HISTORY OF CLASS COMPETITION AND REGION 5AA
1970-2005
The Minnesota State High School League has sponsored one or more activities in multiple-class competition since the spring
of 1971 when the basketball tournament competition was initiated in two classifications, AA and A. Prior to that time, the
MSHSL sponsored some activities in classifications of one form or another. The music program has always been conducted
in classifications based n the category of music used in contest performance.
Boys’ gymnastics was conducted in three classes (A,B,C) from 1943-1965. Boys’ track was conducted in two classes (A,B)
from 1923-1928. Skiing was also conducted in classes in earlier years.
The MSHSL Board of Directors, upon recommendation from the Minnesota State Track Coaches Association, implemented a
three-class track tournament (AA,A,B) from 1973-75. In the fall of 1972, the MSHSL Board of Directors adopted a plan for
football championships that embraced five classifications (AA,A,B,C,9-man).
Shortly after this time, the MSHSL Board of Directors received requests to conduct tournaments in classes from other sports,
most notably baseball, wrestling and track. So, in the spring of 1972, the MSHSL Board of Directors established a Class
Plan Study Committee to study class plan procedures and to present recommendations to the MSHSL Board of Directors
based on their findings. They tabled all requests for classifications of activities other than those already conducted in classes
until the Class Plan Study Committee completed their study and submitted their report.
In the fall of 1973, the Class Plan Study Committee submitted the following recommendations to the MSHSL Board of
Directors.
1. A two-class plan be adopted for those activities that have more than 50% of the member schools participating in
that activity and that the largest 128 MSHSL schools based on ADM as of June 1973 are placed in Class AA.
The balance of the member schools would be in Class A. This plan was to be reviewed and evaluated every two
years.
2. the Board of Directors and the staff of the MSHSL should take immediate action toward realignment of schools
in districts and regions pursuant to recommendation at the time of the completion of this study and report.
As a result of the recommendation of the Class Plan Study Committee, a Realignment Committee was established by the
MSHSL Board of Directors to consider the realignment of schools in districts and regions pursuant to the recommendation of
the Class Plan Study Committee. The Realignment Committee was organized in May of 1974 and submitted their report to
the Board of Directors in February of 1975. The final action and recommendation was the realignment of member schools
into Class A and Class AA.
On February 17, 1975, the Board of Directors adopted the Realignment Committee Plan as submitted. They set April 1975,
as the target date for submitting the constitutional amendment to the member schools for implementing the total alignment.
On April 17, 1975, the member schools of the MSHSL approved amendments (378-yes, 62-no) that provided the changes
necessary to implement school reorganization for the two-class competition. At the same time, the State Legislature adopted
an act that provided any Minnesota high school access to membership in the MSHSL. As a result of this act, 40 non-public
high schools joined the MSHSL for the 1975-76 school year.
Reorganization of the League’s membership followed this constitutional ballot in May of 1975. Under the realignment:
1. Thirty-two (32) Class A Districts and eight (8) Class A Regions were established. The District and Region
committees would administer the programs for these activities.
2. Eight (8) Class AA Regions that would be administered by the Class AA Region committees were established.
3. Any activities not qualifying for two-class competition would be administered by the Region Committee, Class
A or AA, that has the most schools, either Class A or AA, participating in that activity.
4. Football, because there are not District or Region Committees, would be administered throughout the MSHSL
office.
5. Music would be administered by the District and Region Committees of the classes in which a school has been
assigned. Contest activity for large music groups will continue to be conducted in categories.
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After the final assignment of schools to Districts and Regions was established, the Board of Directors conducted hearings to
allow any school to appeal its assignment. Twenty-five (25) schools availed themselves of this opportunity. Five (5) schools
were reassigned as a result of these hearings.
On may 20, 1975, Rollie DeLapp of Washburn High School, at the request of the Board of Directors convened a special
meeting of 17 school that had been placed in Region 5AA under the MSHSL constitution. The purpose of themeeting was to
organize the new Region 5AA. The following list indicates how these 17 schools were arranged by Sub-Regions and who the
official representatives of the 17 schools were.
SCHOOL
SUB-REGION 1
Central
North
Roosevelt
South
BOARD MEMBER
ADMINISTRATOR
W. Harry Davis (absent)
W. Harry Davis (absent)
W. Harry Davis (absent)
W. Harry Davis (absent)
Joyce Jackson
Lee Snell
Lorraine Wendt
Kenneth Northwick
SUB-REGION II
Benilde-St. Margaret’s
Regina
Southwest
Washburn
West
Marilyn Borea
Marilyn Borea
Marilyn Borea
Dave Peterson
Jean Gustafson
Ed Carlson
SUB-REGION III
Brooklyn Center
Columbia Heights
Edison
Patrick Henry
Bob Spies
Roy Robinson
W. Harry Davis (absent)
Marilyn Borea
Wallace Bernards
Dewey Breisch
Giffeth O’Dell
Rod Ray
SUB-REGION IV
Fridley
Fridley Grace
Osseo
Park Center
Mary Schreiner
Jeffrey Johnson
Tak Osada
Tak Osada
Dick Stanton
Louis Mitteco
Myron Johnson
Richard Edlund
Hank Scheinost
The group decided that the Region Committee would have five members, one from each sub-region and one member at-large
(school board member). Note: The official handbook for the MSHSL indicates that the minimum membership for a region
committee shall be four members.
Elected to the Region Committee were:
Sub-Region 1
Kenneth Northwick
Administrator-Minneapolis
Sub-Region 2
Jean Gustafson
Administrator-Minneapolis
Sub-Region 3
Giffeth O’Dell
Administrator-Minneapolis
Sub-Region 4
Richard Stanton
Administrator-Fridley
At-Large
Harry Davis
Board Member-Minneapolis
Elected delegates to the Representative Assembly were:
Sub-Region 1
Joyce Jackson
Sub-Region 2
Dave Peterson
Sub-Region 3
Wallace Bernards
Sub-Region 4
Richard Edlund
William McMoore, former Athletic Director for the Minneapolis Schools, served as the first Executive Secretary of Region
5AA. He served until January 1977, when Ms. Rae Wilbur, Minneapolis Physical Education teacher and counselor, was
hired for the position. Rae Wilbur resigned in 1986 and was succeeded by Cliff Johnson, former Athletic Director of
Washburn High School. Cliff Johnson resigned in the summer of 1995 and was replaced by Jim Norwick, former Athletic
Director of Brooklyn Center. Jim Norwick resigned in 1999 and Ron Sellnow, former Athletic Director at Hopkins High
School, became Region 5AA’s fifth Executive Secretary.
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In the fall of 1976, by vote of the member schools, the Region Committee was to include two additional members at-large by
the following resolution:
RESOLUTION: (adopted September 12, 1977, by Region 5AA action)
The Region 5AA Committee shall consist of seven members, one representing each of the four sub-regions and three
selected on an “at-large” basis. At least one of those selected “at-large” must be a Board Member representative
from a Region 5AA school. In order to provide for continuity within the Region 5AA committee, a plan was
implemented which provides for a carryover membership and thus adds a minimum of new members each year to
the committee. The plan is consistent with MSHSL regulations and would initiate a procedure, which, after three
years of operation, would provide a fair and equitable rotation of three-year terms for all committee members, thus
providing for greater continuity with the Region 5AA committee.
Sub-Region School Membership is as follows:
1
2
3
4
Central
Benilde-St. Margaret’s
Brooklyn Center
Fridley
North
Regina
Columbia Heights
Fridley Grace
Roosevelt
Southwest
Edison
Osseo
South
Washburn
Patrick Henry
Park Center
West
To provide for the new rotation, committee members are to be selected as follows:
In 1978-79, the designated school representative will, at the annual fall meeting:

Select one region member for Sub-Region III for a one-year term.

Select members for two-year terms from Sub-Regions II and IV

Select members for three-year terms from Sub-Region I and one Board member to be elected “at-large”.
In 1979-80

Select two members “at-large” for three-year terms.

Select one representative from Sub-region III for a three-year term.
Thereafter, all members to be selected for three years as terms expire.
In 1976, a representative committee was established by the Board of Directors to conduct an evaluation of the twoclass program, which was mandated as part of the original plan when the two-class program was started in 1975.
The following recommendations resulting from this evaluation were presented to the Board of Directors for their
consideration.
1. The two-class concept should be continued for at least two more years. In addition, the Board of Directors
should consider establishing a standing committee that would evaluate the two-class system on a periodic basis
as directed by the Board or it should appoint another “Class Plan Evaluation Committee” to evaluated the class
plan system at the end of another two years’ experience.
2. The Board of Directors should review the enrollment figures for the member schools from the 1976-77 fall
reports. The placement of schools in Class AA or Class A should continue to be done every two years by the
Board of Directors. If a school currently in Class AA is placed in Class A as a result of enrollment changes,
that school may petition to remain in Class AA. The Board of Directors should establish criteria upon which
they might consider requests from member schools for reassignment in districts and regions. (The guidelines
should consider natural rivalries, conference affiliations, burdens of excess travel, and enrollments).
3. The Board of Directors should consider changing the current criteria for an activity being conducted in classes,
i.e., 50% participation by the League membership (263 schools) to be the following recommended criteria:
“Tournament competition shall be conducted in two classes when the total number of participating schools in
that activity includes a minimum number from each class of schools that equals 10% or more of the total
League membership.”
4. The committee recommends that the League office take over the complete responsibility for activities whose
tournaments are conducted on a sectional basis and then prorate back to the participating districts and regions
their prorated share of the profit or loss from these sectional activities, making proper allowances for added
administrative costs to the League brought about by this arrangement.
5. the Board of Directors was asked to consider the feasibility of multiple-class competition within the two-class
system by appointing a committee to review this concept.
6. Because this committee had a number of requests and inquiries made about the three-class plan and discovered
some problems created in two-class competition for some schools in it, the Board of Directors is asked to
review and study
The three-class plan system and possibly four.
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The Board of Directors reviewed these recommendations and adopted the first three recommendations and in February of
1978 adopted the following policy to determine when an activity shall qualify for two-class tournaments:
“Tournament competition shall be conducted in two classes when the total number of participating schools in that
activity includes a minimum for each class of schools that equals 10% or more of the total League membership.”
Two years later, the MSHSL Board of Directors appointed a subcommittee composed of representatives from each of the A
and AA areas to carefully evaluated the class plan to establish a balanced number of schools for each activity. The purpose
of the committee was to see if there was any possible method of balancing the number of schools in each Region for each
activity so as to resolve problems that do exist, such as the imbalance in the number of schools participating in the various
activities in the Regions.
As a result of this study and changes in school enrollment, the committee made a recommendation on the assignment of
schools for the 1979-80 school year that was approved by the Board of Directors that affected Region 5AA as follows:
Richfield Holy Angels was moved to Regina 5AA
Columbia Heights was moved from Region 5AA to Region 4AA
Brooklyn Center was moved from Region 5AA to District 15A
As per the initial recommendation of the Class Plan Study Committee, a review of the enrollments and reassignment of
schools had taken place for the years 1979-80 and 1980-82.
For the 1982-83 school year, membership in Region 5AA was reduced to 14 schools as Minneapolis Central and West were
closed by action of the Minneapolis School Board for reasons of declining enrollment and school consolidation.
On March 9, 1983, the MSHSL Board of Directors received the following recommendation from the current Class Plan Study
Committee:
1. That the Class Plan be continued for the 1983-84 school year subject to policy revisions relating to assignment
of schools to Class AA and Class A.
2. That the Class Plan Committee continues its study of a three-class plan.
The Board of Directors conducted two hearings to receive testimony on these subjects. On April 28, 193 the Board of
Directors took action on these policies. Also consistent with this action, MSHSL reiterated the MSHSL tournament
philosophy that follows and sets policies for the determination class assignment and those activities that would be conducted
in one or two classes. As a result of this action, Minnehaha Academy was placed in Sub-Region I of Region 5AA for the
1983-84 school year. Due to declining enrollment Minnehaha Academy was removed from Region 5AA and placed into
District 17 of Region 5A for the 1988-89 school year. Edison was moved from Sub-Region 3 to Sub-Region 4 to balance the
sub-regions at this time.
During the spring of 1991, a realignment/reorganization of member schools was conducted by the MSHSL. Holy Angels
Academy was assigned to Region 4A and Columbia Heights was reassigned to Region 5AA. The Region Executive
Committee was restructured to have a total of twelve members. The new committee to consist of two Board of Education
members or designees, two Superintendents or designees, two Principals or designees, two Athletic Directors, and one
representative each from boys’ coaches, girls’ coaches, speech and music. Each Region will also have four TARGET
members, one from each sub-region, and a TARGET Coordinator. In addition, each Region will elect Activity Advisory
members to serve in their various disciplines at the State level.
Benilde-St. Margaret’s, due to declining enrollment, was reassigned to Region 4A beginning with the 1993-94 school year.
St. Louis Park, former member of Region 6AA, joined Region 5AA in the 1995-96 school year. Maple Grove, a new Osseo
School District high school, joined the Region in the 1996-97 school year. Benilde-St. Margaret’s rejoined Region 5AA in
the 1997-98 school year. Robbinsdale Cooper, upon their request to the MSHSL, and former member of 6AA, joined Region
5AA in the 1997-98 school year. The Academy of Holy Angels, upon their request, joined Region 5AA in the 1999-2000
school year. The Academy of Holy Angels rejoined Region 6AA in the 2002-2003 school year.
The 2004 Executive Committee realigned sub-sections as follows to ensure compliance with MSHSL bylaws related to
contiguity.
Sub-Section 1
Sub-Section 2
Sub-Section 3
Sub-Section 4
Columbia Heights
Cooper
North
Benilde-St. Margaret’s
Edison
Maple Grove
Patrick Henry
St. Louis Park
Fridley
Osseo
Roosevelt
Southwest
Totino-Grace
Park Center
South
Washburn
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