Contests on school nights will also start an hour earlier
Published in the December 15, 2016 edition.
By DAN BYRNE
WAKEFIELD — The decision to switch the basketball schedules from single site doubleheaders, back to a boys’ and girls’ home/road alternating schedule came down in a near unanimous vote before the season.
With the hoop schedule set to tip off this Friday, Brendan Kent, K-12 Director of Athletics, Health, and Wellness for the Wakefield Public Schools shared his insights on the matter.
“It was voted upon by the league,” Kent said. “I actually voted against the schedule change.”
Kent went on to explain that he was on the losing side of a near unanimous vote but, despite the outcome, he voted the way he felt was best for the student athletes at Wakefield Memorial High.
“The number one reason was that I felt it was best for our kids,” he said, raising the fear that the atmosphere in the Charbonneau Field House might be negatively impacted. “When we play back-to-back games, we tend to get big crowds [for both games]. Fans who come for the boys’ game stick around for the girls’ and vice versa. Now our crowd is going to be split and our team won’t get the same experience. We’re going to lose out on that. I’m nervous that the group that will miss out the most will be the girls.”
The Warriors were in that position in 2012-13 as well when the athletic directors voted to have the boys’ and girls’ teams play at opposite sites. The crowds were down at many venues in the M.L. and the A.D.s voted to go back to the old format the next season with a tweak in the schedule. The boys’ teams played the early game in the first half of the season while the girls’ played the late game. The starting times then switched around for the second half of the season so it was equitable to both the boys’ and girls’ teams.
Kent cited the possibility events that normally would draw large crowds for both games, now fans will have to choose between which venue to attend.
“The crowd will essentially be split in half and for the girls it may be even more than that, it may be a quarter of what there would have been before, so my number one concern was that our kids might get not as nice an experience.”
Kent went on to say how he felt the back-to-back games gave the players the best experience and that with the split venue schedule, the crowds will be smaller for the kids.
Though the experience and crowds were the main concern of the young AD, Kent continued to list his concerns for why he felt this change was the wrong decision.
“I know the two teams are tight, both the boys’ and girls’ teams are all friends, they’re all classmates,” Kent said. “I know the girls liked watching the boys, and the boys liked watching the girls. It’s just like any other sport such as in track where the boys’ and girls’ teams cheer each other on. tI’s no different in basketball and unfortunately they’re not going to get the chance to do that anymore because they’ll be in opposite locations.”
Kent brought up an even messier situation which must be mirrored around the league, when and if a family has a boy on one team and a girl on the other, the parents and family has to choose which game to attend.
“Am I going to watch my son or am I going to watch my daughter? Unfortunately, our fans can’t watch both anymore,” Kent said as he continued to list of concerns. “The other piece is the financial part,” Kent said.
He fears the change will hurt the school financially.
“Even though we’ll host twice as many games, we’ll have twice the cost in terms of hiring people to work the games. Yet, our crowds won’t be nearly as big,” said Kent about the double edged sword that is this change. “With all the away games now, that will mean twice as many buses and transportation is our biggest cost.
The change will affect the JV and freshman levels as well explained Kent.
All these seem like valid concerns, yet the vote passed to change the schedule, Mr. Kent explained why teams who voted for the change thought it was a good idea.
“They were concerned that the doubleheaders created a dilemma for the coaches.”
According to Kent, most schools couldn’t handle hosting two JV and two varsity games in one venue, so they would have to split the locations.
“The team that was playing at an offsite location, for example when we would host a JV game at the middle school, the concern was that the coaches for JV also coach varsity and they weren’t getting back to the varsity game in time. “
He also raised concerns about swing players who play both JV and varsity not being able to get back in time for the varsity game.
Proponents of the change voted so because they felt hosting one JV game and two varsity games in one night was too much but the change doesn’t compensate for the number of games at a site, with now a freshman game before the JV and varsity games.
“My answer to that is, how is it really any different?,” wondered Kent. “If you scheduled the games correctly, you could stagger the start times so the coaches could all get to where they needed to be.
“Unfortunately I was the only one or I think maybe one other school voted the same but every other school voted to change it.”
“I feel like the kids are going to lose out, but it’s not my call, it is what it is, the league made the decision,” Kent concluded.
So on Friday, the varsity girls’ hoop team will play Lexington at Charbonneau Field House at 7 p.m. The varsity boys’ hoop team will be on the road at Lexington High School at 7 p.m. The JV games will be at 5:15 p.m. prior to the start of the varsity games.
While the Friday night varsity games will have 7 p.m. starts, the weeknight games, mostly Tuesday night contests, will have an earlier start with tip-offs at 6 p.m. The JV games will also also start earlier on school nights as well.
