Meeting called to order on Mon., May 23 at 5:15pm in Los Gatos.

The following coaches were in attendance: Julie L'Heureux (SC), Julia Widstrand (LA), Walt Van Zant (W), Dan Brown (W), Ray Cornell (MV), Gary Price (MV), Sam Read (Mt. V), Evan Smith (Mt. V), Paul Jones (PA), Ernie Lee (G), Hank Lawson (L), Paul Armstrong (C), Bob De La Cruz (F), Rick Ellis (S and AD liaison), Paul Abbot (M), Monica Townsend (LG), Thomas Newman (LG), Idoveyin Uto-Uko (LA), Eddie Sumpter (H), Chuck Kappen (SC) and Mark Shields (F)

Los Altos did a good job hosting the DAL Meet.

Overall, Mt. View did a fine job hosting the meet.

Field Event judges should be supplied with a copy of the NFHS for their event. Post rules on their clipboards.

Next year's league meet host are DAL - Los Altos, ECL - Wilcox. The following schedule should be followed for league host duties:

Los Gatos (Monica Townsend) did a good job hosting the meet.

Comments were made about not allowing alternates. The intent of the Qualifying Meet is to qualify athletes to the CCS meet and not allow athletes another chance to run. When the by-law was written, it was felt that the top 16 athletes had the best chance to qualify. A change in this by-law will be discussed later in the meeting.

Results of the realignment calculations for the De Anza League are:

Palo Alto 38.5

Gunn 37.0

Los Gatos 36.5

Lynbrook 36.0

Los Altos 32.5

Milpitas 23.5

Wilcox 20.0

Results for the El Camino League are:

Monta Vista 51

Mt. View 44.5

Saratoga 32.5

Santa Clara 30.5

Cupertino 25.5

Homestead 25.5

Fremont 14.5

Therefore Wilcox will move down and Monta Vista will go up.

A motion was made by Walt Van Zant to allow the 2 schools to stay in their respective leagues. The motion was seconded by Ray Cornell.

The vote was 5 for and 7 against. The motion failed.

The following coaches were nominated and will be submitted to the CCS office: Julia Widstrand (Los Altos) for girls' coach and Ray Cornell (Monta Vista) for boys' coach. Congratulations.

A request was made to allow the gate pass form to be submitted ahead of time electronically.

A request was made to bring back the 4 region format instead of the CCS trials. Trials meet is too long.

Coaches request that the CCS participation pins be given out to all CCS qualifiers.

Preliminary schedules for next year were given out. All schools should have 3 home meets and 3 away meets. Due to errors from previous years, some schools may have a dual meet with a school scheduled for home or away for 2 years in a row. Please stick to this schedule so that next year, everyone will be able to alternate home and away meets with a school.

A suggestion was made to rotate the location for league meets. This can be discussed and decided at the preseason meeting for next year.

A motion was made by Hank Lawson to have both league meets on Tues., May 2 and Thurs., May 4. Ernie Lee seconded it. The vote was 12 for and 2 against. Motion was passed.

A discussion took place on the use of qualifying standards in the DAL and on increasing the number of entries to 4 for the league meet. The DAL will vote on standards for next year at the preseason meeting. No changes will be made in the number of entries.

Also, a discussion took place on having a Varsity only meet during the week to allow for an increase in the number of entries and having a F/S meet on the weekend. No vote took place.

A motion was made to change the 65m hurdles in the F/S division to the 110m hurdles by Julia Widstrand and seconded by Evan Smith. A discussion on the motion took place. Several coaches were concerned that not all F/S boys were physical mature to compete in the 110HH. Also, with the lack of hurdlers overall in the league, this change would only make it worse. On the other side, coaches felt that if the younger girls could do the 100mH, the boys could do the 110mH.

The vote was 7 for and 7 against. The motion failed.

The coaches discussed Article VI, Section 2 of the SCVAL By-Laws. The section states that the top 16 Varsity athletes from the combine Division meet results for each event will compete at the Qualifier. This was interpret to mean that 16 athletes should be competing at the Qualifier and that if an athlete scratched from an event, an alternate should be placed in their spot to maintain 16 athletes per an event. At the preseason meeting, we will discuss how to implement this change.

Both League Representatives requested that every year, the coaches review the NFHS handbook, the CCS By-laws and the SCVAL By-laws to refresh their memories. Also, the head coaches should make sure their assistants are familiar with the rules.

The coaches requested Rick Ellis make sure that in the fall, all ADs pick up and distribute 2 copies of the NFHS handbook to the head coaches.

The coaches requested Rick Ellis talk to the Athletic Directors about supplying adult help to run our track meets. To put on an efficient track meet, a minimum of 5 adults is needed for the field events, along with several timers and finish officials. Also, an experienced starter is essential. Many of the teams are receiving no help from their teaching staff nor support from the athletic department. Most other sports have paid officials. When was the last time a football coach was told they would have to referee the game and could not coach the team. If they cannot get the school staff to help, can we pay the 'officials' to work the meet?

The track coaches would like the league to purchase 2 Weights and Measure kits (one for each league) to be used at the league meets and Qualifier meet.

A motion was made to change the JV girls' division to the F/S girls' division by Ernie Lee. Walt Van Zant seconded it. The vote was 3 for, 10 against and 1 abstain. The motion failed.

Article V, Section 1.3 was brought up for discussion. Why does a coach have to put their best athlete in the Varsity division if the athlete has no chance at the Varsity level? Boys are allowed to compete at the F/S level with no requirements on varsity athletes being entered at the varsity level in the same event. Since the DAL plans to have no standards for next year, this section will no longer apply. Further discussion will take place at the preseason meeting.

Paul Jones discussed changing the entry process into the Qualifier meet. He would like to see each team get 3 entries of their choice for each event. The league meets would have no determination in who makes it to the Qualifier. It was pointed out, that CCS would not accept this format.

Walt Van Zant made the following suggestion:

The strong league/weak league does not necessarily accomplish its goal when coed teams are involved.

Some examples involving varsity teams over the last five years include:

1-During the past three years the Lynbrook boys have finished 2nd, 1st, and 3rd while their girls have finished last twice and second to last once.

2-The Santa Clara boys finished 3rd in 2002 (1 point out of first) while their girls finished a distant last.

3-The Los Gatos boys finished 2nd to last in both 2003 and 2004 while their girls were winning the league title in both years.

1-Abandon the strong league/weak league concept and put the 14 teams into two permanent divisions of 7 schools each.

2-Copy what the PAL has been doing for many years.

1. Put all teams into one league.

B. The league finals determine the final standings for

all 14 teams.

C. Rather than having a dual meet season, have weekly

scoring or non-scoring tri meets.

1. Each school would direct 2 weekly meets per season.

D. The league finals would hold competition in varsity

boys, varsity girls, frosh/soph boys, and frosh/soph

girls divisions.

E. If necessary, we would hold preliminary rounds,

semifinals and finals in the sprint races.

F. We would hold finals in the 3200M.

G. We would hold semifinals and finals in all other

events, including the field events.

H. We could decide to allow schools an unlimited number

of competitors in each event or we could limit the

number of competitors per school.

3-Copy what the PAL has done with their league finals but score the triangular meet season with all 14 schools competing against each other during the season. This would involve each school participating in 6 tri meets and 1 dual meet and we would have to limit the number of participants in the sprint and field events so that the meets would not be too lengthy.

A general discussion took place on the proposal with a quick vote to see if the discussion should be continued. Discussion was stopped.

League Certificates were available for the coaches. The coaches requested All League Certificates also. Rick Ellis will make the request to Tony Nunez.

No new By-Laws were neither passed nor existing ones altered.

Meeting adjourned at approximately 7:30pm.