As coaches, every year you can’t wait to find out what the IHSA assignments are for the State Tourney series…
** Who is going to be in your Regional/Sectional Complex? When Morton was the defending State Champ with everyone back, you hoped you were not in the Regional with them.
** What school will get to host Regionals and Sectionals? One year we knew Rock Island would be the best team in our area, and then we found out that Rocky would host the Sectionals. We knew it would be a challenge to beat Rocky on their home floor.
** If your team is really good, you look at what the pairings will be at State. In 1998, we lost to Loyola in the Elite 8 and it was not close. They returned their entire team and we returned our entire team, we didn’t want to play them early in State if we made it. The pairings came out and we were matched in the first round.
Thru the years there were times I felt our team got a good draw and there were times I thought our team got a tough draw. Whether it was a good draw or a tough draw, you knew one thing- that was your draw and it was set.
In Galesburg’s 3A Sectional field, it is a loaded field. When the pairings came out, the Sectional included 1-Washington, 2-Galesburg, 4-Morton, 6-Dixon, 10-Peoria ND, 12-Metamora, 13-Sterling.
Seven of the seventeen teams in the field were ranked in the AP Poll. That is a tough Sectional. And the winner of that Sectional would seem headed to play #3 Providence in the Super-Sectional.
That was when the IHSA announced the assignments for the tourney. But when it came time for the seeding, a change was made.
#6 Dixon is no longer in the Galesburg Sectional. Instead, Dixon is moved to a different Sectional complex where they are the #1 seed. With the new alignment, the only ranked team they would have to beat before the Final Four would be #15 ranked Cary Grove in the Super-Sectional.
If Dixon had stayed in the Galesburg Sectional, they might have had to beat #2 Galesburg, #1 Washington, and then #3 Providence to get to State. That would be a tough road.
Why the switch? Evidently the Sectional that included Freeport, Burlington Central, Belvidere, Kaneland, Sycamore, Geneva, Rochelle, and Rockford East had only Sycamore sign up to host a Regional. The IHSA needed one more team to host.
Two versions that coaches have shared about the switch…
Version 1- The IHSA could not get any of the other 7 schools to host, so they reached out to Dixon and asked if they would host. If true, this would mean that Burlington Central, Freeport, Belvidere, Kaneland, Geneva, Rochelle, and Rockford East initially were unwilling to host any IHSA girls basketball events. And when the IHSA needed another host and contacted them again, they all refused to host a girls basketball Regional.
As a result the IHSA reached out to Dixon to see if they would move Sectionals and be willing to host a Regional.
Version 2- Seeing there was only one Regional host, Dixon called the IHSA and asked if they could switch Sectionals if they were willing to host. If the move was initiated by Dixon, it sets a bad precedent to allow a school to in effect request to switch their tourney assignment.
Maybe something like this has happened before, but I can’t remember it ever happening. The huge advantage that the move creates for Dixon raises eyebrows for sure.
Another issue this points out- some schools are not willing to host IHSA events. The IHSA should post a list that shows whether or not schools requested to host IHSA events. Parents, players, and coaches should know that their school administration is unwilling to host an IHSA tourney.
Presently it is too easy for administrators to claim they requested to host but the IHSA didn’t assign it to them. If administrators knew the IHSA was going to post a list of who requested (and didn’t), it might pressure more administrators to be willing to request to host IHSA tourneys.
And by the way, school board members and superintendents might like to know their AD was unwilling to host an IHSA tourney.
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