NOTES on Dividing School Teams

Since Team Trophies (School Trophies) are awarded for Elementary, Middle School, and High School teams, much discussion over many years has been devoted to fairly classifying schools into these categories, both at the State and National levels.  There is no perfectly fair solution.  The Houston Chess Association follows the rules established by the Texas Chess Association.

To compete for a school team, a player must attend regular academic classes on that campus, not just the chess club.  Nevertheless, schools that allow players from neighboring schools without clubs, or homeschooled players, to participate in their chess clubs are to be commended.

Sixth Grade - If sixth grade is the highest grade on a campus, that campus is an Elementary School.  If it is the lowest grade on a campus, it is a Junior High School.  A sixth-grade-only campus is a Junior High School.  If that 6th-grade campus feeds "entirely and exclusively" into a single 7-8th grade campus, the sixth graders may be included in a 6-8th grade Junior High Team.  This is to say that all 6th graders from that school will attend the same Junior High, and no other 6th grade campus feeds into that Junior High.

Ninth Grade - Same principle as sixth grade.

Private, Parochial, Home School Associations, all K-12 and K-8 campuses  These teams are arbitrarily divided into separate teams K-5, 6-8, and 9-12.

Chess Clubs - With great sympathy and support to Community Chess Clubs, tournaments identified as "Scholastic" offer trophies only to school teams. The concern is that a "Club" could draw selected stronger players away from the "School" teams in an area, creating an "All-Star" team.  Whether this concern has any foundation in a particular case is not the issue, nor is the existence or non-existence of school teams in that area.
However, if players from two or more "Clubs" can be clearly identified prior to a Houston Chess Association Tournament, we may be able to award a Club Trophy between them.  Clubs must not consist of players primarily attending (or alumni of) one school, but may include players of any age.  A player would then compete for his school and for his club.  While computer tournament pairings are usually programmed to avoid pairing teammates or siblings against each other (unless there is no other player in that score group), they cannot also be programmed to avoid pairing club members.
.