Views vary locally on IHSAA proposal

By Adam Wire

April 29, 2008 12:05 am

— ANDERSON — A proposal to change the current four-class high school state tournament system for basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball to three classes has its supporters and detractors locally.
The plan, made by the Indiana Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, is in the preliminary stages. Athletic directors throughout Indiana are being surveyed on the idea. They, in turn, are polling their coaches.
Under the proposal, the largest 128 schools would be placed in Class 3A, while the next 128 would be in Class 2A. The remaining 151 schools would be in Class A.
In 3A and 2A, the state tournament would feature 32 four-team sectionals, followed by a one-day, two-game regional and a one-day, two-game semistate. All three state championship games would be played on the same day.
Anderson High School athletic director Steve Schindler said he favors examining the idea.
“When the IHSAA originally went to the four classes (in 1997), they were supposed to evaluate it at some point, and that’s not really happened,” Schindler said. “It would help cut down on the travel, which would be good, especially with the way gas prices are. You do away with the midweek (sectional) games, and you kind of localize the sectionals.”
The latter point was what enthused Highland athletic director Neal Rector the most. He said his coaches generally were in favor of a move to the three-class system. Schindler said his coaches were “in favor of at least looking at it.”
“For basketball, I think it would be something that may help some enthusiasm between schools,” Rector said. “Thinking through the situation, I don’t know of a real good reason to oppose it.”
Based on 2006-07 school enrollments, few Madison County area schools would be affected greatly by such a move. AHS’ enrollment of 1,549 in ’06-07 ranked it 56th among IHSAA schools, while Highland’s 1,512 placed it 62nd. Pendleton Heights (1,177) was ranked 97th. All three schools currently compete in Class 4A.
Elwood (578, No. 201), Alexandria (545, No. 213), Madison-Grant (530, No. 221), Frankton (465, No. 246) and Shenandoah (459, No. 251) would be Class 2A schools, as they are now, but would be competing against larger schools within their own class. Currently, Elwood is the state’s largest 2A school. Under the proposed format, Angola (enrollment 892) would be the largest, while Seeger (455) would be the smallest.
Lapel, Daleville and Liberty Christian would be in Class A. Lapel moved up to Class 2A this season for the first time.
Shenandoah girls basketball coach Todd Salkoski isn’t in favor of the idea.
“I think there is a lot of support for it, because it would localize a lot of tournaments,” Salkoski said. “I wouldn’t care much for it, because I’ve seen the way it would break down the classes, and some of the smaller 3A private schools would come down. The way I see it, the difference between the top 3A school and the bottom 3A school would be something like 3,000 students, and I don’t see a lot of equity in that.”
Indeed, based on ’06-07 enrollments, the difference between No. 1 Ben Davis (4,495) and No. 128 NorthWood (893) would be 3,602 students.
Schindler said the earliest any change would be made would be 2010, because of the process that would need to be followed.