High school sports have come to an end for the most part and the summer camps are starting. As a kid who played three high school sports, I can speak from experience when I say that they are awesome. To be part of a competitive team and be around a group of guys for a whole season is special and it's something that not every kid has the chance to do. Some of my fondest memories and best friends are from my high school sports teams and I crossed paths with people that I never would have had I not taken the court/field with them. I say all this because I really do love the high school sports and everything that comes with it such as the band, the cheerleaders, the bus trips and the team dinners, but there is something wrong with the high school sports system. There are two major problems that bother me these days and they are this: there are too many classes and there needs to be separation of public and private schools, a topic that I will cover in Part II later on. For now let's focus on the watering down of winning a championship by adding more classes.
I'm from Illinois so that is what I am basing my examples off of but I am sure most states are similar. For the longest time the Illinois High School Association went by two classes, 1A for the smaller schools and 2A for the larger schools. However, that changed a few years back when they decided to go to four classes for some sports and three for others. For football in Illinois there are eight. To me it is ridiculous how many classes there are. What is the point? People want to say that the small schools can't compete but when there were two classes there was a nice competition level and there were not many unreasonable matchups due to size. I think it all comes down to one thing and it relates to a blog post that I wrote several months ago. The youth sports nation has gone soft. There are now four state basketball champions and EIGHT football state champions. Give me a break. How many do you really need??
To me, there should be two for all sports and four for football. I realize that in football that size really can make a significant difference but not enough to warrant an eight class system. I never had the chance to go to the state tournament in any sport but I rarely did I ever feel that my team didn't belong in the gym with another school and we played a very tough schedule. Two years ago Meyers Leonard and the Robinson High team won the 1A state championship for basketball and somebody wants to try and tell me that that team couldn't have competed against the 2A or even 3A champion? I'm sure they could have but not now.
I don't get this whole movement to expand everything in sports. We want more Little League divisions so more kids can be All-Stars, we want more high school classes so nobody feels like they were unfairly matched and more teams can go to state, and worst of all the NCAA may expand to 96 teams for March Madness because why not let everybody in the Big Dance? No that's all wrong in my eyes. It should be something of an honor to be make a team, win a state championship or get invited into a tournament. I'm sure that it still is, but it just seems watered down. With eight high school football state champions who could remember who won in 2007? You couldn't because there's too many teams to remember. That's sad to me.
But money always wins and it's money that drives the leaders of these organizations to expand. With four classes the IHSA can make more money. With these small-town 1A schools coming to state they bring their whole town with them but when a Chicago Public League school makes it they bring maybe a bus or two of fans. Well that's simple, which makes more money? Now there are four schools in each of the four classes that go to the state tournament and that eliminates some of the big schools from Chicago that don't bring as many fans. Oh and did I mention that everybody now gets a trophy when they leave the state tournament. How nice.
As long as money drives sports, and that will be forever, competition will step aside if more money can be made. Is it right? No, I don't think so but I'm not the one rolling in the dollar bills. I am a big fan of competition and when there were two classes I thought that made for the best competition but now that it's different I don't think so. I almost find it boring to watch at times but more people get a trophy now and that must be nice.
Stay tuned for Part II of the series which will be posted in the coming days
Great thoughts enjoyed the article.
ReplyDeleteThought: What is the difference in splitting teams into divisions based on size, to splitting teams into divisions based on "skill" or how well they competed during the season chosen by a committee? People would say "well that would mean the lower division champions would be jv champions", and in all honesty that is usually how it is. People would say "the lower division champions would feel less accomplished". How can they not when the 1A football championship game is played at 9 am.
ReplyDeleteDoes the NAIA national championship mean anything? AAA or AA? College and high-school sports are apples and oranges, but why do people not complain about those divisions? Because of advantages of scholarships, funds etc?
There are no arguments because it is obvious. There are no arguments that the division II national champions could beat Oregon, LSU, Oklahoma. It is obvious because the best players go to the best schools. In high school kids don't have that choice. In high school why not have a skill based system? Most of the divisions will stay the same due to the law of large school=bigger teams=better teams.
This brings me to a wild and unprecedented suggestion. What if high school sports had the bowl system. I'm mostly educated in highschool football so I will use that as an example. Let there be 2, 8 team brackets for 2 state champions. 2 a's are plenty. 2 are plenty because who cares if the 3rd best team in 4a can beat the best team in 3a? no one cares who gets 3rd/4th in highschool football. Wouldnt teams rather be matched up with another team across the state, funded and sponsored by donors? the schools from each team receiving grants and donations for their teams accomplishments. Every team would have a big game to look forward to at the end of the year. Every team would have a shot at winning, every team would feel good about being chosen to play a big stakes game that means something to their school.
You say you never made it to state in basketball. What if instead of wasting time in sectionals you were invited to an 8 team, sponsored tournament at a neutral site? fans would come because its like an all-city tournament against teams you've never came against. You may not hold the state championship trophy, but you ended your season with playing teams you can compete with, Not getting matched up with the best teams in the state and being squashed. I understand that there are invitationals that basketball teams already attend. But this is bigger. It is the end of the season. They are your last games. Every game would be close because it is designed that way. 8 even teams competing for their last chance of a championship? Can you imagine..
Sorry my comment is a little un-organized. let me know what you think..
I think I like your idea but I want to make sure I have it straight. So you are saying everyone makes the "postseason" and there are like little tournaments that everybody plays in against teams on a similar skill level? I do like that...alot actually. Enrollment doesn't mean much sometimes because you could have 5,000 kids in your school but, for whatever reason, just not a lot of good basketball players. You still get dominated. Skill would be a better match. Only problem is determining who plays who.
ReplyDeleteyes, every team makes some sort of "postseason" but there is still the top x number of teams invited to the big show for a shot at the state title. Also, I'm sure the NCAA can give us some BCS computer program that will do all of the choosing.
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