MORAN — Supporters of Marmaton Valley High School’s basketball teams may have a difficult decision when the postseason comes around in late February.
That’s because the Wildcat boys and girls will have the distinction of playing their postseason tournaments in different classifications this season, the only school in the state that will do so.
Marmaton Valley Principal and athletics director Brian Campbell explained the circumstances that will ship the boys to the Class 1A-II Substate in St. Paul, while the girls will play in the Class 1A-I Substate in Rosalia.
That’s because Marmaton Valley is one of 104 schools in Class 1A, which splits into two divisions. The 52 schools with the largest enrollments are in 1A-I; the others are in 1A-II.
However, one of the schools — Lawrence’s Bishop Seabury Academy — does not have a girls team, creating an odd number to split between the two divisions, based on enrollment.
Three schools, Marmaton Valley, Randolph-Blue Valley and Tribune-Greeley County, each had enrollments of 71 students, the largest of the Class 1A-II schools.
To decide which school to bump up to 1A-I, state officials looked at last year’s enrollment numbers. Marmaton Valley, with 78 students last year, had more than the other two.
So the girls are going to 1A-I.
The bump up to 1A-I is a substantial one.
The Wildcat girls (3-1) are now in a loaded Rosalia Substate, alongside powerhouses like Olpe (6-1) and Madison/Hamilton (5-1), along with upstart Crest (3-1).
Conversely, none of the Class 1A-II girls teams in the St. Paul Substate — where Marmaton Valley would have been assigned had it stayed at that level — have a winning record.
“It is what it is,” Marmaton Valley girls head coach Becky Carlson said.
Carlson noted that while there is still plenty of basketball to be played between now and then, it’s never too early to prepare for schools such as Olpe.
In fact, she’s already received film to study as the season progresses.
“Our goal is to have our record be as good as we can to stay away from teams like Olpe until the finals,” she said. “We’ve just got to win as much as we can.”
Campbell noted MV was given the option of bumping the boys up to Class 1A-I as well, although that move would have created another discrepancy in the balance between Division I and Division II schools as well.
“We talked about it for 45 minutes, weighing the pros and cons before deciding it would be best for us to keep the boys in Division I,” Campbell said. “We didn’t want to set a precedent. They’d never seen this before”
The Wildcat boys (1-3) are in a substate bracket that does not have a winning team. Altoona-Midway, at 3-3, holds the top spot in the standings as of the Christmas break, while four schools — Chetopa, Southern Coffey County, Waverly and St. Paul — remain winless.
