Throughout the course of the year, numerous high school state tournaments take place. From journalism to basketball, the state of Nebraska has a huge variety of state championships for every high school student to participate in. However, one thing the state of Nebraska seems to lack is hope in the western part of the state. As discussed in the editorial earlier in the year “Class B Volleyball Singled Out” the NSAA board just keeps finding ways to make it harder for teams to advance to state. Many people argue that it is all of Class B that struggles, and that it true to an extent but why doesn’t Class A have any other stipulations to advance to state volleyball? There isn’t a Class A team west of North Platte.

Adults play a huge role in the separation of the west and east side of the state, many high school students are starting to get involved with the debate. Over this last weekend, the 2015 Boys State Basketball Championships took place. The panhandle sent Scottsbluff, Sidney, Bridgeport, Minatare and Chadron. Although Sidney and Minatare were the only two teams to move on after the first round, qualifying five teams from the western part of the state is quite a big deal.

It is apparent that there are many flaws in the system that the NSAA uses when deciding on both seeding and ways for teams to qualify for state. Perhaps one of the biggest flaws is the seeding system used for State Basketball. The system is based entirely off of wildcard points, where District Champions are not rewarded for their accomplishments. This year it was apparent perhaps more than ever. The Sidney Red Raiders, and Scottsbluff Bearcats, two of the top teams in class B were slated to play each other first round. This problem would be solved if the NSAA would simply seed the top six teams (the district champions,) one through six. After that the Wildcards, should be seeded seventh and eighth. That is the point of a wild card right? Teams that are the last ones in should be seeded last. This would have prevented two of the top teams in Class B playing in the first round. This is just one example of the NSAA seeding system messing up. State Wrestling is another time where the seeding system is flawed. Wrestlers aren’t seeded based on record, just how they perform at districts. The question at hand however isn’t the flawed seeding systems, but the apparent discrimination against Western schools.

The superintendent of Alliance Public Schools, Dr. Troy Unzicker happens to be on the NSAA board of directors. Dr. Unzicker is the director of district six. This includes the panhandle and Cherry County. He was elected to the position and has three years left on his term. “I don’t think there is any purposeful discrimination towards schools from western Nebraska, it is more of a state wide problem,” said Dr. Unzicker.

There are many weird things that seem to be a coincidence that happen to schools out west, this year for example, Class B-6 was the only district in class B where the higher seeds got home court advantage. These things need to be ironed out, to ensure a fair chance for all teams in the class to advance.

Unfortunately, I believe that this problem will continue to get worse. People, like Dr. Unzicker who continue to push for equality amongst both sides of the state are rare and few. We all want the same opportunities and the same chance to prove what we can do. I feel that we need to voice our opinions and actually attempt to make changes, otherwise we might not see any change.