For years, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, the state’s governing body for prep sports, hosted an eight-team state tournament for its largest high schools. That changed, starting in 2004, when the 4A format was shrunk to allow just four teams into state tourney play.
The annual two-day tournament is currently on a rotating schedule, hosted at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas during odd years and at Reno's Lawlor Events Center on the University of Nevada campus in even years. To further complicate matters, in years when the tournament is held in southern Nevada, three Las Vegas-area schools qualify for state and just one northern Nevada school. In years when the event is played in Reno, two northern Nevada and two southern Nevada teams get state invites. This leaves different criteria for teams to qualify from year to year.
“I think a four-team state tournament is ridiculous,” said Reno girls basketball coach Shane Foster, whose Huskies earned the North’s lone state berth this winter. “First of all, this whole experience is supposed to be for the kids. It’s an experience that as many kids as possible should have … It’s supposed to be about the kids and it’s not.”
Foster is certainly not alone in his sentiment.
"Every coach in the state would love to see an expanded state tournament," said Bishop Gorman boys basketball coach Grant Rice, who just watched his Gaels win Nevada's 4A crown Friday night. “The more teams, the better. State is a great atmosphere. Even if we would not have won (the state championship), it was still great just for us to get here."
Coaches around the state may have gotten their hopes up prematurely last year over a return to the eight-team format. NIAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine discussed an expansion with Nevada’s school district superintendents, but he got a less-than-warm reception about the idea form the state’s school chiefs.
“The last thing we want, and I think it was pretty unanimous, is we won’t support anything that would increase costs to individual school districts and we certainly don’t want to increase the amount of time that students are out of school,” Washoe County School District Superintendent Paul Dugan said.
Bonine understands those concerns, mainly the cost issue. He'd like to find a way to get around it, but in the current economy there's no easy solution.
“I'd love to expand the state tournament, absolutely,” Bonine said. “I don't want to water it down, but I'd love to get more schools involved and give more kids the opportunity for that state experience.
“But unless there's something I don't know, you can't do that without raising costs. What I'd like to do is reimburse schools for travel to state events. Some states do that, but many of those also get state tax funding.”
The big question for many coaches is: Why was the tournament format contracted six years ago? The issue was sold to many as a cost-cutting measure, but Bob Bentley, an NIAA board member at the time of the decision to shrink the number of teams, said that wasn’t really the case. Bentley, who served on the NIAA’s Board of Control from 1993 to 2001, said NIAA leadership called into question the competitive integrity of the state tournament, stressing fewer teams meant better quality play.
“It started out as just a minor discussion … Most board members that first year were not inclined to make a change, but then as board members changed, it was brought up again the next year. There was some peripheral talk about finances, but it was not the main issue.
“What’s interesting is that in other areas where the NIAA wanted to make changes, it would survey schools and coaches to see what they wanted, and almost all the time, we would go along with their wishes. On this one, coaches by far wanted to keep the state format the same. But the southern Nevada leadership at the time kind of wanted the change for reducing teams. So, that’s the way it went.”
The NIAA executive board is comprised of nine members with five of those voting representatives coming from southern Nevada.
Nevada, which has 47 4A, or large, high schools, is by no means following a trend. Adjacent states Oregon and Idaho both conduct eight-team state tournaments. Oregon has 46 high schools in its biggest classification while Idaho has just 20.
Other nearby states, Arizona and Utah, both host 16-team state tournaments. Arizona does have more schools, 64, but Utah has just 26.
Even now, with the four-team state format in place for six years, you are hard-pressed to find coaches who like it.
“I wish we had more teams involved,” Spanish Springs boys basketball coach Kyle Penney said. “When I was a kid growing up, I looked on the calendar, found the state tournament and knew that’s where I’d be for three days.
“What we have now doesn’t even feel like a tournament. There’s no tradition. Do people even really get excited about it?”
Reed High freshman dean of students Paul Gray recently stepped down as the Raiders boys basketball coach after 18 years. He took Reed to the state tourney under both the four and eight-team formats. He also played on Carson High’s 1975 state championship team, the last northern Nevada boys team to win a state title until 2006.
“If you are evaluating solely on monetary costs, it’s probably easier for districts with the two-day, four-team format,” Gray said. “But if we’re concerned about the whole interscholastic experience, competition, the opportunity for kids to play in a state tournament and just doing what’s best for kids, then an eight-team tournament is much better.
Gray said his state coaching experiences are valued but that his state playing experience was special and unforgettable.
“We lost to Wooster in the North final. Under the current format, we wouldn’t have even have had a chance to win state,” Gray said. “People say that the tournament winner is the best team, but when it comes down to one game, the best team doesn’t always win. The NCAA Tournament is a great example of more seems to be better. With an eight-team tournament, the event gets bigger and bigger every day. It builds up to the final day.”
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