Could Kansas high school state basketball tourneys resume? How will teams be honored?
As of Tuesday afternoon, 17,199 people have signed a petition to resume the 2020 Kansas high school state basketball tournaments.
When the Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) canceled the tournaments after the quarterfinal round Thursday, a wave of backlash followed. Executive director Bill Faflick said he has received numerous emails and phone calls, many about resuming the tournament.
He said it can’t happen.
“It’s almost more cruel to postpone it because when do you play it?” Faflick said. “Where would that be? And when is too late? Now we’re in the middle of all of our spring sports. ... That was the board’s decision — to cancel it and move to the next season, though no one likes the outcome.
“It was the least of the bad choices we had,” Faflick said.
In several other states, the tournaments continued with a limited crowd or no crowd at all (those states are no longer playing now, either). Faflick said that wasn’t an option in Kansas.
“If it wasn’t good for crowds, how can we justify that it’s good for the kids on the floor?” he said. “Bottom line is if there’s going to be exposure, there’s going to be exposure. We felt like we needed to be all in or not in.”
If the state tournaments resumed, the timing would favor certain schools over others. At larger schools, many athletes specialize in one sport; a lot of high school basketball players’ athletic careers revolve around basketball.
At small schools, more athletes compete in multiple sports, including those played in the spring. With practice time ahead of a resumed basketball tournament, there would almost certainly be scheduling conflicts for some players.
There is also a threat of spring sports being canceled. Spring activities including baseball, softball and girls soccer have been suspended until at least Sunday, and Faflick said KSHSAA is taking the prospect of a resumption of those sports week by week.
“Half the time, we are working backwards, and half the time we are looking at what’s next,” Faflick said.
While petitioners are eager to see the basketball tournaments resume, some schools have already recognized their teams for a finished season.
After Topeka Seaman’s girls beat Maize in the Class 5A quarterfinals, the final game of the shortened tournament, Seaman coach Matt Tinsley said the Vikings were going back to Topeka to cut down the nets.
“We don’t need a trophy to tell us that we’re champions,” Tinsley said. “These girls played with heart this year, and they captured our hearts this whole season. We’re very proud of what they accomplished.”
Friday morning, Faflick said, KSHSAA ordered medals for each of the remaining 48 quarterfinalist teams across all six classifications. Those medals weren’t state championship medals, but “final four” awards.
“It doesn’t take the sting away, but it does recognize that they had a fabulous year,” Faflick said.
Faflick said he hopes that each of those 48 schools honor their teams in some way. In some classifications, 60 other schools didn’t do what the final four in each classification achieved in the 2019-20 season.
Every year, the KSHSAA website is updated with the most recent state champions and brackets. On Tuesday, the site still shows last year’s winners. Faflick said he doesn’t know yet what KSHSAA’s course of action will be on the website.
“You could make the case for co-champions; in fact, I think we did that in tennis because of a tie,” Faflick said. “But what do you do for four? They didn’t win the championship. They didn’t go all the way through the competition. At this point, I think the designation will remain, ‘Final four.’ ”
KSHSAA does not have any governance over what awards that individual member schools put into their trophy cases, or the banners they hang in their gyms.
At Campus, the Colts made the state basketball tournament for the first time since 1996. They were undefeated and beat Manhattan in the first round and seemed on their way to their first title game since 1988, where they were likely to play three-time defending 6A champion Blue Valley Northwest.
Faflick said that although Campus went undefeated in 2019-20, he can’t declare the Colts champions. He said it is hard to say how that matchup would have turned out.
“This is not something that anyone wants to have happen,” Faflick said. “We truly are as disappointed, as you can imagine, for the kids that worked so hard. All of our kids work hard. All of our coaches work hard. I’d like to have been able to see them continue to build and have two teams win that championship game opportunity and see one come out.
“But some things are bigger than that. This is one of those cases.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Could Kansas high school state basketball tourneys resume? How will teams be honored?."