The Front Row with MARK NELKE July 18, 2010
In 1984, the Idaho High School Activities Association changed the state volleyball tournament from six teams, with pool play on Friday feeding into a double elimination bracket on Saturday, to an eight-team, single-elimination tourney with a consolation bracket.
Sandpoint High played host to the A-1 and A-2 tourneys that year. Before a revved-up home crowd, the Bulldogs blasted Boise High 15-4, 15-4, and went on to win the state title the following night.
Boise had spent some 10 hours trekking up to Sandpoint for its first state tournament, and was out of the state title hunt in less than an hour. The Braves lost their next match on Saturday, and were out of the tournament.
The next year the state switched to a true double elimination tournament in volleyball, and it has stayed that way ever since.
But, a quarter-century later, it appears the IHSAA is trying to take a step backward.
Proposals to change the state volleyball and softball tournaments from double elimination to single elimination with a consolation champion were approved as a first reading by the IHSAA board of directors in June. The board will make a final decision on the proposals at the next board meeting Aug. 4 in Boise.
The board will vote on the volleyball proposal and softball proposal separately, so it could decide to approve both proposals, neither proposals, or just one of the proposals.
AS YOU might expect, it's hard to imagine many coaches in favor of either idea.
"I'm adamantly against it," said Coeur d'Alene High softball coach Larry Bieber, whose Vikings lost their first game at state in 1998, then charged through the losers bracket with six straight victories to capture the title.
"I don't think it's a very good test to find out who the state champion is by having a single-elimination tournament. Some people would say you have to be good all the time, but that's not the way softball is. All the coaches that I know of are against it."
In Sandpoint, the Bulldogs have won 14 state volleyball titles. Though they have never had to come all the way through the losers bracket to win, they have made it all the way back to the finals after a first-round loss, and in two of their championships (1994 and '95), have won twice in the title round to win the championship.
"That (losers bracket) has been such a nice safety to have just in case you don't have your good game right out the gate," said Sandpoint coach Karen Alsager, who has won two state titles in five seasons with the Bulldogs. "I would hate to see that be gone. You might not really get your true best teams at the top, if there's not that second opportunity."
UNDER THE current format, both state softball and volleyball tournaments are eight-team, double-elimination events. The volleyball tourney is a two-day event and would remain a two-day event even with the proposed format. If a team goes through the tourney undefeated, it would play two matches Friday and two on Saturday. If a team loses on Friday, it could play as many as five matches on Saturday.
The softball tourney is a three-day affair where a team which stays in the winners bracket plays once on Thursday, twice on Friday and once on Saturday. If a team loses along the way, it could play as many as three games on Friday and Saturday.
Under the proposed formats, which are now used for the state basketball and baseball tournaments, teams could play just three times either way. If a team lost in the first round, the best it could do is finish fourth. If it lost in the semis, it could come back to win the third-place game.
Part of the reason for shortening the tournaments is to save money, shorten time away from school, yada, yada, yada. But the volleyball tournament would still take two days. Softball could be shortened from three days to two and still remain double-elimination with no problem, Bieber said.
"In softball, pitchers can pitch more than one game in a day," he said. "In summer tournaments now, teams will play as many as three games in a day and one pitcher will pitch all three.
"It (single elimination) is not best for the kids. If it's a money thing, I'll help em plan how to do it in two days so it's not a money thing. I'd be glad to help them figure that one out."
Alsager said if they must change the state volleyball tournament to single elimination, at least the state could figure out a way to seed the tournament so the top two teams are on opposite sides of the bracket. As it is now, the two top teams could meet in the second round, or even the first round if there is an upset at regionals. Sandpoint and Bonneville have dominated the 4A division over the past decade, but as luck would have it, rarely met prior to the semifinals.
"Us and Bonneville, if we go at each other too soon, that's just really not fair," Alsager said.
Under the proposed format, a team playing state close to home would have even more of an advantage over a team which traveled some 10 hours just the day before - especially if they met first thing in the morning.
"I don't know why we needed to fix something if it wasn't broken," she said.
MOTIONS PASSED as a first reading at the state level are usually passed as a final reading. So if volleyball and softball coaches statewide are as against the proposed new tournament formats as Bieber and Alsager are, they have a couple more weeks to let their voices be heard.
"I don't know who I've got to yell at, but as the old fart, I'm not for it," said Bieber, who has taken the Vikings to 15 state tournaments in 17 seasons, including five state titles.
Hopefully in August, the IHSAA will decide not to mess with a good thing, and keep both tournaments double elimination. Compress the softball tournament into a two-day event if they must, but leave volleyball as it is.
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at [email protected].