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Time to change date of county hoops tourney
I am referring to the county basketball tournament. With the success of our local teams and the prospects of possible runs towards state titles, having the tourney in late January puts coaches and players in a tough spot. Especially when you consider that area tournaments are just one week later. A coach, whose fans are wanting their team to win the county title, must weigh the options of how long to keep starters in the starting line-up. Especially those who are a little banged up… and how much emphasis should be put into the game itself. Consider if Clarke County High, ranked number four in Class 3A, goes into the tourney and one of their top players gets hurt, then that player might not be available for the area tournament. And that tournament dictates whether a team goes to the playoffs or not, and if they are at home the first round or on the road. I can guarantee you that any coach wants their top players ready to go at that time of the season. Then consider teams that are in the same area during the regular season as was the case with Jackson and Thomasville. The two had just played each other last Tuesday with the winner earning the right to host the area tourney. They then turned around three days later and played again. If things go right they could be playing again in another week in a game that decides who gets to travel in sub-state or who gets to be at home. The game sandwiched in the middle, other than for some bragging rights, had absolutely no meaning… none whatsoever. I talked with each and every coach during this year's tournament and the general concensus was the need for a change of when it is played. So just coming from the coaches, it is time for a change. What would be the problem of playing the county tournament in late December? Each and every team in the county plays then anyway and who is to say that a team could not play in three tourneys during the holidays. If the games were set for Dec. 27-29 then you would have beaten the area rush, so the games would have some meaning and if a player got an injury then they would have more than a month to get well. Plus…why is it that the host team always "diplomatically" seeds the tournament so that their teams play the teams from Coffeeville? How about a different process for setting the seeds…like maybe put the names in a hat and then have a third party draw the names. The current process makes my job easy when getting the tournament bracket information. All I need is to know what time the games start because the host is gonna play the Panthers and the other team county squads will be matched up against each other. I realize you can't change everything over night, but to say that the county tournament is played when it is because it just always has been played like that is crazy. There are a lot of things we "used" to do, just because that was the norm…kinda like knocking two rocks together to start the fire for the evening meal. Progress happens and it is time for that with the county tournament. I think Jackson High School will be the site of the next year's tournament. Right now look at the calendar and find a date in late December, like Dec. 18-20. Set that as the date and let the other three county schools know and then they will have it on their schedule before they start working up one for the next year. That will be the best way to renew the interest in winning a county title.
That's all folks……..
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