Nov. 11 Playoff Format - Veterans Day edition

Before we start with soccer stuff, on behalf of all the veterans who may read this and who have served, we all thank you for your service. While there are many of our coaches who have served in the military, we would like to acknowledge St. Charles West coach Matt Dwyer who stepped down after this boys season as he gets ready to deploy to the Navy in March for all of 2022. Best wishes, Matt, and thank you for your commitment to our game and our country!

The past few days have led to some real good insight and thoughts from many people who have checked in regarding the Championship Factor and how it has affected and will impact our game. (An interesting take…with larger districts and the difficulty increasing of winning them, how many private schools will actually be affected? In Class 3 and 4 there were only three private school champions total, while class 1 and 2 had six, so not many private schools will have their totals adjusted next year, thus affecting the amount of movement between classes in theory.) While there is still much to figure out with that particular area, we thought we’d take a quick look at the current playoff format.

With the decision to go back to the larger district sizes, fewer districts and no sectional round for any of the classes, there are some new challenges and processes to consider. One of the biggest so far has been the concern of travel. While MSHSAA’s decision to go back to the larger district sizes (Class 3 and 4 each have eight districts of 8 teams; Class 1 and 2 have eight districts of 5-8 teams, depending on location) is certainly more in line with other sports and does make the district championship more “special” (for lack of a better word) due to its increased difficulty, it does create some challenges, particularly in the smaller classes and in the out-state areas.

An excellent example of this was the Class 4, District 6 that Rock Bridge hosted in Columbia. While it featured four mid-MO teams, it also had one STL area school (Timberland) and three from Blue Springs and Independence. This district/region has always been a difficult one for MSHSAA to create, especially with being limited to the 64 schools in Class 4. Two of the Jeff City schools dropped to Class 3, so there weren’t enough teams here to fill out an 8-team district. Blue Springs won the (very competitive) district, but it came with a price. From Blue Springs coach Mike Palermo, “Blue Springs, for the last two years, has had to travel to Columbia, Missouri to play a district game.  We drove to Columbia to play Fort Osage, who is 2 miles down the road (from us) on a Saturday. Then traveled back to Columbia to play Blue Springs South who is in our backyard.  This game didn’t start until 8:15 getting us home at 12:45 on a Monday night.  Then traveled back down Wednesday for a final. We played three games in Columbia this year getting home well after midnight every night and players having to attend school the very next day.  Last year after winning districts we traveled to Jeff City two days later.  This year after repeating as district champs, we happen to be in the even district and are now traveling to Kickapoo Saturday.  This a lot of traveling for high school kids who are expected to travel late nights and be at school the following day.”

One potential fix to this would be to have the higher seed host the first round games (something that many people provided as a solution), but with that are also potential issues that arise. In some cases, schools don’t want (or can’t host) games. Some fields don’t meet MSHSAA standards or are just not acceptable - especially after a long season of wear and tear. This is particularly true in the smaller classes where acceptable fields (and lights) aren’t always a possibility. This could also stretch an already thin official situation. It is certainly much easier for a district host to run a tournament in one location.

There are some other common sense ways around a situation like Blue Springs (and to an extent, Blue Springs South) had to endure. In Class 1, District 4, the 4 (Fatima) and 5 (Calvary Lutheran) seeds played at the Fatima on Monday, although Borgia was the host. This saved both teams an extra trip to Washington and likely could have been done in the Blue Springs situation as long as all the schools were in agreement. The statement in the MSHSAA soccer manual regarding district play states that “district tournaments shall be scheduled in accord with the committee’s best judgment.”

So, this leads to a bigger issue - that of administrators and committee members not communicating or looking out for the best interest of those involved. In that Borgia district, a plan was made to play the 4/5 game at a closer location and with only one game that night (5 team district), it likely worked out for the best. However, when looking at the rest of that scheduled tournament, the winner of the 4/5 game (Fatima) then played the next night at Borgia vs. #1 seed Tolton, a game that Tolton would win in OT. The championship game was then played the following day, where #2 (and host) Borgia upset Tolton. The real question here is why would a district soccer tournament be played out over three days when the state allows eight days to complete? If a committee decided that, it certainly didn’t seem to consider the well-being of the players (in theory, Fatima could have won the semi and had to play three consecutive nights with two of them being on the road) or the challenges/demands of the game. Instead, Tolton, as a 1 seed, was forced to travel  back-to-back nights to Borgia, a nearly two hour trip. Smaller schools don’t have the luxury of many of the bigger schools of having large rosters, or in some cases, even a JV team to help with the physical demands of playing that many games in a  short period. (The three games in one weekend regular tournament idea is another brutal one for players to endure, but that’s for another post.)

These situations weren’t limited to class 1 and 2. Class 3 Cape Notre Dame made three trips to Mehlville (1:45 on a bus) to play in that district, but at least that tournament started on a Saturday and spaced rest/preparation days in between before Thursday’s final. The reality is that the state is spread out for some and not for others and those in certain areas have to deal with extended travel and late nights. That’s just how it is. Those schools in the cities don’t deal with what those “out-state” do on a regular basis as often times 90 minute bus rides (one way) are the norm in mid-MO, SW, NW, etc.

The point to all of this is that while not necessarily the norm, soccer is often not treated appropriately with regards to what’s best for the players and the game by administrators, and occasionally by even the coaches. The reasons/causes are numerous. Poor communication, for one. (How many coaches had input or knowledge of their district tournament set up? If the answer is more than one, then there is a problem.)

Little or no understanding of the game’s demands and nuances by those with little experience, or in some cases, a lack of interest in the game also play a part. Playing 80 minutes of soccer is much different than 32 minutes of basketball, for example. Football doesn’t play more than one game in a week due to rest, recovery and preparation. To say that soccer players and coaches couldn’t benefit from those same kind of guidelines wouldn’t be accurate, especially if the goal is to have the best play at the end of the year, and not games decided by attrition.

One can look at the Class 4, District 3 tournament that SLUH hosted. It started on the first Saturday and ended on the final Saturday. Eight days to play three matches - all at a very high level. There is little doubt that John Burroughs benefitted from having a period of preparation and rest after upsetting Chaminade on Wednesday and then taking on SLUH Saturday. Regardless of who won that match, there is little doubt that the players from both teams were able to perform at a higher level than if they played the final on Thursday. Now that there is an entire week between districts and quarterfinals (and another six days after that until the finals), there is more time built in to play and likely should be explored at the next advisory board meeting, along with emphasizing to all coaches that a committee should decide what’s best for the games - and if that means Blue Springs and BSS play a final in Blue Springs instead of making a trip to Columbia, then that should be explored, as well.

Not every situation can be neatly fixed, but understanding the game’s demands and putting athletes in the best situations to succeed should not be the top priority. In truth, the finals weekend would be better served by semifinals on Thursday night, 3rd place matches (if at all ) on Friday and Finals on Saturday. Giving the players a rest day, while also giving the coaches a day to prepare for the biggest match of the year would make for a better championship environment and experience for everyone involved. This obviously comes with cost and logistics issues (hotels and time out of school) that could be looked at later, but if just looking at a more ideal scenario, this certainly serves the game and players better than the current model of playing the two biggest matches of the year in less than 24 hours.

A smaller, but still telling example, is the fact that many districts struggle with selecting or even having all district teams. A simple fix that needs to be done by the committee prior to the district even starting, but rarely is unless a coach is willing to spearhead it (and that’s not usually the case). It’s fine if the coaches don’t want to honor/have an all district team (all region and all state are decided by the coaches association), and as long as that is what is decided prior, then there are no issues. The problems occur when these things aren’t addressed by district hosts/committees and then attempted to be fixed after the district ends. Again, this isn’t always the case, but there have been several examples already this year of coaches and AD’s having problems with either selection or having one at all and ultimately it’s the athlete who is affected.

The bottom line is that administrators and coaches need to be the front line for advocating soccer and when those things don’t happen, for whatever the reason, the game suffers. It’s the hope of communications such as these that high school soccer in MO will continue to improve.

We are just a few short days from quarterfinal play - a huge Saturday ahead that at least looks mostly dry (and cool) for games. Tomorrow we will focus on those games and look into a little bit of how the games may unfold.