Region 20 Girls Basketball Tournament
Region 20 Girls Basketball
With the conclusion of the Region 20 Girls Basketball Tournament, we have received questions as to, ‘why do all of the schools in our region travel to Kanab for the tournament’? The location of the tournament is determined by the high school principals in their Region 20 meetings; each principal has one vote in the region meeting. When Region 20 schedules to play in Cedar City at Canyon View High School they have to pay approximately $3,000 to rent the facilities. Garfield School District has offered to provide their facilities for free and pay the Region an additional $3,000 to host the tournaments. Cedar City has donated $2,000 to the Region to host the event. Currently, the Region rotates wrestling, volleyball, debate, and track to each school in the region for the tournaments; boys and girls basketball do not rotate schools. I would suggest Region 20 consider rotating the boys and girls region tournament as well. If a school does not feel like they can host the event because of seating or accommodations, the school can then decide which location they would like to move the venue. Region 20 ran into a conflict this year with scheduling the region girls basketball tournament in Canyon View, so the region decided to move the tournament to Kanab. When you think about the additional cost associated with this tournament it is excessive to the taxpayer. Garfield School District provides transportation for three high schools and depending on how far each team advances in the tournament it could be 12 trips to and from the venue for boys and girls region basketball. Every school in the region had to drive by at least one school in our District to get to Kanab. Ultimately, some principals outside our District refuse to play the tournament in our District schools. Some would rather have parents and students travel hours to prevent the tournaments from being hosted in our District. Unfortunately, this not only adds extra expense for each of the schools and those who are traveling, but it also hurts our local economies. Region 20 is currently the only 1A region in the State requiring a region tournament for team seatings at State. The other 1A regions use team records from their regular season to determine the team seatings at State.
–Superintendent Ben Dalton
