Here's a You Tube video explaining this Petition and issues with the WIAA (Washington Interscholastic Activities Association) and its media policy: 

[video still in production]

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By signing this Petition, you are telling the WIAA these 4 things:

1.  You want Northwest Ballers (NWB) to have credentials again.
2.  You want the WIAA Director (who makes $250,000/yr) to pro-actively find out what athletes, coaches, parents, fanbases and communities want for media coverage -- it's their activity, so they should have a say.
3.  You want diversity in media -- not just an NFHS stream monopoly and newspaper/TV stories that disappear after a day.  Plus, the "new media" and freelancers are often more fun to watch on social media pages for free, and to re-watch again and again, for life...as opposed to a TV station's newscast for one night
4.  You know there's something fishy going on with WIAA and you don't like it.

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EXPLANATION of what in the world is going on with the WIAA -- outta touch  & may be running a media monopoly for kickbacks....

(1)   Fans have been watching NWB for 7 years and want to keep watching

Countless fans  want Northwest Ballers (NWB) to get media credentials back, so that NWB can come to Husky Stadium and cover high school football semis & championship events, and make highlights.

NWB has been around since 2017 and founder James Christianson has been covering championships back to 2014 when he was with Under The Radar Sports Media.  He has been a fixture in championship coverage for a decade and  fans have said they want to continue to enjoy his work.

In the link below on page 7 of WIAA's new media policy book (link below), it says that for "Emerging Media" like NW Ballers needs to have a website, professional branding and tell the story by apparently narrating over the highlight. No fans are sitting looking for these technicalities. What NWB does is media and the content is all we care about and want to see.

WIAA's online Media Policy handbook 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Section B3 is hypocritically odd, in that the WIAA's own Instagram page is filled with highlights that are just like NWB's ... simple videos with music... no story telling or narration.  And this looks like the WIAA's most popular internet platform, here on Instagram:

WIAA's Instagram page filled with videos they don't like (per B3)

 So, WIAA can do it, but other media can't. That's NOT real media that promotes the sport and informs the viewer. But, WIAA does it. Hmmm.

 

(2)   The $250,000 Exec. Director is NOT listening to the people he serves. 

The WIAA is made up of "member schools" who pay fees. The schools get money from the tax-paying parents.  If schools are WIAA members and the schools are made up of the ATHs who have parents, then YOU parents and students and athletes ARE the WIAA.  It's kind of like our political system... taxpayers pay the WIAA to serve the schools and do the administrative things that the schools don't have time to do. So, the WIAA should only hear your wishes, especially when parents control the legal right to the image of their kids, which the WIAA is deciding on without any parental input/consent. (The waivers CANNOT waive a parent's Constitutional right under Troxel vs. Granville, 530 US 57 (2000). Only parents have the right to the control, care and custody of their kids.)

Plus, it's just a normal, decent, common courtesy and respectful thing for the WIAA to find out what the parents, ATHs, fans, coaches and schools actually want. 

But, the WIAA is completely out-of-touch with modern times. They are stuck in the 1970's with their outdated definition of what "media" actually means. One definition is simply "a medium by which to share a message to the masses...including through TV, radio, newspaper and the internet."  But, the WIAA has created their own skewed, narrow-minded limited policy because of their personal tradition, not based on reality and how the "masses are reached" in today's internet dominated society. The WIAA is living in the past.

The WIAA actually serves the athletes (ATHs), member schools and parents, just like politicians are supposed to serve the people who pay their salaries.  THEREFORE, the WIAA must start listening to what those people want for media coverage.  WIAA Executive Director Mick Hoffman makes $250,000/year. He should earn that salary by taking time to figure out what the ATHs and people want & how they want these once-in-a-lifetime events to be recorded and highlighted so they can cherish the memories for the rest of their lives. That's THE POINT of recording an event... to remember it vividly and share it.  Why deprive and limit the member schools, ATHs and their parents of how these events remembered? 

Hoffman and Sean Bassette (in charge of media credentials) are just two (2) people deciding what THEY want for media coverage, while ignoring literally 100's of 1,000's of players, coaches, family, students, fans and high school sports communities.  The WIAA calls itself a "service organization" on its Mission Statement page on its website. But the WIAA operates more like a dictatorship. That needs to end.  

(3)   "I want the option to watch and choose a variety 'emerging media' social media platforms for highlights, not just KING 5, NFHS streams, or tweets from newspapers".  The WIAA claims it values diversity, so why is there a monopoly on media coverage? 

Firstly, the WIAA should learn what the people want, via this petition. But, then also get direct feedback from semifinals teams -- you know, the players... ones who the semis are all about.  "Emerging Media" like NWB and several other freelancers provide better highlights most of the time than "Traditional Media".  Some freelancers make really professional looking, Hollywood-level productions.  The WIAA should let each of the 24 semifinal football teams have at least 1 selection, maybe 2,  for what  "new media" can cover the semis & title games.  (There likely will be repeats, so there won't be 24 separate media voted on; therefore, they should actually get 2 votes. End zones and sidelines have plenty of room). 

What is being filmed is once-in-a-lifetime memories and the  "glory days" of these ATHs in their youth. Why should we not get a variety of highlights and choose from the best ones we enjoy, to treasure the rest of our lives?  The government would never dictate and a requirement that wedding photographers can only take black and white photos. "No color pics and no videos of weddings." That would be enraging and insane.  That's just how bizarre the WIAA's new mandates are ... pretty much only permitting   "Traditional Media" into semis and finals and having NFHS & ESN do live streams, which serves a purpose, mostly for parents and extended family who can't attend games, but people want to watch the fun highlights of NWB, et al. 

Seeing a football play on an 50" LCD TV at home from a KING 5 newscast is the very same thing as seeing it through the same TV screen on NWB's YouTube channel or any other young, talented  freelancer's Instagram page on my phone, laptop, or big screen TV.   Again, many of the "Emerging Media" highlights are often better and more fun to watch than an NFHS 2-hour streams or  KING 5 sportscasts (even though that station is great at what they do and they serve a purpose for their niche). 

But, the WIAA must recognize that this newer "Emerging Media" and freelance videographers are the MAIN media that ATHs, fans and parents are watching.  The old-school,  "Traditional Media" ROOT SPORTS no longer broadcasts football championships.  KING 5 eliminated "The Blitz".   KOMO, KIRO and the Seattle Times rarely cover high school sports at all anymore.  But, they all have social media pages (X, YouTube, Instagram) because that's where everyone is watching HS highlights.  Traditional media methods are dying out like messages hand-written on papyrus and  sent by pigeon or horseback.  So, why would the WIAA disregard the new leading role of social media over TV and print media? 

One purpose of the WIAA is to help promote athletics and participation therein.  That is best done when the most popular forms of media are allowed to create highlights that ATHs, their families, fans, coaches and member schools can enjoy for a lifetime.  The WIAA's disrespect toward the work of freelancers who post on social media (and not TV) is just as bad as when people hated on the invention of television because they loved their newspapers and magazines only.  It's the same mentality as someone who ignores modern medicine because of the tradition of mom slapping castor oil on every wound, sickness or symptom. 

(4) "I know there's something fishy going on with the WIAA"

I know that the WIAA approves of local Eli Sports Network (ESN) as the one  and only media group who can do the camera and production work for NFHS live streams.   ESN and NFHS make money off subscriptions for the streams.  Livestreaming and the technology to do it are just as new as YouTube and everyone having their own laptops.  "Emerging Media"  group "Ball is Life" started in 2005.  Why does the WIAA prioritize or almost monopolize ESN's contract to do the livestreams when ESN was a Johnny-come-lately, and started in 2011?

Why is the non-profit WIAA called a "sponsor" on ESN's website, in the right side of the page, here:

https://www.elisportsnetwork.com/

Also,  why is there a 2-minute limit on any highlights that are done by media, even a KING 5?  It seems that WIAA wants to make it so that ESN has no competition.  In other words, the WIAA has made rules to limit all media, to ensure ESN's monopoly on maximum coverage to get maximum subscriptions and money.  In other words, if the WIAA allowed NWB and many other new media platforms on the field, there would be less people who would care about an NFHS or ESN subscription. It seems like the WIAA must be getting kickbacks for setting things up that ESN gets paid and has that monopoly. That's actually a form of exploitation of the athletes and ESN lobbied for exclusive control of coverage.  WIAA's own Mission here: 

WIAA Mission Statement Page

...says that the WIAA protects ATHs from exploitation (in the 2nd bullet under "Purpose and Goals" section. They are participating in the exploitation and profiting from it.  At the very least, the WIAA is looking out for its friend ESN that WIAA is an official "sponsor" of. And all that would make it all about the money or control for a business and not about the ATHs and "member schools". 

This plays out just like a politician who asks for our vote, then goes to Washington D.C. and ignores our wishes and finds out all the backdoor, handshake deals and lobbyist kickbacks he/she can get by making laws and rules that benefit businesses and corporations and not We The People.

This needs to be investigated and regulated.

The waivers that parents sign when their kids play sports are void because the parents need to fully understand the ramifications of the "contract" or waiver they agreed to. The WIAA makes you sign a piece of paper, under duress/coercion, or your kid does not play sports.  So, parents don't get to really think about what they signed.  Then the WIAA makes a rule that NFHS and ESN get to take video of ATHs and sell it back to the parents.  What if a modeling agency found a picture of a youth online and used that picture to make money, without parental consent?  The parents could sue them for the entirety of that money.

For WIAA events, the parents cannot hire their own videographer.  If the parents' favorite highlights come from NWB or another much more talented media group, the WIAA also says, "Nope! That's not real media! You don't get any options. There's ONE type of highlight for you to catch the full game and see if your kids made a play. If it's not on KING 5 or if the ESN / NFHS streaming cameraman missed it, too bad.  We own the rights to your kids' images and we sell them back to you from our friends, ESN. That's all you get."

The WIAA also automatically credentials "Traditional Media" like Max Preps, or Scorebook Live or newspapers like The Herald (Everett, WA newspaper) ... all "Traditional Media" that will take pictures at the semis and allow you to buy them from their site. They allow media into Husky Stadium that makes money off the images they take. Many make a salary. Even KING 5 makes money when doing a newscast we watch for free.  But, James from Northwest Ballers (NWB) shoots for free, on his own free time, posts videos on social media forever, for everyone to enjoy and he doesn't make a dime off of it. 

WIAA is allowing for-profit media in (that few people care about) and denying COMPLETELY FREE media and others like NWB (that most people enjoy more than "Traditional Media").

The WIAA is either completely incompetent or corrupt when it comes to their media policy. It must change now.  It's 2025 and the WIAA Staff must catch up to modern society and technology and actually have a conscience to care about the desires of the people whom the WIAA claims to serve the needs / wants of.