9 |
| Catoctin | 9 |
| MSD* | 0 |
| CMC | Votes |
| Ballenger Creek | 0 |
| Linganore | 0 |
| MSD** | 0 |
| TJ | 0 |
| West Frederick | 0 |
| Westminster | 0 |
| Windsor Knolls | 0 |
| MVAL | Votes |
| Boonsboro | 0 |
| Brunswick | 0 |
| Catoctin | 0 |
| Middletown | 0 |
| Poolesville | 0 |
| St. John's | 0 |
| Walkersville | 0 |
SCHEDULING URGENCY, DEADLINE ADHERENCE STRESSED AT BOYS MEETING - 10/03/00
From scheduling to player documentation, deadlines were again a chief topic of discussion when the Boys League held it's first organizational meeting of the 2000-01 playing season.
The Boys schedule must be completed before the Girls meet on Sunday, Oct. 15 to finalize their schedule. Both are then required to be in to the IAABO scheduling coordinator on Monday, Oct. 16. Games rescheduled after that, for reasons other than weather or loss of facilities, will be subject to an IAABO-imposed fine of $50/doubleheader per rescheduling occurrence.
League policy with regard to deadlines, revised at the April 2000 meeting, was also recapped.
Coaches now face suspension if deadlines for rosters, birth documents, and eligibility notification are not met. These suspensions will be a minimum of one game and until such time that these items are provided. Failure to report complete game results in accordance with League guidelines will also result in a game suspension after a warning on the first occurrence.
In other action at the Oct. 3 meeting, the League:
- - welcomed the Maryland School for the Deaf as a new member
- - placed MSD in the MVAL division
- - voted against a uniform color standardization policy
- - voted down a request to allow a Boonsboro area student to play in Brunswick
- - approved League fees of $200 per member organization ($100 for MSD) based on a presented budget
The League also re-elected all officers as a slate. They are Don Cline, president; Mike Engel, vice-president; Steve Weakley, secretary; and Dan McLane, treasurer.
Felecia Bush was again asked to serve as chair of the three-member review board. Mike Engel and Jim Shannon will continue to serve on that committee.
The next meeting was scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 5 at 7:30P in the Maryland School for the Deaf gymnasium. It will include the annual IAABO officials presentation of rule changes and clarification of existing rules.
MSD, WESTMINSTER JOIN MID-MARYLAND - 05/25/00
The Maryland School for the Deaf has been admitted to both the Boys and Girls Leagues while Westminster brings it's girls program into Mid-Maryland for the 2000-01 playing season.
Westminster, our first Carroll County addition, will field both a varsity and jayvee team while MSD will only have a jayvee team in their inaugural year. The additions increase the Girls League membership to 14 programs spanning four counties.
The MSD boys will field one combined team of seventh and eighth graders. The Boys League, which normally requires a program to have both a varsity and jayvee team to be considered for membership and does not permit eighth graders to play on the jayvee level, voted MSD in on an interim basis this first year. They will play each League member's jayvee team the first time around and will mutually decide whether to play their jayvee or varsity in the second meeting.
With eighth graders on the roster, the team will play in the year-end tournament on the varsity level as the 12th seed unless they play a full varsity schedule the second time around and can be more accurately seeded. Otherwise, games played against MSD will not count toward tournament seeding.
BOYS REVISE RESCHEDULING, DEADLINE POLICIES - 04/09/00
At it's annual Review Meeting, the Boys League learned of stricter fines to be imposed by the Frederick IAABO officials organization for the rescheduling of games and revised policies pertaining to all deadlines.
IAABO members Bob DeGrange and Dave Hickman attended the meeting and said the number of rescheduling requests had become unmanageable. They said their organization will be imposing a fine of $50 per doubleheader, per change beginning with the start of the 2000-01 playing season. Offending programs will also be charged full game fees for any games cancelled within 48 hours of the date scheduled, unless weather related.
The experience level of officials assigned to the year-end League tournament was also discussed. Dave Hickman agreed to take a "scratch" or "preferred" list into consideration before scheduling tournament officials if it is provided to him by Feb. 7, 2001.
The League also expressed a desire to increase length of games from 6-minute quarters to 7-minutes but were told by the IAABO members that National Federation rules did not permit this.
Coaches will now face suspension if League deadlines for rosters, birth documents, and eligibility notification are not met. These suspensions will be a minimum of one game and until such time that these items are provided. Failure to report complete game results in accordance with League guidelines will also result in a game suspension after a warning on the first occurence.
In other action, the League voted:
- - to expel Boonsboro from the League
- - to "grandfather" players in the Monocacy program when TJ Middle School opens
- - down a proposal to require attendance off all coaches/directors at the annual Nov. meeting
- - down a parity proposal that would call for a different method of scheduling
The first meeting for the 2000-01 season is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 1 and the annual Officials Clinic is slated for Sunday, Nov. 5. Coaches and directors will be notified with sites and times.
WEB SITE HONORED BY YOUTHLEAGUES.COM - 11/05/99
Dear Webmaster,
Congratulations! I am happy to announce that the Mid Maryland Jr. Basketball League web site has been selected as Youth Leagues' Fall 1999 Basketball Site Award winner.
Your club's site was chosen for its well executed design and the quality content it provides for both club members and the web community alike. It is an excellent example of what a Basketball site can be!
The award is our way of showing appreciation for all the time and effort you have invested on behalf of such a worthy cause -- kids!
The announcement has been posted on our Youth Leagues Site Awards page. Feel free to post the attached Basketball Award on your site.
In addition to the award, the people at All Stats Software have agreed to present your club with a complimentary copy of their Basketball Coach Software. Also VT-TV is donating a copy of the Cynthia Cooper MVP video series for your league's use.
Again, congratulations on being selected as Youth Leagues outstanding Basketball web site for Fall of 1999.
Alan Scales,
Youth Leagues
MONOCACY, MIDDLETOWN ARE PICKS PRESEASON POLL - 12/01/99
Final results of the preseason poll for the Boys League. A total of 34 ballots were cast.
Six points are awarded for a first-place pick, five for second and so on. First place votes are depicted in (). Picks, one per email address, were tallied during November 1999.
| CMC | Votes |
| Monocacy (12) | 129 |
| Linganore (13) | 126 |
| West Frederick | 99 |
| Windsor Knolls (1) | 81 |
| Ballenger Creek | 72 |
| Poolesville | 39 |
| MVAL | Votes |
| Middletown (8) | 94 |
| St. John's (9) | 93 |
| Walkersville (3) | 86 |
| Brunswick | 67 |
| Boonsboro | 57 |
| Catoctin | 45 |
BOYS SHORTEN TOURNAMENT, IMPOSE STRICTER PENALTY FOR DEADLINES - 10/10/99
The Boys League has shortened it's postseason tournament to six days and will impose much stricter penalties for missing deadlines during the 1999-2000 playing season.
Many of the changes were made at the April 1999 meeting and clarified at a Sunday, Oct. 10, 1999 organizational meeting for the coming year.
The tournament, previously held over the second and third weekends in March, will now be conducted over a six-day timeframe during the second week. Each year's tournament host will hold quarterfinal rounds on Friday and/or Saturday, semifinals on Sunday, and the championship games for jayvee and varsity finalists on Monday night.
Play-in games will be held the previous week on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Sites will be determined by gym availability provided to the League by the annual November Rules Clinic meeting (Sunday, Nov. 7 this season) and team seeding as of the annual February meeting (Sunday, Feb. 6) when tournament plans are finalized.
All 12 jayvee and varsity teams will continue to participate in the year-end tournament.
Penalties were imposed for two problem areas - failure to call in game results and missed deadlines for rosters, fees, and eligibility notification.
Reporting game results is now the responsibility of the home teams, both jayvee and varsity. Until this year it had been the winning team's responsibility. Failure to report scores, highlights, and items of player/coach misconduct for each game by midnight the day the game was played will result in a one-time warning and $5.00 fine for each occurence thereafter.
This fine must be paid before the team(s) will be permitted to take part in the postseason tournament.
Teams missing roster, fee, and eligibility deadlines - as posted in the annual season timetable - will be dropped one seed for the postseason tournament on the first occurence, dropped to the bottom seed on the second, and be declared ineligible for the tournament on the third.
Player eligibility remained based on a 2.0 GPA with no "F's", but a player that is ineligible for two marking periods, inclusive of interims, will be done for the remainder of the current League playing season.
The League also voted to permit St. John's to draw from the membership of any Catholic parish in Frederick County.
In other action at the Oct. 11 meeting, the League voted:
- - to keep divisional alignment as it was in 1998-99
- - Catoctin and Boonsboro to be added to the tournament rotation in that order
- - down a measure to require teams to play man-to-man defense the first half
- - on annual League fees of $175 per member organization based on a presented budget
The League also held election of officers for the 1999-2000 season. Continuing in their capacity will be Don Cline, president; Steve Weakley, secretary; and Dan McLane, treasurer. Mike Engel was elected to fill a vacancy as vice-president.
After the meeting, Felecia Bush was appointed to chair the three-member review board. Mike Engel and Jim Shannon will continue to serve on that committee.