Stop the madness at St. Mary’s

Last October, I wrote about whether St. Mary’s High School, which at that time had an enrollment 603 students, should continue to play football against other high schools three to five times its size.   At that time, St. Mary’s athletic director Rose Vargas had sent a press release to the local media advocating that St. Mary’s should remain in the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s 5A Conference, where the largest high schools in Arizona — those with at least 2,000 students — reside.

“At this date, Saint Mary’s enrollment is 603 students,” Vargas wrote last October. “The average enrollment at other 5A schools is 2,400+. Despite the enrollment disproportion, Saint Mary’s has a long history of success competing at the highest level. The goal and intention of Saint Mary’s High School Athletics is to remain at the Division 5A level.”

While St. Mary’s does indeed have a long and proud athletic tradition, which includes nine football state championships, its last football state title was 16 years ago.  It was my feeling last October that “[t]he St. Mary’s teams of 20, 30 and 40 years ago did not have to compete against schools at least three times their size and there is no good reason to continue to ask that of current St. Mary’s students, who deserve the chance to create their own history and tradition.”

St. Mary’s eventually was successful in convincing the AIA to allow it to remain in the large school football division, now called Division I.   It was with sadness that I read an article by Richard Obert in this morning’s Arizona Republic about this year’s St. Mary’s football program.  Only 28 players showed up for the first week of practice last week, although the St. Mary’s head coach says that he expects to have 42 players on game nights this fall.  (I have news for you, coach.  If those players are not showing up for the first week of practice, they are probably not going to be of much use to you on Friday nights this fall).

St. Mary’s enrollment is now down to 575 students, down almost 5% from last October.  Pride in past accomplishments is great, but what the administration at St. Mary’s is asking of its current students is simply irresponsible.  Here is St. Mary’s varsity football schedule for this fall with the enrollment for each opponent.

Date               Opponent               Enrollment

8/26                      North                               2416

9/2                        Ironwood                        1989

9/9                        Basha                               2320

9/16                      Boulder Creek                2374

9/23                      Central                            2301

9/29                      Westview                        2514

10/6                      Maryvale                         2581

10/14                    Brophy                             2532

10/21                    Tolleson                           2195

10/28                   Alhambra                        2690

Taking nothing away from the toughness and skill of the current St. Mary’s players, it is absurd to allow them to play this schedule.  To give some further perspective, St. Mary’s would still be among the smaller schools if it competed three divisions down in Division IV, which features such schools as Blue Ridge (876 students), Chinle (1099 students), Holbrook (689 students), Show Low (777 students), Winslow (792 students) and Payson (720 students).

It is well past the time to stop living in the past at St. Mary’s.

High School Football Championship Games

The best high school football teams in Arizona will play this Monday, December 13, for the Class 5A I and II championships at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. If you have yet to take you son or daughter to the four-year-old stadium, here’s an opportunity to do so for a price far less than a Cardinals game. Ticket prices are $10 for adults, $6 for students with high school ID cards and kids five and under are free.

The first game is at 4 p.m. and pits Chandler Hamilton against Mesa Desert Ridge for the 5A I championship. Hamilton will be trying to win the state title for the third year in a row and the sixth time in the last eight years.

Scottsdale Chaparral will play Peoria Centennial at 8 p.m. for the 5A II title in a game that has been awaited for the past two seasons. Chaparral won last year’s 5A II title after Centennial had won championship the previous three years. The two schools have not played each other since they were both in the 4A division six years ago.

If you cannot make the games, they will be televised live on Fox Sports Arizona.

Blue Ridge and Show Low once again

One of the more passionate high school football rivalries in the Arizona will be on display today in the 3A conference state title game at Northern Arizona University’s Walkup Skydome.  In a replay of last year’s championship game, Lakeside Blue Ridge will take on Show Low at 5 p.m.  Blue Ridge won last year’s game 41-21 and also defeated Show Low a month ago, 36-18.  Between them, the two schools have won 11 out of the last 16 3A state football championships.

If you cannot make it to Flagstaff, you can watch the game live on the AIA’s website.   You can also watch the 1 p.m. 2A conference championship game between Northwest Christian and Yuma Catholic here.

Should St. Mary’s continue to compete in the 5A conference?

Should a high school team compete against other high schools three to five times its size?

St. Mary’s High School thinks so, but I have mixed feelings about it.

Last week, Rose Vargas, athletic director at St. Mary’s athletic, sent a press release to the local media making the case that St. Mary’s should remain in the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s 5A Conference, where the largest high schools in Arizona — those with at least 2,000 students — reside. Every two years, the AIA realigns its conferences to account for enrollment changes in schools throughout the state. On Oct. 18, the AIA will announce its conferences for the Fall 2011 through Spring 2013 school years.

“At this date, Saint Mary’s enrollment is 603 students,” Vargas said in her press release. “The average enrollment at other 5A schools is 2,400+. Despite the enrollment disproportion, Saint Mary’s has a long history of success competing at the highest level. The goal and intention of Saint Mary’s High School Athletics is to remain at the Division 5A level.”

In the past two years, St. Mary’s enrollment has decreased by 22 percent. In October 2008, it reported an enrollment of 778 students and successfully petitioned to stay in the 5A conference. It was placed in the Desert Valley region with five other schools, all of which have at least three times as many students.

Based on numbers alone, St. Mary’s should not be in the 5A conference, or even the 4A conference. It should be in the 3A conference with schools like Payson, Fountain Hills, Safford, Holbrook, Wickenburg and Lakeside Blue Ridge — all of which are bigger than St. Mary’s.

St. Mary’s has a long and proud athletic tradition.  Its football team has won 67 percent of its games since 1938 and has won nine state championships. But its last football state championship was 15 years ago and the last time it made the playoffs was in 2006.

Vargas noted the school’s recent success in girls softball and boys and girls basketball, which have won multiple region and state championships since 2005. But those are sports where numbers are not as crucial and a few superb athletes can carry a team.

St. Mary’s has been blessed with many such athletes over the years, such as current NBA players Channing Frye and Jerryd Bayless and current ASU softball pitcher Dallas Escobedo, who during her St. Mary’s career from 2007-2010 was simply unhittable and last year alone struck out 500 batters in 36 games. As for the girls basketball team, there has been recent controversy over the fact that the coach and seven players from last year’s team came from the same club team.

Are numbers the most important factor in athletic success? Of course not. Skill, coaching, character and heart are far more important. After all,  300 Spartans held off up to 300,000 Persians for three days at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.

But, numbers eventually catch up with you, as the Spartans found out on the fourth day of the battle.

There are some sports where numbers matter a great deal and football is one of them. This year’s St. Mary’s team is currently is 2-4, including an inspiring upset over longtime rival Brophy, which has more than four times as many boys as St. Mary’s. But the problem is that St. Mary’s had lost to Brophy the previous seven years in a row and in 9 of the last 10 years.

Tradition and history are important, but is it really fair to current St. Mary’s students to ask them to compete against schools three to five times their size?

St. Mary’s thinks so. If you agree, the school may need your help later this month when St. Mary’s expects to appeal its probable reclassification to the 4A Conference, where it would compete with schools only twice its size.

“The appeal process is nothing new for Saint Mary’s,” Vargas wrote. “Throughout the history of Saint Mary’s Athletics, the school has successfully appealed to remain in Division 5A every two years.”

I admire St. Mary’s grit and determination, and perhaps it would make sense for it to compete in 5A in some sports, just as colleges like Georgetown and Johns Hopkins play in Division I in some sports and Division III in other sports. But at some point, the math is inexorable and there is an undeniable strength in numbers. More importantly, the lessons taught to students in high school sports are the same in smaller conferences. The St. Mary’s teams of 20, 30 and 40 years ago did not have to compete against schools at least three times their size and there is no good reason to continue to ask that of current St. Mary’s students, who deserve the chance to create their own history and tradition. — Dan Barr

Regulating common sense

There are regulations for everything these days, so I guess I should have not been surprised. But still, it is sad to discover that the Arizona Interscholastic Association has issued five pages of guidelines on how cheerleaders should conduct themselves at the high school state championship football games. That’s right, when Chaparral plays Marcos de Niza this Friday night at ASU’s Sun Devil Stadium and Hamilton plays Mesa the following day at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, the pom and cheer squads for those four schools will have to abide by the AIA’s guidelines for how they should conduct themselves.

The guidelines are not onerous and their purpose is laudable. The AIA says that their purpose is “to re-emphasize the important role spiritlines play in promoting school spirit, appropriate behavior, and good sportsmanship during the regular season and at State Tournament games.”

Fine, but are five pages of regulations really necessary? Do you really need to tell high school girls and their coaches, “If you arrive in private vehicles, you are responsible for finding a parking space?” Plus, for some reason, the AIA prohibits glitter “on any part of the body (including hair) or uniforms.” Does the AIA have glitter police at the state championship games?

The AIA’s “Spritline Conduct Guide – Football Game Conduct” informs the cheerleaders that “[y]our squad also plays an important role in discouraging crowds from yelling or cheering…while an opponent is shooting free throws.” Have the rules of high school football changed recently? Do teams now shoot free throws when their opponents jump offsides? Believe me, if that happens this Friday and Saturday there will be a lot yelling in the crowd and I doubt that cheerleaders will be able to discourage it.

Finally, the AIA guidelines reflect some naivete. While good sportsmanship must always be encouraged, state championship games are emotional events and the officials sometimes make unpopular, and even incorrect, calls. When that happens, some people will boo the officials. It has been, and always will be, part of the game.

So what do the AIA guidelines instruct cheerleaders to do when a crowd starts booing? This is what it says: “Squads should divert the crowd’s attention by starting a popular cheer should booing or other unsportsmanlike conduct develop.”

I have never seen cheerleaders divert the crowd’s attention from booing “by starting a popular cheer” or by doing anything else and I doubt anyone else has either. Who writes these things?

My guess is that the four pom and cheer squads will do just fine exercising their own judgment at the upcoming 5A state championship football games. As for the person who wrote the AIA’s “Spiritline Conduct Guide,” I am sure that he or she has a future drafting rules and regulations for some government agency. — Dan Barr