Motivation after losing in the All "A"

[CatPride24]

Being a fan of small school basketball, I love the All "A" Classic, but I have seen a lot of teams struggle after the All "A". If a team loses in the All "A" Regional, and doesn't have much of a chance of winning their District Tournament because of the talent level of the big schools, then how does a coach keep them playing hard and improving game after game? I have even heard some coach's say that after the All "A" they start building for next year. Any thoughts??

[Hamilton Joe]

Personally I sort of think the All A is starting to lose it's appeal especially at least in the 9th Region anyway. It has turned into which Parochial School (no disrespect intended) is going to represent the 9th Region and tends to cause some scheduling conflicts with the various schools programs. I just don't see the same enthusiasm to play in the All A as there once was but maybe I'm wrong. The parochials don't even seem all that interested in the tourney because when one of their teams is playing in the All A (boys or girls) the other team will still be playing on the same night. Example I saw where the NewCath girls played friday in the All A against Ludlow and yet their boys team was also playing somewhere. I would think scheduling like that could hurt attendance for the All A. Maybe the time of year of the All A is played needs to be changed. Maybe a start of the season tourney for all small schools and before schools get into their conference play might be an interesting concept. Just a thought.

[1owlzfan]

In the 14th it still is an exciting tournament, especially for girls basketball.

[32minutesofpressure]

Personally I sort of think the All A is starting to lose it's appeal especially at least in the 9th Region anyway. It has turned into which Parochial School (no disrespect intended) is going to represent the 9th Region and tends to cause some scheduling conflicts with the various schools programs. I just don't see the same enthusiasm to play in the All A as there once was but maybe I'm wrong. The parochials don't even seem all that interested in the tourney because when one of their teams is playing in the All A (boys or girls) the other team will still be playing on the same night. Example I saw where the NewCath girls played friday in the All A against Ludlow and yet their boys team was also playing somewhere. I would think scheduling like that could hurt attendance for the All A. Maybe the time of year of the All A is played needs to be changed. Maybe a start of the season tourney for all small schools and before schools get into their conference play might be an interesting concept. Just a thought.

 

I agree. I can already see the gap in small private and small public in the 9th region.

 

Also, schools (boys and girls) shouldn't be playing on the same nights at different places period. It DOES affect your attendance/support. Which is a shame for the student-athletes!!!

[Option Right]

In the 14th it still is an exciting tournament, especially for girls basketball.

 

 

It still is a big deal in the 10th Region!

[NCC06]

Personally I sort of think the All A is starting to lose it's appeal especially at least in the 9th Region anyway. It has turned into which Parochial School (no disrespect intended) is going to represent the 9th Region and tends to cause some scheduling conflicts with the various schools programs. I just don't see the same enthusiasm to play in the All A as there once was but maybe I'm wrong. The parochials don't even seem all that interested in the tourney because when one of their teams is playing in the All A (boys or girls) the other team will still be playing on the same night. Example I saw where the NewCath girls played friday in the All A against Ludlow and yet their boys team was also playing somewhere. I would think scheduling like that could hurt attendance for the All A. Maybe the time of year of the All A is played needs to be changed. Maybe a start of the season tourney for all small schools and before schools get into their conference play might be an interesting concept. Just a thought.

 

I agree that this is not really the tourney that school like Newcath focus on year in and year out there goal every year is to win the regional because they know they can normally play with they bigger schools... However attendance was not really hurt at all i do not believe in that case the turnout for NCC v. Ludlow was great and probably the best turnout out NCC girls have had all year...

[1734]

I know we have gotten off of the intial post, but if schools don't focus on it and it is not a big deal, why play in it? Where it is not tied to the KHSAA, I am sure they can opt out playing in the tournament and play in a tournament with the bigger schools.

[CatPride24]

I know we have gotten off of the intial post, but if schools don't focus on it and it is not a big deal, why play in it? Where it is not tied to the KHSAA, I am sure they can opt out playing in the tournament and play in a tournament with the bigger schools.

 

Exactly. I don't think the small 9th region public schools would lose any sleep over NCC, Holy Cross, and St. Henry opting out of the tournament.

[CatPride24]

but back to the original thread.

 

If you have no hopes of winning the district, what do you use to motivate your team? What goals do you set at this point in the season?? 20+ wins? conference champions?? Beating who knocked you out of the All "A"??? Just wondering what your teams focus on. Or do you begin to play younger kids and get ready for next year?

[NCC06]

You are right that they may not have anything to play for but coaches are always going to motivate they players to do better and in most cases the players want to get better or they would not be playing... However there are very few cases throughout the state that a team has no chance of at least being runner up in districts to get to the region

[kyrebel]

I would like to see the state tourney structured like the boys football. Take 8 teams from each class, A, AA, AAA etc., and have a state champion for each class. This would make the state tourney larger, get more student athlete's and parents involved, and generate more income. It would be a win win situation for everyone.In my opinion this would be the only way of even coming close to making the state tourney fair. The only problem I could forsee here is that you would still have the small private schools stacking their teams. I really think the all "A" is a great tourney for the small schools, but I agree with you on the time of the year needs to be looked at. If the end of the year tourney was structured this way, then their would be no need to have the all "A" in the middle of the season. This would make it alot easier on the coaches of small schools to build momentum towards the end of the season tourney.

[NCC06]

well if you did that you would have 48 teams at the state tourney and you do not want that...Kentucky has one of the best state tournaments going in the sweet 16, and you do not want to water that down

[Theoldguy]

Personally I sort of think the All A is starting to lose it's appeal especially at least in the 9th Region anyway. It has turned into which Parochial School (no disrespect intended) is going to represent the 9th Region and tends to cause some scheduling conflicts with the various schools programs. I just don't see the same enthusiasm to play in the All A as there once was but maybe I'm wrong. The parochials don't even seem all that interested in the tourney because when one of their teams is playing in the All A (boys or girls) the other team will still be playing on the same night. Example I saw where the NewCath girls played friday in the All A against Ludlow and yet their boys team was also playing somewhere. I would think scheduling like that could hurt attendance for the All A. Maybe the time of year of the All A is played needs to be changed. Maybe a start of the season tourney for all small schools and before schools get into their conference play might be an interesting concept. Just a thought.

 

"A" schools Beechwood, Cov Holy Cross, St. Henry and Newport boys all played on the 18th also. Would it be fair to the boys "A" teams not to play that entire week just because their girls "might" be playing? BTW Villa Boys played Saturday the 19th, the day of the Championship game. So out of the eight schools in the girls "A" ninth region, only Ludlow and Bellevue didn't play on those two days and Bellevue was of course, the host school.

 

The All A is still a great tourney and remember, Cov Holy Cross and Cov Latin were two of the schools that help start this tournament years and years ago.

[kyrebel]

Alright then make it 6 teams from each class. I don't here nobody from New Cath, Highlands or Beechwood complaining about the football tourney being watered down. In all reality these schools would have very few state championships if this were the case. Not to mention, I think basketball is still classed only by A,AA,AAA,AAAA. 8 teams would make 32 teams at the tourney.

[madman]

It's still a big deal in the 8th Region! It's still as important now as it was when it began.