For a long time, one man selected national deaf prep champions at schools for the deaf: Barry Strassler of DeafDigest. Before Strassler, Art Kruger of American Athletic Association for the Deaf (AAAD; now known as USADSF) fame did all of the picking.
This has long been a pet-peeve of mine- when there's a one-man show in selecting schools as the national deaf prep champions and handing out All-American awards. Some years, I'd believe that one school deserved the championship recognition more than another school - but how to resolve these issues weren't clear to me yet.
Due to these widespread concerns, a new national organization has been formed to provide a more fair and unbiased selection process in selecting end of the season awards: the National Deaf Interscholastic Athletics Council (NDIAC).
News of the NDIAC has spread fast. I witnessed the Maryland School for the Deaf Athletic Director, Andy Bonheyo, announce that the MSD football team was a co-champion, along with the Indiana School for the Deaf. Bonheyo also announced that the members of the MSD volleyball team were the Fall 2007 champions.
Determined to find out more, I contacted Len Gonzales, the contact person for NDIAC, and my old prep school football coach. In a videophone interview with Gonzales, he explained how the idea for NDIAC started.
"Last summer at the athletic directors conference at New Mexico [School for the Deaf], we all discussed issues how to improve deaf scholastic sports," started Gonzales. "We wanted to improve how national championships were chosen, All-Americans, player of the year, and coach of the year."
Since there are nearly thirty schools for the deaf in the United States, it's nearly impossible to provide attention to each school, and this is a process NDIAC hopes to improve. With the selection of seven regions- Northeast, West, Midwest, North, South, East, and Southeast - each region will have a representative that will voice issues, concerns, and represent a specific sport, like what Andy Bonheyo does for high school football.
Regional representatives will serve two to three year terms, although Gonzales says that is still under discussion.
"NDIAC will be divided into two divisions - Division I for schools with enrollment over 75, and Division II for schools with less than 75," explained Gonzales. This is a fair way of evaluating the level of competition and number of student-athletes available at each school. It's logical that a larger school has more student-athletes to choose from in their student body than a smaller body, and smaller schools more often than not play against schools with the same student body ratio as theirs.
When I asked Gonzales what NDIAC hopes to accomplish and hopes to improve in the future, he specifically named one website that features preparatory sports statistics, figures, and schedule of strength. "We want to be similar to Maxpreps -- providing results of sporting events, online nominations, and the likes."
I asked Gonzales about the nomination process and whether that would be open to fans or players, and he said no- "Only coaches and athletic directors will be able to nominate."
The question of how to avoid pitfalls such as favoritism, degree of playing difficulty in different regions of the country (for instance, it is well-known in the mainstream sports community that both Texas and Florida are hotbeds for football, and Ohio and Pennsylvania are strong communities for wrestling) was a question I had. Gonzales reassured me that NDIAC would make a fair, selective process based on "records, appearances in state playoffs, player statistics, and schedule of strength."
NDIAC is still in its infancy, Gonzales admitted. "We're taking baby steps now, but we intend to make this a stronger organization, and will see this turn into a non-profit venture."
I asked Gonzales whether there were some heated discussions about the selection of Maryland School for the Deaf and Indiana School for the Deaf as co-champions for the 2007 season. Gonzales admitted that there were, but "we all have a mutual respect for each other, and this led to healthy discussions about the selections."
Gonzales does not expect the by-laws and the structure of NDIAC to be finalized until the next athletic director conference, scheduled for the summer of 2009. "For now, we're here to promote athletic success and recognition."
For more information about which schools won fall sport awards, go to the NDIAC website at www.ndiac.com.
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