USA-365.com Commentary

Indiana proven right on 4 classes?

A special USA-365 supplement by Mark Smith

1-16-2006

CROWN POINT (1-16-2006) - In 1997, the state of Indiana dropped its long-standing, all-inclusive one class high school athletic post-season system and adopted a system that classifies teams according to enrollment, a 'class system.'

I liked it. It wasn't a coincidence that, prior to what became known as class sports playoffs, Hanover Central had never won a regional in three decades in any sport. It wasn't a coincidence that no team from the small school Porter County Conference (PCC) had ever won a state title, even though the PCC teams had been around almost 75 years.

Only those who reject logic would say that Washington Township (enrollment 200) never beat Valparaiso (enrollment 2000) in basketball because they 'didn't try hard enough.' That's like saying General Custer could have won at Little Big Horn if he'd just given 120%. But I did have one stipulation. I had one problem with the IHSAA's 1997 change. I've been saying for about 10 years now that I wish the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) would have gone to two classes of prep sports playoffs for team sports (basketball, football, softball, baseball, volleyball). Big school and small school. Two classes. Two state tournaments. Two champions.

My argument included the line that, where I came from in Illinois they have a two class system and they like it! Maybe I should visit more often.

You may have seen the news this month that the Illinois High School Athletic Association has voted to go to four classes for the 2007-2008 school year. Four classes for volleyball, football, baseball, softball and basketball. Not soccer, although I don't know why.

Soccer is the only team sport (a team sport is a sport you cannot win an individual title in) which does not have a class playoff. Exactly what Indiana has.

Can this be real? Indiana, a state which prides itself on being 20 years behind the mainstream is, at least in the context of its western neighbor, 10 years ahead of the curve. Make no mistake, Illinois tried two classes and decided that four would be better.

The same arguments that were prevalent in Indiana prep sports circles in the 1990s have arisen in Illinois. One Chicago Sun-Times columnist suggested that the IHSA "just guarantee everybody a title," and that four classes cheapens the value of any one state title. It's like splitting a pot four ways.

One of the problems here is the basic motivational problem in sports. In the 21st century we have become educated enough to understand that who wins a ball game is the least meaningful thing on the planet. So, it is not enough for you to win. You must have everyone else lose before you can be happy. Not only must your love be returned and rewarded, your hate hunger must be satisfied. It's why Chicago media and baseball fans consider the White Sox-Cubs series the biggest series of the season. Because not only can their side win, but those dirty 'mud people' on the other side will certainly lose. That's the ultimate thrill of new age sports.

Where does this come from? Youth coaches, probably. They foster an us-against-them mentality. Anything a future foe says is 'bulletin board material,' something you post in your locker room to motivate your side. Hopefully a future foe will brag and boast so you can post it for your team. They'll resent it and try harder to beat the braggart.

I'm curious. Is the best part of winning in team sports the fact that you made someone else lose? Are individuals in the 'non-team sports' like cross country and swimming and gymnastics, all better people because they can be happy with their personal best score ever and not have the need to defeat everyone?

Here's some undisputed truth.

In the 10 years of Indiana class sports playoffs I have never heard any team disappointed because they only won a 1A, 2A or 3A state title. In the last 10 years, at least 20 schools of under 1,000 have won the first state title in the history of the school, proving to me anyway that they were 'locked out' before in the one class system. I was there for a couple of those titles and it was all good. I have never heard of a town or community which did not celebrate a state titlist or a state runner up just because it occurred in a small school class. Maybe you have. I haven't.

I have never heard of anyone say that the Indiana state football tournament is bogus because they have always had classes of competition from the start. Years later, no one mentions that Hobart's four state football titles (1987, 1989, 1991, 1993) were Class 4A crowns that they likely would not have won in Class 5A. And again, the argument that football is somehow 'different,' requiring the same class concept that is wrong in basketball and baseball. That's separate but equal. A failed concept. That's just not logic and you know it. Athletics all fall in the same overall spectrum as a teaching tool. Basketball and football are the same when it comes to their life preparatory value.

The precious Indiana state basketball tournament, which saw tumbling attendance figures early in this decade (and in the 1970s and 1980s, it should be recalled), actually did a little better last year. Attendance was up. It was said quietly in the late 90s that a generation of old codgers would have to pass on before a state like Indiana (with two feet planted firmly in the 1950s) accepted four classes or prep playoffs. Younger minds, not bogged down by the 'good old days' had to creep into positions of authority. Funny thing about the good old days. There was a time when black folks, Catholics and girls were not allowed to play sports in Indiana. Hoosiers were better back then right?

For the record, Blacks and Catholics became big gate attractions. We're still working on girls. Most male basketball fans still feel the only place you pay to see women perform is at the 'Naked Girl Club' down the street. Prep fans think class sports playoffs began in 1997 but they actually began in 1973 when Indiana went to two classes, girls and boys. Far fetched? Really? Sports playoffs broken down into similar groups of competitors for the purpose of fairness. No difference. But whether the cash flow is constant is somewhat irrelevant. If high school activity decisions were totally revenue based, we might not have gymnastics or band or theater or cheerleaders.

There is a wildly popular misconception about prep sports. Contrary to popular belief, the state tournament is not supposed to define who is the best team. If it was, it would be seeded so No. 1 and No. 2 could not meet (as they often do) at the sectional or regional level.

The tournament, according to the IHSAA, among others, is to give everyone from every part of the state a realistic chance to win a state crown, which we seem to value. I don't believe that a true competitor wants everyone else but him to lose. I don't believe that a good human being wants everyone else but him to lose. That's one lesson of class sports and it's a good one.

To be the best you can be is about you. It's a little egotistical, but it's largely good. Corrupt politicians, gangsters, bigamists and bank robbers are basically egomaniacs. They can't get enough because it's all about them. But in truth, progressive people, great entertainers, teachers, people who are leaders and make changes are often also egomaniacs. They have to be able to step out from the crowd and get the job done.

But to be the best in the state, nation or world is about everybody else. The thought is, 'I know I'm great but that's not enough. I want everyone else to know that I'm great, too. I want it recognized so no one can deny it. I want that No. 1 ranking and I won't share it. I want everyone else to be No. 2.' Let's hear it for me!!

As for me, I have long since stopped caring about being No. 1 in anything. I don't really like awards. I care about doing a good job, but I don't sacrifice everything to do the best job I possibly can so I or we can beat every one else. I don't see who benefits from that? I just want everybody, including myself, to be okay, by a reasonable standard. I'm talking about real life, but prep sports is supposed to be real life practice. Sports are metaphors for life. That's why team sports are better than individual sports, because you have to adjust to other people to do your job.

But that's another argument for another day.

In this earthly recreation we call sports, I want small schools like Hanover Central, Andrean and Marquette to have the same joy of a season in the sun that previously was virtually limited to the 2000-kid Merrillvilles, Valparaisos and Lake Centrals. I do not want to be associated with old timers and perverted thinkers who begrudge schools like Hanover Central (2004), Lowell (2005) and even Andrean (2004 and 2005) that one brief shining moment to stand on ground both real and fake, hoisting high a trophy that, in one respect means nothing and in another means everything.

Because of how you have to think to be a coach and an athletic participant, I'm sure the argument will continue. But I'm glad that some common sense folks who aren't lock step in the athletic 'Gestapo' have defeated those who preach hard work and earnest effort and then bust a gut talking about how one or two rewards is better than four.

To deny good people to satisfy your ego is wrong. As is almost always the case, the good of the many outweighs the good of the few.

Neither Illinois nor Indiana is perfect. The number of classes can always be debated. A playoff class that has more than 100 participants, in my mind, is unavoidably slanted AGAINST teams with less resources and depth, READ: small schools. But too many classes become a strain on facilities and creates a need to qualify for the playoffs, the next great Indiana debate. Illinois has eight classes for football, two too many. Indiana has five classes for football, which as we will soon find out, is one too few.

But Illinois' upcoming move to four class playoffs for team sports other than football validates the move Indiana made in 1997. The IHSAA was right. Illinois just said so. Like it or not, there's really no other way to look at it.