Fr: J. Nesbit

Re: "Crisis" involving A.I.A. & state chess team championship � � � � This past weekend I received confirmation from our state high school chess coaches' association that the executive board of the A.I.A. is determined to move the site of the 1992 chess team championship from Tuba City to a valley location. Our state directork John Thiele of Gilbert H.S., talked with Voie Coy last Thursday and found this to be the case.
� � � � The executive board has removed an earlier adopted rule from this year's handbook that had stated that the site of the state team chamnpionship will be held at the previous year's champion. The rule book now states that the A.I.A. will determine the site of the championship--it is underlined, so you can tell that this is a new adoption.
� � � � According to Thiele, Mr. Coy indicated that the Glendale District in particular and other valley executive members had applied pressure for this change. They had never paid attention to the site of the state team championship until this past year when they sent teams to Tuba City. They are now adamant that no state championships ever be held in such a place again. Mr. Thiele confirmed what we have known about the A.I.A. for some time--that it is run by self serving interest groups from the Phoenix region.
� � � � To me it is quite clear that their motivations are selfish. They may state that they are concerned about northern travel during the winter months, yet they certainly aren't concerned about the reservation schools and other northern schools that have been dealing with the same problem for years. They may state that the valley is more centrally located and has more services than other areas, yet their real concern is saving travel money for their own districts. Would they be willing to pay travel, lodging, and food for schools outside the valley area?
� � � � Mr. Thiele told me that the decision is not absolutely final at this point even though Mr. Voie Coy asked him point blank if the chess coaches had selected another site yet. Thiele said that Mr. Coy and other executive members are due to meet tomorrow (Monday, 10/21) to make a "final" decision about this year's state team championship site. I know that Mr. Coy doesn't have all the facts or know the total picture from where he is sitting, and that he has only heard from valley lobbyists thus far. I will be attempting to get hold of him tomorrow morning but need much assistance if we expect to get heard. I would appreciate any help you can lend to help explain what is involved here. Following are some factors I would like to have Mr. Coy consider:
� � � � 1. In 1987 Mr. Coy himself suggested to the chess coaches that they consider having the state team site be held at the defending champion;s school. This was told to Trevor Browne's coach Cecil Walker, who was state executive direcrtor of high school chess at the time. While the chess coaches tabled Mr. Coy's suggestion at its first reading, they passed it the following year.
� � � � 2. This rule about the tournament site had appeared in previous A.I.A. handbooks, and we had been following this rule for the past three years. Since 1989 the state team championship has been held at: Tucson University, Tempe High School, and Tuba City High School.
� � � � 3. One of the justifications for this rule was to create more pride for championship schools and give more opportunities to promote chess across the state. This was definitely the case in Tuba City last year. Chess received more publicity and community support than in the previous 10 years combined; we had over 50 spectators (which is unprecedented in the valley), we had a number of school officials take part planning the tournament and in opening ceremonies (which you will never see in the valley), we had a vast number of community volunteers help with hospitality and help run the tournament, and we had unprecedented media coveragve of the event--including national public radio, several local radio shows, Channel 2 TV news from Flagstaff, The Arizona Daily Sun, The Gallup Independent, The Navajo times, and The Navajo Hopi Observer.
� � � � 4. Connected with the previous idea, if you check with coaches who attended last year's state tournament, you will find universal approval for the organization and prestige given the tournament that has always been lacking in the valley. This year the community, the chess team, and parents were planning to make the state tournament even more special. one of the plans included making souvenir T-shirts of the event available to participants. ?There were even plans to invite Navajo nation President Peterson Zah to be on hand for the opening ceremonies.
� � � � 5. What the A.I.A. executive council is doing is very narrow minded and self serving. It is a "slap" in the face of the chess coaches' association who have alreaady decided to maintain its rule about the host site. It is also a "slap" in the face of Tuba City, in the face of northern Arizona, and in the face of the Navajo and Hopi people to demand the site be moved from Tuba City to a valley location.
� � � � 6. The A.I.A. already has lowered its own prestige over the years with incomprehensible self serving decisions. With all the media coverage we have received for chess up here in "remote" northern Arizona, what kind of media coverage do you think the A.I.A. will receive over this parochial decision? We already have media peolple ready to cover this latest story, and another angle they will be exploiting will be that of racism practiced by A.I.A. officials, for this latest decision smacks of it. in a state that rejected the martin Luther King Day, do you think you need a possible story showing how the A.I.A. is demonstrating anti Indian prejudice in the same year the country is celebrating the 500th anniversary of Columbus' "discovery"?
� � � � 7. The A.I.A. should be supporting academic development as well as promoting excellence in its activities. Do the valley people think they have a monopoly on cultural activities and facilities? think how much the chessplayers and coaches learned about native Americans and their culture in their brief exposure up here. There is more to life than motels, swimming pools, and malls. you will always be guaranteed of far more positive publicity for chess and other programs when you have prestigious A.I.A. events outside of the Valley and outside of Tucson.
� � � � 8. Any chartges that we are endangering student lives by having the championship up in the north during the winter months can easily be refuted. Last year I went to Flagstaff the night before the tournament during the peak of the snowstorm to personally check the road conditions; the roads were passable and did not require chains, so I was able to confirm this with worried coaches the next day. There are usually no more than one or two periods each winter where traffic cannot proceed through Flagstaff, so this should not present a major problem for the state tournament. Besides, if this was such a big concern why haven't the northern teams been considered-we always have to travel through Flafstaff to make it to statewide matches, and the A.I.A. would never consider re-scheduling a chess chamnpionship if the northern teams couldn't make it.
� � � � 9. We know that the Glendale district and some other Valley districts have lobbied for this change without consulting the chess coaches' associateion, and they have changed our host site rules this year without our input or knowledge. Why are these self interest groups, who generally have the weakest chess programs in Arizona, given so much "power" in this matter? The people who have the closest grassroots level view about Arizona chess are deliberately left out of the whole process.

� � � � Since the A.I.A. has blatantly ignored any openness in this matter and has ignored the usual due process procedures, I am making this story as public as I can. I know their decision is a very bad one for Arizona chessplayers, for Arizona chess development, and for the Arizona community. Sensitive Arizonans will see this decision for what it truly is--a decision based on personal greed and power that also involves subtle racism.
� � � � I hope that Mr. Coy and his council will reconsider their biased decision and will allow the chess coaches to operate in the best interests of our players and in the best interests of Arizona chess. Please lend any assistance you can in this matter.