Staff writer
With six teams instead of the usual eight, the Marion Classic basketball tournament is going to be a little different this year.
Eureka and Belle Plaine start the tournament Tuesday with both Marion teams playing later against Peabody. Following games will be played Dec. 9, 10, and 11. The championship games for the boys and girls tournaments will be Dec. 13 at 6 and 7 p.m., respectively.
Remington and Berean Academy round out the returning teams. The two schools that left the Marion Classic are Oxford, who left to start their own preseason tournament, and Leon Bluestem, who was searching for a smaller tournament.
“Everything is on a two year contract; they didn’t sign it for this year’s cycle,” Marion activities director Tod Gordon said. “It’s all speculation.”
Gordon switched to the six-team format that allows for a concurrent junior varsity tournament. He attempted to recruit two other teams to fill eight slots but could not find a team that was geographically close, comparably competitive, and would bring in a large crowd.
“Gates determine if you run a tournament,” Gordon said. “I’m happy every year if we can break even.”
He said Hesston and Wichita Collegiate were interested but the inclusion of either the Swathers or the Spartans would have wrecked the competitive balance of the tournament. Collegiate’s boys team won the 3A state title last year and is usually one of the top schools in nearly every sport. Hesston is consistently competitive at the 4A level.
“You don’t want to bring a team in and then next year lose two schools,” he said. “The schools we have, everybody gets along really well.”
The difference between basketball and wrestling, sports in the same season, is that basketball only has two available weekends for tournaments. The Marion Classic is competing with 14 other tournaments in close proximity Dec. 10 and 11.
“Those are the schools I’m trying to pull from,” Gordon said.
Because of the tournament format, Gordon has to have an even number of teams.
“If I lose a school in track, I’m going to run my track meet,” he said.
Although Oxford and Bluestem are leaving, the Marion Classic has not lost its luster after two years of existence. The USD 408 Sports and Aquatic Center is just starting to become a draw for local teams.
“We had a snow day last year and we had to play games on Wednesdays,” Gordon explained. “Oxford said, ‘one of the reasons we came was because of the gym.’ We had schools agreeing to play on Wednesday to play there.”
Gordon also expects the junior varsity tournament will help draw teams. Players at the junior varsity level have a finite number of games they can play, but on any given day, they can play six quarters of basketball between varsity and JV. In the previous format, coaches were hesitant to use their JV players during varsity games, knowing that it would waste an eligible JV game for a player later in the season.
“I think they’re going to like it,” Gordon said of coaches and the JV tournament.
Although there are only six teams, Gordon thinks that any team can win the tournament. The last two years Marion and Berean Academy have met in the championship game for girls and boys. This year that outcome is impossible because Marion and Berean are in the same pool.