Too many tournaments and games for high school cagers

The Lovell Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs will host a pair of home varsity basketball games tonight.

Finally.

In what must be a record, Lovell’s first home games of the entire season take place on January 22 – six weeks after the first weekend of competition.

It’s crazy.

I really don’t blame the schedulers. I blame the current state of high school basketball, which forces schools into tournament after tournament after tournament. Maybe “forces” is too strong a word, but in order to stay competitive, schools do what the other schools do and travel across the state for competition. Lovell varsity teams have played in tournaments in Casper, Lander, Douglas, Thermopolis, Worland, Powell and Cowley, depending on the schedule and the gender.

One of the reasons for all of the tournaments is that each day of competition is considered just one date, one game, on the schedule. So when the Lovell boys played Wyoming Indian and Thermopolis last Friday in the Big Horn Basin Classic in Thermop, it counted as one game on the schedule, and coaches generally want to get in as much playing time as they can. It’s understandable.

But when is it too much?

One longtime former coach told us recently that the current system is ruining high school basketball, and he certainly has a point. Some fans don’t get to see their teams play until well into the season, in some cases, and the busy schedule is taxing on players. Rocky Mountain, for instance, played eight games BEFORE Christmas, thanks to attending tournaments in Wright, Glenrock and Shoshoni. And after last weekend’s four-game Big Horn Basin Classic, the Grizz have played 14 games already -- in mid-January.

It must be exhausting.

Thank goodness the conference season is here. Tonight’s games against Worland are the only games Lovell has on the schedule this weekend. And Rocky plays only two dates this weekend, including home games against Greybull Friday evening and at Shoshoni Saturday.

Again, we don’t see this as a problem with athletic directors, but we would like to see at least one set of contests before the holidays and a reduction in the number of tournaments. And we understand next year will be better.

So enjoy your popcorn and basketball tonight and tomorrow night, hoops fans. It’ll be fun just to settle in for some home cooking.

— David Peck