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.
Vicksburg, Gaylord Thrive on Plate Power to Earn Saturday Return
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
June 15, 2023
EAST LANSING – Vicksburg’s Kennedy Davis didn’t get mad, she got even.
Davis ripped what looked like a three-run home run Thursday morning in the second inning, but it curved just foul on its way out of Michigan State University’s Secchia Stadium.
No worries, as Davis connected on a nearly identical three-run bomb in the bottom of the sixth inning – this one a little farther right and clearly in the field of play – to erase a one-run deficit and lift the Bulldogs to a 4-2 victory over Richmond in a Division 2 Semifinal.
“It was the same pitch she threw me the first time, when I bombed it foul,” explained Davis, the only starting senior for Vicksburg, who also went the distance for the pitching win.
“I heard them call the same number as the first one, so I was ready. It was a meatball on the inside of the plate.”
Davis sent that “meatball” into the oak trees over the left field scoreboard and, in so doing, sent Vicksburg to its first softball championship game since 2016 – when it lost, ironically, to Richmond in the D2 Final.
Vicksburg (41-3-1) will face another big challenge in Saturday’s 10 a.m. Final against top-ranked Gaylord, which used three pitchers to hold off Dearborn Divine Child, 2-1, in Thursday’s second D2 Semifinal.
Vicksburg coach Paul Gephart, in his 10th season, sure remembers that Finals loss to Richmond seven years ago – and recalls Davis being a little girl watching from the bleachers.
“Her cousin was on that team, and Kennedy was just a little girl in the stands,” Gephart recalled. “I reminded her about that this morning, and I could tell it motivated her.”
Davis’s home run was certainly the difference against a pesky Richmond team which entered the game unranked and playing just 16 hours after its Quarterfinal win Wednesday evening.
In spite of that, the Blue Devils took the lead Thursday by plating both of their runs in the top of the third inning.
Emma Hildreth singled and scored on a triple by returning all-stater Piper Clark, her 55th RBI of the season. Clark then scored on a single by Ashley Stafford.
Richmond, which finished 29-10 in coach Howard Stuart’s 45th year, looked like it might win by that score behind the pitching of sophomore Katie Shuboy.
Shuboy allowed just five hits in six innings of work – two by second baseman Peyton Smith, then singles by Delaney Moore and Kayla Chisholm, before the pivotal three-run homer by Davis in the sixth.
“This team always seems to find a way,” said Gephart, whose other pitcher, junior Audrie Dugan, broke her hand sliding during Regionals. “We’ve certainly come back from bigger deficits, but that hit was huge in that situation, playing here.”
After ripping the game-winning homer, Davis went to the circle and retired the Blue Devils 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh inning. She allowed two earned runs on seven hits and one walk, with three strikeouts.
Gaylord 2, Dearborn Divine Child 1
Top-ranked Gaylord (38-2) used two solo home runs and three pitchers to stave off an upset bid by unranked Divine Child and advance to its first Final after previously reaching the Semifinals in 2021 with many of the same players.
Her team behind 1-0 after two innings, Abby Radulski led off the third with a home run and Alexis Kozlowski did the same thing one inning later, giving the Blue Devils all the scoring they would need.
It wasn’t easy, however, as Divine Child put multiple runners on base in the fifth and sixth innings, but was unable to bring another run home.
“They put tons of pressure on us, and we were fortunate to persevere,” said first-year Gaylord coach Tony Vaden. “Our girls have learned to stay calm, and they will take advantage whenever a pitcher makes a mistake.”
The Falcons scored their lone run in the second inning on a single from senior Allison Surella. Isabella DePaulis led Divine Child (28-8) with two hits.
Gaylord was able to hold off the Falcons the rest of the way behind the pitching trio of junior Avery Parker, Radulski and sophomore Aubrey Jones.
Parker went the first three innings and allowed two hits and one run, Radulski allowed four hits in 2 2/3 innings, and Jones shut the door in relief – coming on with two on and two out in the top of the sixth and striking out three of the four batters she faced.
“I just wanted to come in and get the job done for my team,” explained Jones, the younger sister of junior standout Jayden Jones, who is out for the season with a broken wrist.
“It stinks that she can’t play right now, but she’s our biggest cheerleader. It just shows how many good players we have.”
Sophomore Jessica Nelson pitched a gem for Divine Child, allowing just five hits in six innings against the powerful Gaylord lineup. Nelson walked one and struck out four.
PHOTOS (Top) Vicksburg celebrates during its Division 2 Semifinal win Thursday at Secchia Stadium. (Middle) The Bulldogs’ Peyton Smith readies to make a play. (Below) Gaylord’s Alexis Kozlowski rounds second base during her home run. (Photos by Adam Sheehan/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)