Classes Still Create Hoosier Hysteria
July 27, 2017
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
This is the fourth part in a series on MHSAA tournament classification, past and present, that will be published over the next two weeks. This series originally ran in this spring's edition of MHSAA benchmarks.
Twenty years ago, Bloomington North High School won the Indiana High School Athletic Association boys basketball championship, defeating Delta 75-54 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
The date, March 22, 1997, is at the same time revered and disdained by traditionalists in the state who saw it as the last schoolboy championship game the state would ever host.
That’s how devout the game of basketball, particularly interscholastic basketball, had become in the Hoosier state during the 87 years a state champion – one state champion, to be precise – was crowned.
Following that 1997 season, the IHSAA moved to a four-class system for its roundball tournaments, like so many of its state association counterparts had done years earlier.
It would be shocking to find more than a small percentage of current high school basketball players around the country unfamiliar with the iconic movie Hoosiers, even though the film is now more than 30 years old.
And, the storyline for that blockbuster unfolded more than 30 years prior to its release, when small-town, undermanned Milan High School defeated Muncie Central High School 32-30 in the 1954 IHSAA title game.
Perhaps it’s because of the David vs Goliath notion, or the fame of the movie that replaced Milan with the fictional Hickory and real-life star Bobby Plump with Hollywood hero Jimmy Chitwood, or the simple fact that Indiana had something other states didn’t.
Whatever the reason, plenty of opposition remains to this day to basketball classification in the state.
The fact is, the small rural schools were regularly being beaten handily by the much larger suburban and city schools as the tournament progressed each season.
Small schools also were closing at a rapid rate following the state’s School Reorganization Act in 1959, as students converged on larger, centralized county schools. From 1960 to 2000, the number of schools entering the tournament dropped from 694 to 381, and in 1997 a total of 382 schools and 4,584 athletes began competition at the Sectional level (the first level of the IHSAA Basketball Tournament).
It was at the entry level of the tournament where school administrators felt the pain of the new class system, but not necessarily for the same nostalgic reasons as the fans who either attended or boycotted the tournament.
At the Sectional round of the tournament, the IHSAA was culling just 2 percent of the revenue, with the participating schools splitting the balance. So, when Sectional attendance dropped by 14 percent in that first year of class basketball, many schools realized a financial loss. It was money they had grown to count on in prior years to help fund various aspects of the department.
Schools cumulatively received more than $900,000 from Sectional competition in 1998, but that total was down from more than $1 million in the last year of the single-class tournament.
Yet, the current format provides a great deal more opportunity and realistic chances at championship runs for schools of all enrollments.
To date, 60 additional teams have championship or runner-up trophies on display in school trophy cases around Indiana.
That was the mission in front of then-IHSAA commissioner Bob Gardner (now National Federation executive director) once the board made its decision: to give thousands more student-athletes the opportunity for once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
As any statistician knows, figures can be manipulated to tell any side of a story. Declining attendance in year one of class basketball is such a number.
The truth is tournament attendance had been on a steady downward spiral since its peak of just over 1.5 million in 1962. By the last single-class event in 1997, the total attendance was half that.
The challenge then and today, as it is for all state associations, is to find that delicate balance for those holding onto tradition, those holding onto trophies, and the number of trophies to hand out.
Editor’s Note: Stories from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette in 1998 and from a 2007 issue of Indianapolis Monthly provided facts in this article.
Keeler Approaching Milestone Win Amid Final Season of Legendary Tri-unity Career
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
December 18, 2024
WYOMING – Mark Keeler has spent four decades coaching boys basketball at Tri-unity Christian High School.
And while he has many stories that he shares often, one of his favorites comes from the beginnings of the program.
“We didn't have bleachers in our gym when I first started,” Keeler said. “I would make my boys set several rows of chairs up so people could watch our games. And then they eventually added bleachers that were donated by the church.”
Keeler’s teams have been filling up the bleachers since he took the reins for the 1983-84 season, and he has built the program into one of the most successful in the state.
Now, as he leads his team through the opening month of his 38th and final campaign, Keeler is nearing a rare milestone only achieved by a few. He is expected to soon become the fourth coach in MHSAA history to reach 700 wins.
Tri-unity is 3-1 this winter, making Keeler a combined 697-217 coaching the Defenders. Roy Johnston is the winningest coach in state boys basketball history with 833 victories earned during stints at Yale, Howell and Beaverton before retiring in March. He is followed by longtime River Rouge coach Lofton Greene (728) and Clarkston’s Dan Fife (703).
“It's a statement of longevity with these men,” Keeler said. “All three of them were very successful at the schools they were at and most of them spent a long time at one school, just like I’m doing now. I’ve never coached anywhere but Tri-unity, and that is quite a privilege to have been a part of this school.”
Keeler reached 697 wins with last week’s nonconference victory over Wyoming Kelloggsville and can move closer to the milestone with another Friday night against Grandville Calvin Christian. The Defenders then play East Grand Rapids and Grand Rapids West Catholic, respectively, at the Cornerstone University Holiday Classic at the end of the month.
Keeler, who retired from a 40-year teaching career two years ago, started coaching in 1983-84 when Tri-unity had only an eighth and ninth-grade team. After two seasons of playing subvarsity, the school formed its varsity team for the start of the 1985-86 season, with Keeler at the helm. After three seasons with the varsity, he took a break from coaching (but continued teaching and serving as athletic director).
“I had to get my priorities right with the Lord,” Keeler said. “I was trying to do too much and lost focus, and it was something that needed to be done. I look back, and it was something that set me up for the rest of my coaching career.”
Keeler returned for the 1990-91 season and has been at the forefront ever since. He has guided the Defenders to six state championships, including last year’s with a victory over Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart in the Division 4 Final. Tri-unity also has won titles in 1996, 2002, 2006, 2011 and 2022, while finishing as Finals runner-up six times.
Keeler’s teams also have reached the Semifinals 15 times, won 19 Regional championships, 26 District titles and 22 conference championships. His players have filled Class D and Division 4 all-state teams for years, with surely the best-known 2000 grad Chris Kaman – who went on to play at Central Michigan and 13 seasons in the NBA – and Brandon Voorhees, who led Tri-unity to the 2002 title as a senior, went on to CMU and then Park University in Missouri, and played professionally overseas.
“I’m so glad that I’ve been able to just be here this long,” said Keeler, who was inducted into the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan Hall of Fame in 2016. “I love Tri-unity. My wife taught there, we met there, and my daughters went all the way through and graduated from there, so it's always been a part of my life. There's been so many quality people that have been there along the way.
“I've been very blessed to have had so many quality players and parents and coaches. It’s amazing when I look back at all those that have been a part of the program.”
Keeler, a man with a strong Christian faith, could’ve gone elsewhere during his career, but believed he had a calling at Tri-unity.
“I've had some opportunities to move on and go to different places, but whenever I prayed about it I always thought that this is where the Lord wanted me and that's always my priority,” Keeler said. “I want to please him first, because as a Christian that's my priority. I just thought this is where he placed me, so I’m going to set roots and do the best I can.”
Tri-unity senior guard Keaton Blanker, one of two returning starters on this year’s team, is excited to see his coach reach such a prestigious milestone.
“It’s the perfect scenario for him with this being his last year and getting to 700 wins,” Blanker said. “He’s going to leave his mark, and it’s well deserved. Being a small Division 4 school, he’s helped to put the program on the map and I remember growing up and watching his teams win state titles. I was waiting for the opportunity to play for him so I could help do the same thing.”
While Keeler is grateful for the unbridled success of the program on the court, creating lasting relationships with his players off the court and helping them grow in their faith has been equally gratifying.
“I know without a doubt that the Lord has blessed our program.” Keeler said. “There are a lot of great coaches out there that are probably better at Xs and Os than I am, but I think I’m a strong motivator and build good relationships with the players and get to know them.
“I let each player know that I want them to grow in their walk with the Lord, and that's where my priority is. To be an influence toward Christ, not away from Christ.”
Past Tri-unity standout Brent Voorhees, who has been Keeler’s assistant coach the last several years and will succeed him next season, said Keeler has never changed his approach to the game.
“Coming back to coach with him, the one thing that stands out is he doesn't waver on his principles,” Voorhees said. “A lot has changed in the sport in terms of analytics and how coaches attack things, but he has definitely stayed firm in his approach that it’s defense first and he preaches the team aspect. It’s never about an individual.
“He doesn’t let anything off the court distract him from goals. He's really good at keeping the goal in front of the guys. He keeps them focused on the goal of winning state championships and also becoming great, young Christian men in the community, which is what he stands for and always comes first.”
The Defenders graduated eight players from last year’s team, but Blanker and senior Joey Mellon are back with several newcomers as they bid to send Keeler out with one more title at Breslin Center.
“I enjoy putting them together and getting them to mesh as a team,” Keeler said. “For me, I have learned that defense wins championships. The old adage that offense wins games, but defense wins championships ... I so believe that with all my heart.”
Reporter Dean Holzwarth, a longtime member of the West Michigan media, is also the junior varsity head coach and a varsity assistant for the Tri-unity Christian boys basketball program.
Dean Holzwarth has covered primarily high school sports for Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV for five years after serving at the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years along with shorter stints at the Ionia Sentinel and WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Surrounded by celebrating players and assistant coaches (including the author, far right), Tri-unity boys basketball coach Mark Keeler (hand in pocket) enjoys a moment near the end of last season’s Division 4 championship game. (Middle) Keeler, middle, huddles with his team during the 1997 run to Breslin, when the Defenders finished Class D runners-up. (Below) Keeler raises the 2002 Class D championship trophy to the cheers of Tri-unity’s supporters. (MHSAA file photos.)