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.
Thrower Claims Lone Individual Title to Lead Hackett to Team 3-Peat
By
Tom Lang
Special for MHSAA.com
June 3, 2023
Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep just keeps winning and winning.
This time the Irish took home their fourth title in the last five Lower Peninsula Division 4 Track & Field Finals, on Saturday at Hudsonville.
Hackett’s only individual title was taken by discus winner Nathan Buchmann, a senior, who was fine knowing he was the shortest in stature among all the sizable competitors.
“In the offseason after football I worked out every day, working towards this goal,” he said after getting his medal. “I would say this takes 80 percent technique and 20 percent strength to throw the discus. So, length can help but if you have good technique and are really strong, that will play into it.
“I think we are very balanced throughout the meet today,” he said about teammates that scored points in finishes other than first place. “We have 13 guys here today, and we have people in a lot of the races. But I do not run; I have too short of legs to be a fast runner,” he said with a chuckle.
Buchmann had to work through a hip injury to compete this spring.
“I think the setbacks are what make you strong,” he said. “You can either give up through the setbacks or push forward and become better.”
Coach Charissa Dean agreed.
“The kids have big hearts,” she said after all the points were totaled and the Irish were on top once again, with 53. “They worked hard. They had a lot of potential when we started the season. And we had a lot of drive to put in the work, and we are happy the results came out the way they did.”
Reading was runner-up at 47 points, followed by Wyoming Potter’s House Christian with 42, then Fowler and Flint Beecher each with 37 points.
Senior Lezawe “Moses” Osterink, of Potter’s House Christian, placed second in 1,600 but took the 3,200 title as defending champ of both. He dominated the latter by lapping the field with a final lap kick that resembled more of a superhero speedster.
“Nobody really took it out that hard at the start,” he said. “There was a freshman (Marek Butkiewicz of Hackett) that tried to get the pace going quick, but me and Dakota (Dykhuis of Montabella) just kind of sat back and gradually pulled him through.
“We took it gradually, and I was just relying that I could kick.”
Kick did he ever. The trio were neck and neck the majority of the race in a grouping ahead of the pack.
“With 400 to go I just tried to go all out,” Osterink said. “I had a lot more left than I thought and I was pleased with the win. Not really the time, but that doesn’t matter, especially this hot out.”
The overall meet was in the low 90s/high 80s heat and searing sun all day. So, race officials allowed the unique opportunity for coaches to spray the runners with water and give them water bottles.
“It was very weird because I’ve never taken water to drink while I’m running, so I didn’t know how that would feel,” Osterink said. “And they were spraying us and hitting us in the face. It was kind of fun.”
Junior Tyler Lenn of Marine City Cardinal Mooney defeated Osterink at his own game in the 1,600.
“I’m feeling great,” Lenn said after grabbing the medal. “I said to a newspaper after one of my races (during the season) I was right where I wanted to be. This has been a long rebuilding process for me since an injury back in the fall, and I set a pretty high goal the day the injury happened. I was telling myself I needed to fulfill what I said I would do at the beginning of last cross country season. And that is what I did today.”
Lenn suffered an ankle sprain from a misstep that turned worse because he kept running through the season on it.
“Coming back from that was pretty tough, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said. 
“Perseverance; I said from the beginning what I was going to do. I kept my eye on that target, and no matter the circumstances life threw at me, that I was going to make it happen and I am a man of my word.”
Jaylin Townsend, a senior from Flint Beecher, dominated the short races. He won the 100 dash (10.67) and 200 dash at 22 seconds flat. It was his third 100 win at a Finals.
“I put in a lot of work; I had to three-peat,” he said after the 100. “There’s a lot of great competition here, so I knew I had to come out and run my best.”
Concord in the 400 (43.72), Buckley in the 800 (1:30.76) and 1,600 (3:29.13) and Potter’s House in the 3,200 (8:14.18) were relay champs Saturday. Reading’s Tayshawn Bester won the 110 hurdles (15.13), and Athens’ Landen Bennett won the 300 (39.85). Caseville’s Nathan Feltner won the 400 (50.76), and Vestaburg’s Owen Patton claimed the 800 (1:55.11).
Fruitport Calvary Christian’s Bradley Richards won the high jump (6-10), and Peck’s Alex Affer won the long jump (23-4). McBain Northern Michigan Christian’s Isaac Bowden was first in pole vault (13-0), and Brown City’s Kyle Affer won shot put (49-2).
PHOTOS (Top) Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep celebrates its third-straight LPD4 title Saturday. (Middle) Cardinal Mooney's Tyler Lenn, far right, sets the pace in the 1,600. (Below) Flint Beecher's Jaylin Townsend, middle, crosses the finish first for one of his two sprint championships. (Photos by Ken Swart/RunMichigan.com.)