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Disparity in sports has always been a difficult issue to address. Mainly the reason for that is that there isn’t much of a solution to offer, especially not at the prep sports level.
Still after watching Milford’s girls’ basketball team thoroughly defeat Indian River on Friday, it was obvious to me that something has to be done… only I’m sure what.
Here’s the deal, IR came into the game undefeated on the season, the Lady Buccaneers, however, were just 4-5 prior to their 67-58 game. IR, a Henlopen South team, will more than likely win its division and get into the state tournament – deservingly so of a spot, I might add – the Milford, playing in the North, could struggle to reach the playoffs. Not only that, if the two teams met again there isn’t anything to say the Lady Indians couldn’t pull off the upset, but it was clear to me on Friday that Milford was the better team of the two. So, if Milford – probably the fourth best team in its own division – is at least IR’s equal if not better, than how fair is it to the Indians when they get into the tournament and are forced to play teams that are some of the best in the state; schools that have several more students to draw from than IR?
This isn’t just a girls’ basketball problem either, as currently Delaware only has state tournaments broken up by divisions in two sports – wrestling and football – and it is not uncommon for smaller public schools to struggle in state tournaments for those either.
Delaware is small, tournament fields for basketball, baseball and softball are huge, and maybe there is no reason to split those sports and others into two divisions. And even with the two division split, there are problems and disparity. Still, as I said at the beginning of this little rant, I don’t have an answer but this is clearly a problem that needs resolving sooner rather than later.
Disparity in sports has always been a difficult issue to address. Mainly the reason for that is that there isn’t much of a solution to offer, especially not at the prep sports level.
Still after watching Milford’s girls’ basketball team thoroughly defeat Indian River on Friday, it was obvious to me that something has to be done… only I’m sure what.
Here’s the deal, IR came into the game undefeated on the season, the Lady Buccaneers, however, were just 4-5 prior to their 67-58 game. IR, a Henlopen South team, will more than likely win its division and get into the state tournament – deservingly so of a spot, I might add – the Milford, playing in the North, could struggle to reach the playoffs. Not only that, if the two teams met again there isn’t anything to say the Lady Indians couldn’t pull off the upset, but it was clear to me on Friday that Milford was the better team of the two. So, if Milford – probably the fourth best team in its own division – is at least IR’s equal if not better, than how fair is it to the Indians when they get into the tournament and are forced to play teams that are some of the best in the state; schools that have several more students to draw from than IR?
This isn’t just a girls’ basketball problem either, as currently Delaware only has state tournaments broken up by divisions in two sports – wrestling and football – and it is not uncommon for smaller public schools to struggle in state tournaments for those either.
Delaware is small, tournament fields for basketball, baseball and softball are huge, and maybe there is no reason to split those sports and others into two divisions. And even with the two division split, there are problems and disparity. Still, as I said at the beginning of this little rant, I don’t have an answer but this is clearly a problem that needs resolving sooner rather than later.
