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.
Seniors Lead Midland Calvary Baptist's Rise from MHSAA Debut to District Championship
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
October 26, 2022
James Day wasn’t surprised by how quickly his Midland Calvary Baptist boys soccer team was competing for postseason titles.
But when the Kings won their first District title recently, in just their fourth MHSAA postseason, he did feel they had proved something to those outside the program.
“I think to a certain level, yes, (we had to prove) that we can actually win the title, that District title,” the Calvary Baptist coach said. “I think, too, it was so exciting because there are several players that have played in virtually all of (the program’s postseason) games.”
Led by its five seniors, Calvary Baptist defeated Saginaw Valley Lutheran 2-1 on Oct. 21 to win that Division 4 District title. It came after the team had advanced to the District Final in each of its previous three tries.
After seeing plenty of success in the Michigan Association of Christian Schools, the Kings made the leap to the MHSAA and participated in their first postseason in 2019. That year, they lost to Roscommon 1-0 in the District Final. They fell to Bad Axe in the District Final each of the next two seasons.
“The first three years, we’d been super close,” senior midfielder Charley Tomko said. “The last two years we lost to Bad Axe in the District championship, and going into this year, my goal was to win a District championship. We didn’t beat Bad Axe in the championship game, but we beat a really solid team to win it. Going into the season, this was my goal – this was our team’s goal – and we figured it out and were able to execute.”
Tomko and classmates John Adams, Isaac Wallace, Dyllon Ouderkirk and Lucian Snyder make up the core of the team. Most of them have been playing soccer together since middle school, and have known each other since kindergarten.
“It really helps,” said Adams, a senior center back. “I’ve known our keeper (Snyder) since we were 7 years old. It helps because we’ve played with each other for a lot of years. We’re friends on and off the field, and obviously it really helps when we’re on the field because we communicate and work together.”
The five seniors are also spread throughout the four levels of the Kings’ formation, which helps create a balance that Day said is the strength of his team.
Snyder plays in goal, with Adams at center back and Wallace at right back on defense. Tomko is an attacking midfielder, and Ouderkirk plays forward, where he’s netted more than 20 goals this season.
“It really does help to have an experienced player throughout all parts of the field,” Adams said. “We all understand how all of us play.”
The bond between those seniors – and the entire team – has been formed and strengthened by much more than their play.
During their sophomore season, their friend and teammate Stephen Kipfmiller died after a battle with leukemia. While his memory remains a constant in their minds, the Kings also do their best to continue to honor him outwardly. His number 19 was retired by the program, and their captains armbands are orange, representing leukemia awareness.
“That group has gone through a lot of adversity not just on the field, but off of it,” Day said. “Seeing how, even through struggle and hardship, there’s things we can do on and off the field that bring joy. Winning a title is temporary, but at the end of the day, it was fulfilling, too. There’s this bond we’ve formed around the sport, and it’s been great to be able to honor our friend Stephen and his life.”
Kipfmiller’s brother, Caleb, is a coach in the program, and his parents are regulars at the team’s games.
“When Stephen passed, we were sophomores, and since that year, the brotherhood between the seniors and all of our teams, and even our school, has grown an immense amount,” Tomko said. “His parents are still involved with our teams, they come to every home game. It’s really cool to play for God’s glory, and also to have that memory of Stephen. He always worked as hard as he could. Just the way he led the team, too, it’s something I look up to now. I remember Stephen being one of those silent leaders who was always calm and collected.”
No matter what happens in Wednesday night’s Regional Semifinal against Leland, or possibly after that, this year’s Calvary Baptist team, and specifically its group of seniors, have already cemented its legacy.
“We put in so many hours of work to improve our game and improve our chances in the season,” Tomko said. “When we first entered the MHSAA our freshmen year, we had a really solid group of seniors and juniors. Going into that, we did kind of set a high standard. It’s so cool that four years into being in the MHSAA, we won a District, and hopefully more. Looking back, it’s really cool to see how much this team has accomplished.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Midland Calvary Baptist’s Charley Tomko, far left, sends a shot during a game this season. (Middle) The Calvary Baptist seniors (and coach), from left: John Adams, Isaac Wallace, coach James Day, Lucian Snyder, Charley Tomko and Dyllon Ouderkirk. (Photos courtesy of the Calvary Baptist boys soccer program.