OBSERVATIONS ON WHAT MAKES A GREAT STATE TOURNAMENT
By Al Mattei
Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com
By the power invested in The Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com has created a new state championship, one which we are dubbing The Ultimate State Tournament, which combines various elements of state championships all across the country.
The UST takes place in the fictional Midwestern territory of Illiana. Some 400 schools play field hockey in the state -- 200 public schools, 25 Roman Catholic schools, 25 college preparatory schools, 25 charter schools, 25 Hebrew academies, 25 Mennonite schools, 25 Christian schools, 25 Episcopal schools, and 25 schools run by The Society of Friends.
The schools are split up by enrollment: schools with less than 90 female students in grades 9-12 are in Grade 1. Schools with more than 90 and less than 179 are in Grade 2. Schools with more than 180 and less than 319 are in Grade 3, and schools with more than 320 female students in the upper grades are in Grade 4.
The schools are neatly distributed geographically in four quadrants of the state: Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast. The regions can be tailored year to year, as is the case in New Jersey, to reflect population shifts. The shifts are, however, only done at the beginning of the year, not at the inception of the Ultimate State Tournament.
Now, half of the field hockey-playing schools in Illiana are non-public, which creates interesting scheduling issues for the end of the year. The Hebrew schools won't play on the Sabbath, and most of the Christian schools won't play on Sundays. The college preparatory schools have half-day schooling on Saturdays, and the charter schools have some of their mandatory community-service courses on Wednesday afternoons.
The state tournament committee takes all of these into consideration and to make it easy to schedule around different observances. It also does not lock down certain days for state tournament matches; instead it follows New Jersey's "deadline" schedule which says that a game must be played by a certain date, not on it.
The makeup of Illiana's school populations can present other problems. Some of the public schools complain that the religious schools can get better athletes because the coverage area for the school tends to be much larger. And the same goes for the college preparatory schools, which can enroll post-graduate students who lack certain credits to get into college despite having already received their high-school diplomas.
The State of Illiana desires to have its field hockey tournament be open to all schools, as in the case of Delaware. However, any team with at least one player who has already received a high-school diploma and is in a post-graduate program must play one grade up when it comes to the state tournament. This goes for any non-public school -- preparatory, parochial, or charter.
Each field hockey team in Illiana plays in different-sized leagues, but plays the exact same number of games a season: 18. Of those games, 12 must be league matches and six must be non-league. As in the case in Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, a team can trade in two non-league games for an in-season tournament, and the tournament may be of any size and duration.
The 12-match league mandate has led to some very interesting contorting of league schedules over the years. Some larger leagues have gone to unbalanced schedules to make this a reality or have had to split up entirely.
The Springfield Superconference, for example, is a 48-team league around the state capitol and its environs. There are four 12-team divisions, and each school plays each other once, plus, at the end of the year, there is a special "challenge" round where the leader at the end of 11 league games plays the second-place team, the third-place team meets the fourth, and so on.
A team looking to make the UST must have at least a .500 record by the seventh week of its season, which is the procedure used in New Jersey and in several Pennsylvania districts.
Once all qualifiers' seasons end, the qualified teams are broken up into the 16 sectional tournaments. Some may be larger than others, but all are arranged to play to one champion; lose, and you go home.
For each section, the two clearly best teams regardless of record (or four if the sectional pool is larger than 16 teams) are given numbered seeds and placed in their respective brackets. Those seeds, if awarded, are to be chosen by a supermajority (66 percent) of the Illiana State Tournament Committee. The Committee is not obligated to award seeds.
If seeds are chosen, the rest of the state tournament qualifiers are arranged in the following criteria:
1. Fewest losses;
2. Most wins;
3. Winning percentage;
4. Common opponents;
5. Blind draw.
Without the possibility of choosing seeds, the criteria alone can lead to a 2-0-16 team being seeded higher than a 17-1 team, which is why a human element is added to the equation.
The 16 sectionals are held at the higher seed, as is the case in most states. But the sectional finals, the Grade semifinals and final, and the Tournament of Champions semifinals and finals, are all picked from a pool of any and all swatches of artificial grass or artificial turf available. Usually, the evening the matches are over, the Committee can select the site for the next match which should be as convenient to the two participants as possible.
Each team playing in a state tournament game is to choose a delegation of 30 -- players, coaches, trainers, managers. As in the case with many New England states, teams are to provide both white and orange game balls (the latter in case of snow).
Each team is also to provide four ballgirls, who are instructed to replace a ball on the sideline where it left play by setting the ball down on the turf on the where the side-in is to take place. The teams are also to fill out a form, similar to one used in Maryland, showing their rosters, statistics, and key players, and to provide 40 copies for use by media or college scouts.
Games in the UST are played according to Federation rules with one modification: all sticks are to be checked with an official two-inch ring, then measured for the legality of the bow. All sticks are then placed in a 50-gallon drum at the scorer's table so that when a player checks into the match, the stick is pulled out of the drum.
Illiana also provides three umpires to every match, with the reserve umpire in charge of the game clock and the yellow-card clock. Since all umpiring in Illiana is run by TheArbiter.net's assignor system, the procedures for scheduling are done by computer.
Games are played with the following tiebreaker procedure: two 10-minute overtimes played 7-v-7, followed by the alternating penalty-corner tiebreaker, as is used in New Hampshire and Maine. Substitutions are permitted at any and all times, even in the penalty-corner rounds.
From the sectional finals on, all games are to be played at night to assure maximum turnout from the community. The 16 sectional finals and Grade semifinals are all single-game events, but the Grade finals, Tournament of Champions semifinals, and finals, are all doubleheaders.
From the Grade finals onward, the tournament dates are not preselected because of the possibility of conflict with religious or academic observances. In all cases, any religious observances and/or school requirements must be respected even at the risk of having to play a doubleheader on a date after the deadline.
And once the Grade finals begins, each host site must offer the same amenities for the field hockey tournament that it does for other sports at the site, whether the site is a college, a high school, or a recreational park. Locker room facilities, access for spotters, and concession stands for the supporters are to be made available whenever possible.
Merchandising, from the Grade Finals onward, need to not only include the usual T-shirts (in team colors when known), but special long-sleeved shirts like in Virginia and Maryland with the rosters of all the teams on them. Outer gear such as fleece hats, rain jackets, and European soccer scarves with the wordmarks of the State of Illiana Tournament are also sold to acclamate supporters to quick changes in Illiana weather.
From the Grade Finals onward, the players are to be introduced using a modified International Hockey Federation protocol, where the umpires lead the players out onto the pitch. But whereas in the past the players simply shook hands at the center stripe and broke off to play, the procedure is now similar to soccer, where the players are introduced while standing in a single file parallel to the sideline.
During the opening, appropriately majestic music like the UEFA Champions' League theme is played, followed by the Star-Spangled Banner and player introductions. Once the ceremonies are over, the road team forms a line to shake hands with the umpires and the opposition, then the home team shakes hands with the umpires.
And in every match, from the start of The Ultimate State Tournament to the Tournament of Champions final, there is a winner in every match. There is no co-champion, and there is no draw in the bronze-medal match.
After the four Grade finals and the Tournament of Champions doubleheader, the tournament director presents championship and runner-up trophies to the teams' respective captains. In addition, each individual player from the submitted list of 30 in the team's delegation receives a medal, to be given out by a person in the Illianan or American field hockey community -- a coach, former or current athlete -- of sufficient notoriety.