Michigan BB Seasons' Change

zebra44 · #1 (**permalink**) Wed Nov 01, 2000, 05:09pm

The courts will soon decide if Michigan (my home state) will have their Boys and Girls BB seasons in the winter.Most states have this system in place. The ADs are having palpitations over this with concerns about practice times for the many teams, whether Freshman ball will have to be cut, Jr. High ball moved to the fall, and the scheduling of officials for both JV and Varsity games. What input can you offer as to these problems? Do your Boys and Girls varsities play the same night at the same site? Do the JV and Varsity play the same night at the same site? (I live in the Upper Peninsula which involves a lot of travel between schools because of the its size.)Thanks in advance.

JRutledge · #2 (**permalink**) Wed Nov 01, 2000, 06:07pm

In my state basketball is so loved and scheduling is the only sport (it seems that way at least) in the state. We have boys and girls games scheduled on different night. We have 2 classes both in boys and girls and the only problem that this state has is the time to get the games in. Each level has its own finals weekend. Girls go first with the class A (smaller schools) and then the AA next. Same for the boys. The only difference is that the girls are able to play a week before the boys (class A girls, class AA girls, class A boys, class AA boys). And the boys are able to play on Thanksgiving week. Boys and girls do not play on the same night (for the most part) and I really do not feel that they should. We have more than enough officials to cover. Depending on the size of the school or even whether there is 3 person games the officials might do both a JV, then a varsity game in the same night. But all the Freshman, Freshman A/B or any other lower level games are on nights and saturday mornings that the varsity do not play. But basketball is the beloved sport of this state, so everyone it seems wants to officiate this sport instead of the others.

Tim Roden · #3 (**permalink**) Wed Nov 01, 2000, 06:17pm

Depending on the size of school, different problems arise. If you have two gyms, or a gym can be cut in half then you can have two practices going on at the same time.

As far as game night goes, you have three options. 1) Tues Friday boys, Thur/Sat girls. Or some variation on the theme. Our Medium size schools like this option. 2) on game night Boys at home, girls on the road against the same school. Our larger schools use this option. 3) if the school is too small to support a freshman team, all four games in one location. A lot of smaller school go for this option. A Saturday game can start at 2:00 and you are done by a resonable hour. Weekday, the boys varsity will be starting at 8:30.

JRutledge · #4 (**permalink**) Wed Nov 01, 2000, 06:27pm

The question that I have is how many games are schools allowed to play? Because I know in my state the class A boys and girls play a much more condensed schedule. As a rule of thumb girls play Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and usually a Friday or Saturday game, depending on if the boys are playing and where. The Boys play on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The Class AA side plays all over the place mainly because they have much more time to get games in and it also depends on their conferences. And if you are talking about the Chicago Public League, that is an entirely different story. They have their own tournament sending the representative (champion) down state.

Quote:

Originally posted by Tim Roden
Depending on the size of school, different problems arise. If you have two gyms, or a gym can be cut in half then you can have two practices going on at the same time.

As far as game night goes, you have three options. 1) Tues Friday boys, Thur/Sat girls. Or some variation on the theme. Our Medium size schools like this option. 2) on game night Boys at home, girls on the road against the same school. Our larger schools use this option. 3) if the school is too small to support a freshman team, all four games in one location. A lot of smaller school go for this option. A Saturday game can start at 2:00 and you are done by a resonable hour. Weekday, the boys varsity will be starting at 8:30.

Tim Roden · #5 (**permalink**) Wed Nov 01, 2000, 06:45pm

In Colorado we have 19 games between the first of December and the Middle of february. So to get them in it takes two games a week. fit them in the way you can. The schedules are also all over the road because we don't have enough officials to play everyone of Friday night. With the boys and girls in the same gym routine, we sometines use two officials for the JV and then two more officials for Varisity. Yes, we are experimenting with 3 man this year but only on a limited bases in one league.

Hawks Coach · #6 (**permalink**) Wed Nov 01, 2000, 07:59pm

I don't know how all the practice times are balanced, but here in Maryland the local high schools play a home and away the same night, A girls playing B at home, and A boys playing B away. This also gives the girls the same "prime-time" basketball slots that the boys have always had, something that never happened when I was in school. Boys owned Friday night, and girls got the week (weak) nights. As a coach of boys and girls teams (middle school level), I think it is a great change. Girls games are being much more well attended than when I was growing up.

BktBallRef · #7 (**permalink**) Wed Nov 01, 2000, 08:24pm

Our varsity programs play on the same night in the same gym. Girls start at 6pm and the boys follow. We normally play on Tues. and Fri. The same crew works both games. Larger schools, 4A, have two gyms for practice.

The JV schedule varies. Most smaller schools don't have a JV girls team, so the JV boys play prior to the girls varsity. In the county I live in, the JV Boys and Girls teams will play at the opposite site from the varsity clubs. This is difficult because the JV coaches are asst. varsity coaches. Also, the varsity coaches don't get an opportunity to see the JV kids play.

No system is perfect. If the courts change the seasons, officials will just have to deal with it the best they can.

mick · #8 (**permalink**) Wed Nov 01, 2000, 11:45pm

Quote:

Originally posted by zebra44
The courts will soon decide if Michigan (my home state) will have their Boys and Girls BB seasons in the winter.Most states have this system in place. The ADs are having palpitations over this with concerns about practice times for the many teams, whether Freshman ball will have to be cut, Jr. High ball moved to the fall, and the scheduling of officials for both JV and Varsity games. What input can you offer as to these problems? Do your Boys and Girls varsities play the same night at the same site? Do the JV and Varsity play the same night at the same site? (I live in the Upper Peninsula which involves a lot of travel between schools because of the its size.)Thanks in advance.

zebra44,
Maybe we'll have to get some of those white tennies and stand next to a long net, ay. Not.
mick

Dave King · #9 (**permalink**) Thu Nov 02, 2000, 12:37pm

Quote:

Originally posted by Hawks Coach
I don't know how all the practice times are balanced, but here in Maryland the local high schools play a home and away the same night, A girls playing B at home, and A boys playing B away. This also gives the girls the same "prime-time" basketball slots that the boys have always had, something that never happened when I was in school. Boys owned Friday night, and girls got the week (weak) nights. As a coach of boys and girls teams (middle school level), I think it is a great change. Girls games are being much more well attended than when I was growing up.

The problem with this setup, well-intentioned as it might be, is that you will probably find in most cases, the girls games being attended by family only. The student body at large will most likely attend the boy's game, whether home or away.

What happens when Johnny is on the boy's varsity, and his sister Janie is a soph standout playing also playing varsity?? Mom & Dad end up splitting time. I'd rather they play on their own night, and allow the student body to attend BOTH games, hopefully.

As Rut mentioned, Most Chicagoland schools will play girls' games on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays (usually Sat. Afternoon). Boys play mostly on Tues, Fri & Sat nite.
(The Chicago Public league plays boys games right after school on Tues & Thurs, for the most part).
Some schools are playing B & G games back to back on "pack the place" nights. Boys Soph play around 2:30, followed by Girls soph at 4:00. Girls Var. at 6:00 and boys var. at 7:30. They will alternate so the Boys & girls take turns having the "prime" time, 7:30 game.

dk

Glenn Lampman · #10 (**permalink**) Thu Nov 02, 2000, 02:18pm

In our area (Tacoma Wa) Girls and Boys all play on the same nights with Tue/Friday being the heaviest load. Some leagues will alternate by playing games on Wed Sat and Tue thu. Boys and Girls Varsity play opposite sites with c-team and JV playing same night same site as the varsity. Some of the 4A and 3A schools have 4 teams in girls and boys, Frosh, c team (soph) JV and Varsity. If they have 2 gyms they play 2 games at 3:30, JV at 5:45 and Varsity at 7:30. With cteam, JV and Varsity and 2 gyms they are starting to want to play the c-team and JV at 5:45 and the Varsity at 7:30. We do not schedule Varsity officials to work JV and Varsity, but I will schedule them to work a 3:30 game and then the Varsity either at same site or another school. We service 36 high schools and 52 JH/Middle schools. The JH and Middle school season and schedule runs the same days and most are at 3:30. It is difficult to cover all the games. Ideally we do not want our Varsity officials to have to do a JH/c-team game on the same day they have a varsity but the schedule makes that very hard to do. Oen option we have been considering is not providing officials for Middle school or JH JV. We have one JH leage that has 4 (yes FOUR) teams. A Varsity, a JV an 8th grade and a 7th grade team!!

JAdams · #11 (**permalink**) Thu Nov 02, 2000, 08:10pm

In Ohio, the boys usually play on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday nights, and the girls play on Monday and Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons. There's ususally a JV game that is followed by the varsity game each night. I can't remember ever seeing the boys and girls play on the same night, unless it's some type of holiday tournament. Most frosh games are played on a entirely different schedule.

The seasons for both boys and girls are (almost) the same. The girls start Thanksgiving weekend, and the boys start one week later. Each team is allowed to play 20 games a year, and the regular season ends around February 20th or so.

Even though the seasons overlap, and many of the boys varsity games use three officials, there is no shortage of officials in my part of Ohio. There are overall shortages of officials for football and baseball/softball here, but not basketball.

Have a great season, folks.