Here we go and just like that basketball season is running and gunning. I would like to direct my thoughts to Holiday tournaments this week. I know that teams love to go and play teams outside their conference and region during the holiday season. I loved playing in a tournament setting before the season really got rolling and I think teams today love to play in the big venues also. I would love to have input on a long running holiday set of games that take place every year in Mobridge. It is called the Rotary Classic and as of late it has been anything but classic. i know that teams that used to play in the classic now play in one of a dozen or more holiday forums around the state and it is hard to schedule teams around to come to Mobridge and play here. I have suggested a North, south match-up between teams in North Dakota and South Dakota close to Mobridge. It would be a nightmare for those athletic directors to schedule but if it is scheduled enough in the future it might work. Here is my thinking, start at noon with a match up of Strausburg/ Zeeland and Eureka Bowdle then at two o'clock schedule Ashley and Herreid, at four o'clock have Selby Area play Wishick and then at eight o'clock Linton and Mobridge would play. The first day would be dedicated to girls and the second day to the boys. You could have different teams play in different combinations and it could be a very competitive set of games. It would be a very hard set of games to schedule but I think it would bring a lot of basketball fans that don't usually get to see each other together. It is worth considering and if someone out there has a better solution to this dilemma of the Annual Mobridge Rotary Classic then i would love to hear it.
Whether they happen over the holidays or not, I love these "Classic" events and the intriguing match-ups that happen at some of them. Obviously, the Hanson Classic is probably the premier example in South Dakota, but there are also good examples in Parkston, Brookings, and maybe now in Chamberlain, where their East-West Classic will run for the second year on Jan. 2. Winner's Snowball Classic is another good example.
ReplyDeleteI like the North Dakota vs. South Dakota idea, and I think with the chips falling in the right places, I imagine that could happen. If it were still something that could be maybe an East-West South Dakota Shootout, that would be great. Maybe two Class B games and two Class A games, and not necessarily featuring teams from the immediate area. Imagine match-ups like Lemmon vs. Leola/Frederick, Faith vs. Ipswich, Timber Lake vs. Warner, Cheyenne-Eagle Butte vs. Sisseton, or Mobridge vs. Redfield, or even match Linton up against someone like Miller or Stanley County.
I know we have a lot of active imaginations, but how many go-getters do we have out there that can make something like this happen?
Perhaps the Mobridge schools should have taken a little more effort in finding teams to come to their "classic". They used to have some great games, but as usual they sat back and expected people to come to their little party and have to play a crappy opponent. Mobridge is getting out of their classic EXACTLY what they put into it...marginal attendance and poor games. The Herreid-MHS game should be good on the girls side, but I have heard that TLake will play Mobridge? What a joke...No one wants to go to a Christmas game and play the Timbucktwo Junior Varsity. Yet for the past three years, MHS adminstration has set up a game as such. I don't blame teams for not coming to the classic.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is with East vs. West, a lot of the good west teams such as Eagle Butte, McLaughlin, Standing Rock, that are close, play in the LNI. They don't like playing in a holiday classic right after the LNI because now they've played 1/3 of their schedule before the new year. You would never get a team from around that Aberdeen area because they're in love with all the Classics played in the Barnett Center and elsewhere. Everybody's got a classic over Christmas break. Mobridge is far from the only show in town when it comes to holiday classics. The ND/SD matchups don't work because 1) from what I understand ND is now requiring each team to play every team in its region at least once during the regular season (but don't quote me on that), which means they are not looking to add another SD team to their schedule. If anything they're looking to drop them, and 2) a lot of these border teams already play each other, which would mean they would now play each other twice during the year, or would have to find another game if they played during the classic. Mobridge is better off trying to get a couple of Class A teams in for just a few quality games, but in this day-and-age....easier said than done. You have to remember Mobridge is about a 2 hour drive from anywhere, minimum.
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