When I think of a sub-state or regional tournament, I tend to think of schools within the general area from towns generally the same size. The recent baseball regional tournament and golf sub-state tournament, spoiled that conception.
Let’s start with the golf sub-state. As one official described it, the tournament was to have a March madness feel, where KSHSAA organizers seeded teams through each tournament based on their ranking and used a more regional format to distribute the teams.
Instead, Iola faced Wichita Collegiate Academy, Wichita Trinity and the host team Baxter Springs, three of the state’s top four teams.
As a seasoned sports reporter, never in my life have I covered a sub-state or regional tournament more than two hours from the school I covered.
Monday, two teams traveled three hours from Wichita — population 400,991 — to face teams like Iola — population 5,396.
KSHSAA will defend what it did. They will state those schools have similar student populations, which determines how KSHSAA classifies schools.
What they will not say is that many of these private schools are not subject to Title IX and, unlike public schools, do not have to accept special needs students, who are also counted in student populations when determining classification.
They will not state these students are often lured away from public school programs with scholarship offers and a chance to play for state championships, attracting more attention from colleges instead of being mired in the talent typically associated with larger programs.
Iola and Heritage Christian Academy of Olathe — population 141,290 — may have the same student population but those are two very different systems of education.
I’m a little familiar with the area, splitting my childhood between Gardner and the Blue Valley area. In fact, HCA is located on Blackbob Road, where I occasionally played little league games, swam at Blackbob Public Pool and even ended up getting lost on my bicycle as a kid and having to pedal home from there.
What is a private school located in one of the richest areas of the richest county in Kansas, doing playing Iola?
Many student athletes in Johnson County have access to private lessons taught by former professional athletes, access to the latest equipment and personal trainers who can specialize for a specific field.
That’s what my brother, a former strength coach for the Kansas City Royals and the Kansas City Current, does for a living. Johnson County athletes are his main clientele. Just for reference, he makes more than triple my annual salary training high school and college athletes.
These are the areas KSHSAA seems to be throwing more and more weight behind by de-emphasizing league play and placing more emphasis on district and regional standings.
This is why KSHSAA should change its motto to “Where state titles are about big cities beating up on little guys so they can feel like stars — Ad Astra.”
