Tuesday, December 12, 2006 11:00 PM CST
Does tourney have life after T-Town?
BY BRIAN NIELSEN Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
Yes, Pinckneyville’s new tournament is taking tradition-rich Teutopolis, Lawrenceville and Olney from the Charleston Boys’ Basketball Holiday Tournament.
Yes, Chrisman is leaving as well.
No, contrary to what some rumors and Web sites have insisted, Edwardsville, winner of the last two tourneys and four since joining the field in 1996, is not leaving Charleston for Carbondale
“No way,” Edwardsville coach Mike Waldo said. “Do you have the (Charleston High) school’s number? I’ll call them right now to let them know.”
So talk of the demise of Charleston’s 16-team tourney celebrating its 30th year is only partially true.
Tolono Unity, Highland and Canton are in line to be replacements next year with some others like Chicago Robeson and Woodstock Marian expressing interest.
Granted, when it comes to fan followings, none of those schools are Teutopolis. Or even Lawrenceville or Olney.
Teutopolis without question is the big loss with its loyal fan following, winning teams and the tourney’s most colorful and entertaining coach, Ken Crawford.
Teutopolis, which chose to play in a January Mid-Winter Classic that turned out to be short-lived.
Crawford took full responsibility for taking his team to the Mid-Winter tourney as if he owed anyone an explanation for doing what he felt was best for the program with which he won a 1986 Class A state championship.
Since then Crawford has been one of the Charleston tournament’s biggest supporters.
He has never been one of those to complain about his seed or pairing or even a 9 a.m. opening-round game.
But now the IBCA Hall of Famer plans to retire so did not give input about Teutopolis’ choice for next season, which has turned out to be joining the new Pinckneyville tournament.
“Pinckneyville contacted us to let us know they were putting this together,” Teutopolis Athletics Director Angela Sheehan said. “We just thought it sounded like an interesting tournament. We have no complaints about Charleston. It’s a fabulous tournament. Chances are if Charleston invites us, we may come back some time. But we just thought we’d give this a try.”
Pinckneyville, finding too much big school competition at the Carbondale tournament, is starting its own Duster Thomas Hoops Classic, an eight-team, two-pool event in which teams are to play four games in a two-day span.
“It’s a longer drive but it’s just two days versus the three at Charleston,” Sheehan said.
With Benton, Carterville, DuQuoin, Lawrenceville, Olney, Steeleville and Teutopolis visiting, Pinckneyville offers a tournament with some of the best small-school programs in southern Illinois at its court that has plenty of basketball history.
So Pinckneyville is where Lawrenceville, a former state power and still viable program, has chosen to go.
“I love the Charleston tournament,” Lawrenceville coach Paul Higginbotham said. “We love playing there. The kids love playing there. It was a tough decision but when you get the opportunity to play on Pinckneyville’s floor, that’s just one of those life experiences a kid should get to have.”
Higginbotham disagreed with any notion that Edwardsville, which has by far the largest enrollment of the Charleston tourney, is chasing away smaller schools feeling they have no chance for a championship trophy here.
“I don’t think so,” said the Lawrenceville coach whose team took fifth place last season. “From our standpoint we’ve looked forward to the opportunity to play them. At Christmas time you couldn’t ask for anything more. If you have a quality program you want to play them and measure. There’s no downside to that. It would probably be more of a downside for them than for us.”
Olney also expresses no complaints about the Charleston tourney other than seeing teams it plays other times during the season since it joined the Apollo Conference four years ago.
“I think the biggest reason is the Charleston tournament has a lot of Apollo schools in it,” Olney Athletics Director Andy Julian said of the Tigers’ move next year to Pinckneyville. “I think the people up there have done a really good job. It’s just a chance for us to play some different teams.”
By the same token, Edwardsville plans to continue to come to Charleston.
“Oh yeah, our kids really like coming to the tournament,” Waldo said. “The kids like the gym and staying overnight and we see some teams we don’t usually see.”
Of course, Edwardsville does not bring as many fans as Teutopolis, Olney or Lawrenceville.
“Obviously, we’re not doing it for the fans’ perspective,” Charleston Athletics Director Jerry Calandrilla said. “We’re doing it for the student athletes and to showcase our student-athletes. It’s nice to have a good gate, but it’s not the main reason for having the tournament. At the same time it’s a nice tool for Eastern to show its facilities. How many high school athletes get to say they get to play on a Division I court?”
Experiencing in December Eastern Illinois’ Lantz Arena where Class A teams can return for the IHSA Class A Charleston Super-Sectional in March is not enough reason to keep Teutopolis, Lawrenceville and Olney for now.
So Charleston is looking for other possibilities.
For next year, at least, it appears it can continue to have a 16-team bracket where every entry plays at least twice and 12 of them three or more.
Elsewhere are plenty of round robins guaranteeing teams more games.
“I think we can always have the tournament,” Charleston boys’ basketball coach Trevor Doughty said. “The 16-team thing, that’s one of the things we have to look at. You can always have enough teams to have a tournament. You look around and none of these tournaments have 16 teams. With 16 teams, yes, I have concerns with that. That’s one of the ways the sport is changing. But I think we can always have the tournament.”
Possible format changes could be a task inherited by Calandrilla in his first year as Charleston’s athletics director after six previous years as an assistant football coach who has helped in the tourney organization during that time.
“I’m never worried about not having enough teams,” Calandrilla said. “This tournament was put on well before I got here. I’d like to continue it well after I’m retired. It’s great for the community. With the (Eastern Illinois University) students gone it’s a great economic boost for the community.”
The question in coming years is just how great.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
