By Annalise Shupe
It is a common opinion that high school competitions have gone soft. Every team makes the play-offs and many receive awards. Nonetheless there is always a declared winner and loser … except on February 3, 2018. On this day the declared winner became the loser as the declared loser became the winner.
On February 3, 2018, in Stewartville, Minn., the Section 1, Class A One Act Play competition was held. Eight teams from local schools performed that Saturday and anxiously awaited the final tabulation results. Shortly after 4 p.m. the contest manager entered the theatre, results in hand. After final announcements and thank yous were made, the second place, state runner-up, was announced… Triton. After a round of applause and suspense, the first place winner, who would be moving on to the State Festival, was announced… Fillmore Central.
Awards were distributed, pictures were taken, and the teams, families, and friends went home; some licking their wounds, some preparing for a trip to the State One Act competition. The following day the scenario was turned on its head. Instead of there being a clear cut first and second place there was a tie, and with a tie, a tie breaker is needed. Individual interpretation of the unclear MSHSL rules and policies led to Triton winning in some scenarios, and FC in others; however, the spoken, not written, way of using the rules left Triton with the first place title.
If you were to omit the unclear first rule and use the second tiebreaker rule to determine the results, Triton would clearly advance as Triton would receive a 1.66 and FCHS a 1.58. Unlike the other scoring methods, you want the highest score with the second tie-breaking method.
Most of you are wondering how a tie can even occur after a clear cut winner and runner-up are announced. Well, in order to tabulate final scores, each judge ranks the plays from 1-8, 1 being the best performance; however, on the final tabulation sheet, the contest manager must change the 6, 7, 8 scores to 5s. This rule was established in an attempt to eliminate bias scores from judges. For example, if a school received a 1 from two judges, and a 8 from another, it’s evident that the third judge was bias towards that school. Because of this, the scoring bottoms out at 5, evening the scores.
The original scores given to FC and Triton at the 1A Section competition was: FC with a 1, 3, 4, equalling 8, and Triton with a 1, 2, 6, equalling 9. These scores created a clear first and second place, first being FC, second being Triton. Using the rule previously explained, Tritons 6 would be changed to a 5, creating a tie as their new total score would also be an 8. This sequence of events led to using the tiebreaker in which Triton wins.
Moving to the next point, Subsection B states, “To prevent tabulation errors or misapplication of the scoring procedures, no awards may be announced until the tabulations have been checked and must be verified by the judges and/or Contests Rules Committee. Judges are then allowed to leave.” Meaning; once the awards are distributed and the rules committee leaves for the day, the event is over. I would compare this to a sports game; once the final whistle is blown the game is over, no matter how egregious the officiating errors were, even if the officials admit to making false game changing decisions. Apparently for One Act, this isn’t the case, as the day after the competition FCHS students were told that they will not be attending the state competition due to a tie, Triton will.
Of course, all of these methods should have been done prior to the awards being handed out in the first place. If the MSHSL personal would have done their jobs properly I wouldn’t be writing a news article on the unfortunate events that have affected so many young lives. Now, we could argue back and forth about the justice of the final decision. Especially because the regional committee decided to pressure a director to “do the right thing” and step down… letting Triton go to State; crushing the elation felt for 20 hours by the FCHS actors and crew.
I call on MSHSL to clarify their rules so there can be no question in the future as to what the results are in a contest. Fixing the rules and officials’ training would be rather simple and necessary step. Rewriting the tie breaker rule to be clear and simplistic is another must. Adjusting the scoring sections (what caused all of this turmoil is an interpretation of when to apply a 5 score when a team receives a 6, 7, 8 ranking) would be the third step. Lastly, MSHSL must ensure that each site manager is prepared to deal with any and all scenarios that may arise when figuring placement of teams at competitions.
I am hopeful that the MSHSL will take the appropriate steps to update the rules and properly train their officials to avoid such devastating situations in the future.
Annalise Shupe is a student at Fillmore Central High School. She is one of seven area students participating in the Journal Writing Project, now in its 19th year.
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