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.
Cros-Lex Believes, Achieves in Surpassing Pair of Powers for 1st Finals Title
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
March 3, 2023
MOUNT PLEASANT – Croswell-Lexington senior Noelle Golda said her team pushed itself to overcome a different challenge every day in practice this season, which gave it the confidence to shock the state Friday afternoon.
That new-found belief allowed the Pioneers to move past two perennial powers and win the Division 3 competitive cheer championship at McGuirk Arena in Mount Pleasant.
It was the first time Croswell-Lexington finished better than fourth at the Cheer Finals, and it was the first time since 2011 that a school other than Richmond or Pontiac Notre Dame Prep won the D3 title.
“Every day we gave ourselves a different type of challenge so that we could feel what it’s like to break through,” explained Golda, one of eight seniors on the 28-athlete roster, as she wiped away happy tears.
“You have to believe in yourself, and you have to be proud of who you are and where you come from. This is amazing for our school.”
Croswell-Lexington won with a score of 776.72, followed by Notre Dame Prep (776.02) and then Richmond (774.96). Grosse Ile, which turned in the best Round 3 score, was fourth (774.92) and Paw Paw fifth (768.22).
Cros-Lex, as the Sanilac County school located in Michigan’s Thumb is popularly known, finished second in the Blue Water Area Conference, second in Districts and third in Regionals. But on the sport’s biggest stage, nobody handled the pressure better than the Pioneers.
Heading into Round 3, Richmond was in the lead with Notre Dame Prep less than a half-point behind. Cros-Lex sat in a familiar position, in third, just behind those two state powers.
But on this day – after watching those two schools repeatedly win District, Regional and Finals trophies in front of them – it was the Pioneers’ turn to win.
“It was really a matter of finally believing in ourselves – not just that we were a good team, but that we were a state championship team,” said eighth-year Pioneers coach Katie Tomlinson. “We have struggled with that for so long, and today we broke through it.”
Richmond and Notre Dame Prep both struggled uncharacteristically in Round 3 under extreme pressure, while Croswell-Lexington, perhaps a little under the radar in third place, was nearly flawless in the final round.
The shocking, come-from-behind triumph was especially sweet for the Pioneers’ eight seniors, who placed fourth, fifth and fourth at the Finals the past three years – which were the best finishes in school history. Those seniors were Golda, Georgia Calegari, Santanna Horning, Alleyna Martinez, Cassidy Seaman, Emma Six, Maria Tabernero and Deborahann White.
When the final scores were read and Notre Dame was announced as second place – leaving only Croswell-Lexington left to be champion – those seniors and all 28 girls burst out in tears of joy and accomplishment.
“We had a good feeling all day,” explained White. “Something just felt different all day than all of those other competitions. Now we know why – it was our day.”
The Pioneers should be strong again next winter, as junior Shelby Oliver made the all-state second team last season, and junior Cora Katulski earned honorable mention.
Notre Dame Prep, which won five straight D3 titles from 2014-2018, improved on its third-place finishes the past two years. That was little consolation, however, as the Fighting Irish fell short of their goal of a sixth Finals championship by seven-tenths of a point.
Richmond, which had its streak of four consecutive championships snapped, put itself in position for No. 5 with outstanding showings in Rounds 1 and 2, but was unable to deliver in the pivotal final round.
“We have some really young kids, and they have had some good days and some rough days,” explained 15th-year Richmond coach Kelli Matthes. “At the end of the day, the right team won. I’m sad for our kids, but I am truly happy for (Croswell-Lexington).”
The victory was extra satisfying for Tomlinson, a Croswell-Lexington graduate and former competitive cheerleader at the school, who never made it to the Finals while in high school. She clutched the championship trophy tightly as she talked about the progression of the program, which had just nine athletes in 2016, her first season as coach.
“The turning point for us was getting more girls to come out and get buy-in from the parents,” said Tomlinson, who is assisted by Christi Whitican and Avery Falter. “When we started coming here (to the Finals), our goal changed to trying to make the top three.
“Now we are state champs, and I can’t believe it. Now I guess we just have to go back to the drawing board for next year.”
PHOTOS (Top) Croswell-Lexington competes at Friday’s Division 3 Final on the way to winning its first championship. (Middle) Pontiac Notre Dame Prep moved up a spot from 2022 in finishing runner-up.