Personally, I can’t imagine one’s priority for fashion over winning and losing…but some would rather see scarlet and gray remain sacred. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
What we observed over the week, and what we heard from like people who simply liked things “the way they used to be.” And we heard it more than once, and in more than one sport.
It’s probably the best week of the year for sports and the sports junkies. The crossover between the basketball tournaments and the start of spring sports, the baseball season, and that sense of renewal. At least for me.
And just what are sports junkies?
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Well, by one definition I think you might be a junkie if you obsess over the past – then as compared to the way things are now. We heard a lot of it last week about tournament basketball.
And Sunday, I heard opinions Ohio State’s alternate baseball uniforms, something I noticed, but took as a matter of course.
I hadn’t been in Bill Davis Stadium ten minutes when one of the familiar faces approached, and, in the course of our conversation…she brought up the topic of the Buckeyes’ alternative black uniform jerseys worn for the Sunday finale with UCLA.
A win is a win, yes. But some OSU traditionalists want to see it in their traditional uniform, and not black (above).
“Our colors are scarlet and gray,” she huffed. “I don’t care how much money they get (from Nike), our colors are scarlet and gray. I wish someone here would respect that.”
Oh!
People are passionate about things like that, things that really don’t matter, but they complain anyway out of their obsession with tradition. And in this case, over the recent decade I’ve heard the same gripe, repeatedly, over the infusion of the color black with a school’s traditional colors.
“Our colors are red and white (or blue and white, or green and white),” people say. “Not black with red, or blue, or green trim.”
On Sunday, I responded this way. “Would you rather have what UCLA wore on Saturday night?”
When you’re the #1 team in the nation I guess you can wear whatever you want, but when they came out in that garish neon blue with with gold stripes and the traditional script UCLA it did look like beer league softball. Again, sponsored by Nike.
Or, this. Personally, give me white at home and gray on the road.
And the only thing I can equate it to is when Ohio State football wears something alternative that detracts from their iconic traditional look – red pants, for instance, or the dark charcoal helmet they wore against Michigan a few years ago. For the traditionalist who takes regional pride in the look, frankly it’s a disappointing bow to the money and the whim of some marketing nerd who’s never known a competitive moment in his life.
Now, I hear it all the time from people that a little change never hurt nobody. But the irony is that most of them have never known a competitive moment, either. And one probably should question the priority of change of color when what matters first is the priority on winning. And if I’m writing to you…I’m all ears!
What the public is now saying about seven divisions, in words to hard to ignore…
Thousands of you have read by this time the repeated suspicions over what seven divisions of high school sports has done to the competitive example of this year’s basketball tournaments. Our email is full on a daily basis calling attention to the number of non-competitive games. But the following social media post (Twitter) was forwarded to me this morning that probably says more with fewer words than anything I’ve read, or written, as it’s attributed to Martin RPI, the ranking service who seeds the tournament by virtue of record and strength of schedule.
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From Martin RPI: “I’ll admit I’m late to the party here as an early supporter of 7 divisions. I let it play out for a couple of years, and now I’ve done a full 180.
I’m preaching to the choir for most of you, but there’s teams playing at Regionals this week that wouldn’t make it out of sectionals when there were four divisions. Going to the nine regional games at BGSU was one of the best weeks of the year for me for the last fifteen years – [and now] my excitement level for the nine games there this week is nonexistent. Some of these games I’d put 30-point spreads on. District Final Saturday used to be the best day of the tournament. Now it’s littered with blowouts. OHSAA has completely ruined this.”
A year ago I would have written that no one at the OHSAA is listening, because they expanded the field of competition out of a sense of nobility. But now I’ve done a 180 of my own, willing to believe that as the throng gets louder over their disdain for suspect competition and lopsided scores…how can they not hear?
“They’re supposed to be doing what’s best for kids, and I question that when the score is 87-14,” someone commented recently after a district quarterfinal at Versailles.
“Even the kids they’re trying to promote know better,” was a response sent to Press Pros after a lopsided 50-point Northwest district semi-final (Acadia and North Baltimore).
People bring up the increasing number of blowouts…the increasing travel…confusion with the brackets…and always, always the issue of what it costs to watch an OHSAA tournament game played with a running clock to limit the carnage.
I don’t have an answer, except to revert to what my dad repeated for decades – that sometimes it’s just better to leave well enough alone.
Regardless of which side of the fence you’re on, it’s impossible not to hear the dissenting noise…unless your totally deaf!
Siblings keeping tournament hopes in the family…
One of the cool things – inspiring, actually – about high school sports are those brother and sister stories where one follows in the other’s footsteps in the pursuit of a state championship in the same sport.
Russia’s Aryanna Cordonnier (above, in white) is pursuing the Raiders’ first girls title in basketball this weekend.
Her brother Braylon (holding the trophy) led the Russia boys to their first title in 100 years of basketball last spring.
Every year there’s a local story about a brother/sister act with one of the OHSAA competing schools.
But no place I’ve heard of has a story of four siblings this year who are trying to do it…except at Russia High School (pronounced Roo-shee for the unenlightened), as Russia native Denny Monnin brought to our attention.
Last year the Russia boys won the Division VII boys title, the first in school history after a hundred years of boys basketball.
And this year the girls team is seeking the same distinction (except for the hundred years part).
And not one, or two, or three…but four of this year’s Russia girls have had older brothers who played on Russia’s Final Four teams over the past three years – four sisters from three families.
They are…Hazel Francis and Ruby Francis (younger sister of Felix Francis)…Celeste Borchers (younger sister of Vince Borchers)…and Aryanna Cordonnier (younger sister of Braylon Cordonnier).
There’s not enough time for the research necessary, and it’s probably not a first, even here in the Shelby, Darke, Mercer and Auglaize county. But it’s worth noting that where you have communities with strong families and strong family values the apples don’t fall far from the tree. You can imagine the sibling relationships in those homes…under those hoops in the driveways…and around the table when it comes to sports-shared experiences.
How it is. How it should be.
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