Championship weekend has arrived for Section V basketball, which means boys and girls teams across the region will be playing in front of big crowds in large venues— including 10 boys championship games at the Blue Cross Arena at the Rochester Community War Memorial.
But what about the regular season, when many observers believe attendance at basketball games appears to be down? The situation has not reached crisis mode, but athletic directors are exchanging ideas to attract more spectators at league meetings.
Michael Murray, the athletic director at Churchville-Chili, has noticed while scanning the bleachers during games this season.
“We don’t charge for anything,” Murray said about admission to Churchville-Chili sports events. "A lot of times,(the size of the crowd)would depend on what else is going on.
"Parents are going to see their kids. Students can sometimes be split about what they want to see and where they are going to go."
This includes choosing between attending a girls game or a boys game because the varsity teams in Monroe County often play at the same times at different sites.
What can be done?
There are spectators and coaches in Section V who certainly have suggestions, including breaking up the all-boys or all-girls JV-then-varsity scheduling that has been commonin this area for as long as many people around high school sports can remember.
“For years, the girls played on Tuesdays and Thursdays andthe boys played on Wednesdays and Fridays, so there were never any conflicts,” Gates Chili physical education teacher and football coach Jason Benham said. "Now, the Friday night games are almost hurting the other.One team plays at home, the other on the road.It splits your school.
"My two older kids were a year apart. If they stuck with basketball, we would’ve had to make choices on who we wanted to see.On those Friday nights, put your varsity contests on the same nights,have your boys and girls play in the same location. You are playing the same schools anyway.”
This idea is far from new.
There are high schools in the Rochester-area that schedule varsity doubleheaders as a centerpiece for a "Senior Night," or part of another notable occasion, like the Pittsford school district's Rainbow Classic, a fundraiser in the fight against cancer.
The varsity boys and girls teams at Pittsford Sutherland and Pittsford Mendon teams face each other during December at the University of Rochester, then meet again at one of the schools later in the season.
"It’s kind of breathtaking," Mendon girls basketball senior forward Alana Fursman said. "You walk in (to the Palestra), and everyone is there. It’s wow,the atmosphere is crazy, everyone is hyped up,
“We all look forward to it. We have a countdownin our locker room. The second (games) arenot as big, but a lot of people still go.”
Induction night for Churchville-Chili'snew athletic hall of fame has included boys-girls varsity basketball games the last two years.
Murray used to work in a variety of roles at Mount Morris, a school that plays games in the Livingston County league, including as a principal and athletic director.
"They actually do that quite a bit," Murray said about varsity doubleheaders. "We really should see if we can do it more often."
Dan Dickens, in his 18th season as the Caledonia-Mumford varsity boys basketball coach, said attendance seems to be down in the Livingston County league, too.
"When we played our rivals, it was full in the stands," Dickens said. "Even with our rival games, (now) there is still room to put more people in there. I don’t know if there is so much going on, where they don’t have time to come and support. It could be they are not interested.
"We still have the local adults who come to our games, even if they don't have children at our school anymore, (but the drop) a lot of it is the student body not attending.. They do have other options, too. For us, we’re a small school and there are a lot of activities and ways to support theschool. The kids, they need free time, too.”
Doubling down with varsity teams
Varsity doubleheaders seem like a stronger way to build school spirit, to some.
"The basketball games were the place to bein the winter,"Benham said. "Now, you are definitely splitting up your school.
"For sure (attendance is down), and so is plain, old school spirit. When there were games, your basketball teams would support each other."
And sometimes that would mean friends of the players or their familiesor neighbors would come along, too,
"I know when we did a couple doubleheaders when I was in high school, attendance was very high, very high," Gates resident Rodney Roberts said. "Parents are there, so they are going to stay to see the other team play.
"If somebody is there, they are going(to) watch the other team play. You get a bang for your buck. Look at me, I came to see my sister play and I’m sitting here watching the varsity boys game (between Northstar Christian Academy and The CharlesFinney School)."
For every action, there is a ...
Can it be as simple as it sounds, schedule more back-to-back varsity games, then watch the school bleachers fill and the lines at the concession stand grow? Not quite. The logistics involved can seem like a boondoggle.
"We haven't done it frequently," Rochester City School District athletic director CarlosCotto said. "There are so many pieces to it. It would be difficult on a school night because we lose time.
"It's getting your kids home fairly late, not only to eat, but to get their homework done and getting ready for the next day."
A one-time event at Edison in December, a JV boys-varsity girls-varsity boys tripleheader, seemed to go over well. Edison senior guard Dyaisha Fair, the most acclaimedplayer in her school, said the lineup of games with Bishop Kearney helped put more people in the bleachers for the Inventors girls basketball team. She said the norm for home games is "a quiet gym."
"Itwas huge, yeah, more people than normal," Fair said. "We were the underdogs, and then there was a boys game after."
Setting up a lineup of varsity games like this has a ripple effect that requires athletic directors to coordinate facility use andpractice schedules. When and where do you move the JV games? If two teams in a league decide to take part in a varsity doubleheader, that can rearrange the schedules of other members.
"But all of those are logisticalthings,” Pittsford athletic director Scott Barker said. "There isn’t a challenge if the Monroe County league decided that is how they would do their basketball schedules (building in varsity doubleheaders).
"You would probably have to do your whole schedule that way."
There may be a domino effect for the good, with a change to that format.
“The otherthingis, itwould help with the officials," Barker said. "If you took JV games and put them on Thursdays andSaturdays,and have your varsity games on Wednesday and Friday, onall four of those days you have a full pool of officials.
“It’s an opportunity for them to make more money. As official groups shrink, you are probably using your personnel more effectively. We are so low in officials that as athletic directors,we have to become creative in our scheduling,and this would be one way to help them out."
But that could mean a reduction or the elimination ofthesame-sex, JV-then-varsity lineup arrangement preferred by some coaches, including those at smaller schools, where fewer people fill out the staff.
"We've done that (varsity doubleheaders) in the past, but the biggest problem with itisour boys basketball JV and varsity coaches are very close, they work with each other," Batavia athletic director Michael Bromley said. "They help each other on the bench. They practice together.
"He wants to be there (to see games) because thesekids are his future kids. Obviously, he’s a good mentor for our younger coaches.”
And what about the JV coaches? Few high school coachesare considered "highly-compensated."
"If you do it (separate the JV and varsity)that could be another 20 nights out for your coaches," Bromley said. "They would have to be there two nights in a row, in some cases. That is asking a lot of them."
Mixed reactions
A switch in format may work better at some schools than others, bringing in to question the value of changing.
“It was unique at the time," Spencerport athletic director John Pelin said about a varsity doubleheader four or five years ago. "Itdid cause some logistical problems.We did not see any increase in attendance.
"For one night it was fine,but for a pattern, no. It comes back to, do teams win? It’s a program's culture and tradition, no matter what the sport.That increases attendance."
There may be another game plan or two needed entirely, according to Pelin, in his 30th and final year as an athletic director.
“Across the board,all sports have seen a decline in attendance,"Pelin said. "We’ve also seen a decline in participation, in some cases.
"We’re fighting some of the same battles that colleges and professional sports are, and we don’t have marketing teams. I thinksome schools will give it a try. Ifit’s a success, I think more will do it, but again, every school has unique circ*mstances to them."
Finney athletic director and varsity basketball coach Joe Marchandis sold on varsity doubleheaders.
"No, I’m not surprised (that it's not common locally), a lot of schools have been separating the boys and girls for a long time," Marchand said. "Once you start doing doubleheaders you realize, 'This is great, we should do it more often'."
How a tinyschool puts pieces together
The Finney School in Penfield has 392 enrolled students, ranging from pre-kindergarten to the 12th grade, according to Marchand, also the school's varsity boys basketball coach. There are 155 students in the high school.
Similar to night football gamesat Finney and other schools, alineup of basketball contests can turn a Friday evening into a social event on campus.
Finney has scheduled at least two, sometimes three or four basketball games with league opponents for more than two decades, Marchand said. It's common for there to be standing room only inside Finney's small gymnasium.
"The lowest it’s everbeen was six,the highest was 10 (during a season)," Marchand said."A lot of times, it would be a quadruple, JV girls, JV boys, varsityboys and varsity girls.
"It is a long night, but it's such a wonderful night, a great atmosphere for the kids. It brings out a great spirit for the school."
Scheduled tip-offs were 3 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Marchand said the crowds for the JV girls game averaged 100 to 150 people, 150 to 220 for the JV boys.
"Wetried to do them on Fridays." Marchand said. "It’s packed by the time you get to the girls varsity game.
"Everybody is getting there early to see the boys varsity team. The student andparent participation forschools like Lima Christian andNorthstaris excellentfor those nights.”
The crowd at Northstar Christian Academy to see games against Finney teams was also memorable, Marchand said.
"Being such a small school, the students know each other so well, the kids support each other," Marchand said. "It's been like that since I've been here (22 years) and it’s like that at all three schools.
"And I tell you, it’s a night that the kids get excited for. Did you see the crowd when we played Northstar? That place was packed. There were more people at that game than I’ve ever seen in the Northstar gym.I’ve coached in that gym almost 30 times. It was packed for the girls game."
Doubleheaders work elsewhere
Kevan Sheppard, the girls basketball coach at Bishop Kearney, is not surprised.
He was a varsity player as a freshman at a co-ed private school in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, a community much smaller than Rochester, that also included two public high schools.
"It was smaller than Bishop Kearney, but (University Heights Academy)had a very good team,” Sheppard said. “We had thousands, every game was standing room only.
"The girls weren’t that good, At the beginning of the game,it was sparse, but at halftime if you wanted to get a good seat for the boys game, you had to get there."
Sheppard moved to Rochester in 1995, just before Christmas, and played at East High.
“It’s always been JV boys, then varsity boys, since I've been here," he said. "In the city, the games are so early, it’s hard. I don’t know how parents make it to a JV game. Most people work 9 to 5.
"We played Wilson (in a varsity girls basketball game) at 4:30."
Officials and coaches at Edison and Bishop Kearney worked together to set up thetripleheader between their teams.
"I’ve always talked about doing it, this year we did it at Edison,” Sheppard said. "They came to us, because (the Edison girls) were supposed to come to (Bishop Kearney).
“I said,'I don’t mind going back to Edison.' The JV boys had more people come to watch their game than the typical JV game. It was early in the season when people came to watch us play. Edison girls had lost one game at that time.”
Sheppard said a similar lineup of games "was the only way" in the South.
"The JV boys and girls played on Thursdays and the varsity boys and girls played on Friday, so the teams traveled together."
Sheppard would like to have his team participate in more of these multi-varsity game lineups.
"(Kearney athletic director Chris Belmont) is all about it, but the thing is, you have to be about it on the other side, too," Sheppard said. "You always get the excuse that this is the way we’ve always done it.
"A lot of people are cool with the status quo. For someone who has never seen it, it'sprobably hard for them to envision it that way."
JAMESJ@Gannett.com
