Saturday, February 20, 2010

Basketball championship location

On another post Anonymous wrote,

"Off topic question - The boys' and girls' basketball city championships were supposed to be held March 4th at Duquesne University. It was just announced that they will be held March 6th in one of our own gyms. Why?? That takes making the championship game "special" out of the honor of playing the game."

12 comments:

Questioner said...

The decision would be in line with efforts to save money and de-emphasize sports. And in line with a practice of making changes without consulting parents, students or in many cases even board members.

Anonymous said...

Mark, is it true that they tried to schedule the all-city swim meet at Allderdice this year?

Anonymous said...

Even if the BOE Athletics uses the excuse that regular season games (and consequently city league play-offs) have been set back because of school closings, Saturday Feb. 27th could be used for play-offs. I am sure the coaches and players would be willing to adjust if it meant playing at Duquesne. Where there is a will there is a way. I wonder who made this decision? It cheats the athletes.

prixtoe said...

Undoubtedly, a championship off-site in venues like Palumbo makes the event more memorable. This change is something that merits a news note on the district website announcing the change WITH a detailed explanation. You have to ask yourself why the spin doctors didn't think of doing that. It seems a logical step to take to mitigate the ill-will being generated as the word trickles down to parents and students. An explanation is warranted, ASAP. You can't categorize anyone who may question as a complainer or worse when causes are not shared. Somebody dropped the ball on this one. (Pun intended as a tribute ot Mark Rauterkus, lol)

Some aspects of our sports programs do need an overhaul, not because anyone has done a bad job, but more because times have changed and demands are now different.

In the long run a change in date and venue will not be the end of the world, just an end to a season or a cap on a high school career. This does seem to be one area where a parent board might be useful to "take the temperature" on an issue coming up suddenly. Judge the fallout.

This is certainly a topic where you might expect to see a lot of comments. This blog is the most underused resource for parents in PPS. We have a great deal to learn from one another and the availability of a place to share is valuable.

Questioner said...

Thank you for the words of support about the blog. It can be difficult to host a blog because people do tend to bring problems or complaints up, probably because it is the only real forum to do so.

There are many changes being made without prior discussion, or even notice or explanation. For example, the libraries in two new 6-12 schools have hardly any books. The idea is that everything is online. Most likely. then, the libraries that do have books are not receiving new books. But the right balance between print and digital resources is not at all obvious. Another example is the change to single gender classrooms in some schools, without prior notice even to board members. The idea seems to be that the board will approve just about everything anyway so why bother.

Anonymous said...

The public "announcement" of this was in Friday's Post-Gazette East Edition's "Varsity Xtra." I am guessing that it was also in the other area's editions. It was under "Check this out." It also mentioned that the Peabody girls' basketball team had folded and forfeited the remainder of the season due to injuries and players quitting. (they hadn't won a game)

Anonymous said...

The Athletic section on the PPS web site lists as "tentative" venues: football - Heinz Field, swimming - Trees Pool, basketball - Palumbo Center, and baseball - PNC Park. I believe football was played at Cupples Stadium. I wonder if baseball will make it to PNC Park? Somehow the WPIAL schools always play in primetime venues.

Anonymous said...

It must have been a tough season for the Peabody girls. The decision will save a few bucks in ref fees and bus transport. How would things have turned out for them had they been a WPIAL team?

Anonymous said...

I noticed in the airport last night the announcement that the NCAA Women's tourney is in Pittsburgh this year just a few days after the city championships...perhaps many of the college venues this year will be occupied?

Anonymous said...

Venues are arranged a year in advance. The NCAA games have nothing to do with it.

Anonymous said...

"The City League playoffs start either Monday or Tuesday. The championship games for boys and girls will be Saturday, March 6, at one of the City League schools, depending on what teams are in the championship."

"It's a little surprising the City League will be playing title games Saturday, the same day of five WPIAL championships. It was nice in recent years when the City League played championships on a day when there was no WPIAL title games. It sort of gave the City League the spotlight to themselves."

Mike White - Post-Gazette Sports

Questioner said...

Does anyone know why this date was chosen, and if other dates would have worked as well?