Hi guys,
Michigan has now released the 2009 Cross Country Division and Regional Assignments. I have posted a copy here:
http://michigancrosscountry.com/michigan_track_cross_country_forum/showthread.php?tid=899&pid=2919#pid2919
If you would like it in some type of excel spread sheet or something to make it easier to update on your end, I'd be happy to do so.
Several schools, including unfortunately mine, have jumped up a division. Regions are much different this year.
Thanks, Don, for the heads up on the new alignments coming out!
Our re-alignment process is still a manual system, and can be done by any coach by clicking on the link at the very bottom of the any state's homepage for XC or Track.
If you or another coach would like to go ahead and submit the changes, that would be great. Otherwise, I will put it on my to-do list for the upcoming XC season -- no promises on speed as more than half of the states came out with new alignments this year for XC
Here is the Alignment page for Michigan Cross Country: http://www.athletic.net/Edit/Tree/MoveSchools.aspx?DivID=5403&ID=615&Sport=CrossCountry
For other coaches who may be interested in helping out, here is another link to the 2009 Cross Country alignment info: http://www.mhsaa.com/sports/bxc/09reg.html
"Our re-alignment process is still a manual system ... no promises on speed as more than half of the states came out with new alignments this year for XC"
You see the opportunity for improvement? ;-)
Making it an automated system would save all of us time I suspect. While some schools won't change, many will and it is an annual thing in our state. Just figuring out which ones changed would take a fair amount of time. I can easily generate a list that could be compared with a query and updated as necessary. School matching presumably would be the toughest issue.
Just the time it will take you to manually switch Michigan will likely take more time than automating the process, don't you think?
We have nine regions per division and four divisions (in the Lower Peninsula). Here is D1 tab delimited as an example:
Region[tab]Division[tab]Official School Name1 1 Alpena1 1 Auburn-Bay City Western1 1 Bay City-Central1 1 Davison1 1 Flint-Carman-Ainsworth1 1 Flushing1 1 Grand Blanc1 1 Midland1 1 Midland-HH Dow1 1 Ortonville-Brandon1 1 Oxford1 1 Saginaw-Arthur Hill1 1 Saginaw-Heritage1 1 Swartz Creek2 1 Grand Ledge2 1 Grand Rapids-Forest Hills Central2 1 Grand Rapids-Kenowa Hills2 1 Greenville2 1 Holt2 1 Lansing-Eastern2 1 Lansing-Everett2 1 Lowell
etc.
I guess at the very least if we must do it manually if you can output this data in same format from the site for me I can do the compare and figure out which ones switched. I could use last years, but that would not necessarily be what you have on the site.
"Our re-alignment process is still a manual system" -- I realize this is not the correct definition, as manual would be hand editing in the database. The aligment tool provided does automatically move a school once we approve the changes.
Creating a site wide system for importing new state alignments would require an adaption to about 50 different formats...as each state lists alignments completely differently. The list you provided is one of the clearer and cleaner looking lists. :)
I will email you an output of the alignment data shortly.
Thanks.
Michigan Cross Country alignments have been updated on Athletic.net for the 2009 season. There were a total of 324 alignment changes made!
http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Michigan/
There are still a number of schools that need to be added, as they are missing from the site. This occurs mostly in the Division 3 and 4. Here is our Add Team link for any coach who wants to tackle this: http://www.athletic.net/Wizard/AddSchool.aspx
Additionally, I have the list of schools that need to be added...contact me if you want that list.