Hoosier Hysteria

OK this blog post title might confuse some of you but I promise you it has nothing do with that lame inbred junior college in Southern IN.  Nope this is all about one of the country's greatest traditions that fired up this past week.  Last week was the start of the annual Indiana High School State Basketball Tournament.  High school sports are really big in the state of Indiana, possibly bigger than any other state and the kind of HS sports here is basketball.  I am not sure why but this state latched onto HS hoops and never let go.  In fact there is a saying here "in 49 states it's just basketball in Indiana it's a way of life" and that's the truth.  I was really fortunate to grow up in the single class era, and backed a team that was really really good. 

I had an odd situation I went to one school(Eastern) while I cheered for another(Kokomo) I had the opportunity to transfer to KHS going into my Freshman year and didn't, while I regret that decision now I still had it pretty good as I had the best of both worlds good friends at EHS and great sports teams at KHS.  For anyone curious both my parents worked for Kokomo at the time including my dad being the Assistant Principal as well as head football coach. So, even though I chose not to transfer I had tons of friends at KHS and ended up going to all the sporting events, which meant getting to spend most Fri/Sat nights and a lot of week nights at this mecca, which is Memorial Gymnasium



I loved getting to go to games there, the gym seats roughly 6000 people and when I was in HS it was full to capacity most nights.  It was a neat set up as 90% of the gym is home seating, and a sliver of seats given to the guests.  As big as this gym is it's not anywhere near the biggest in the state of Indiana.  USA Today actually did a story on HS Gym capacities and 8 of their top 10 gyms were from Indiana, including the world's largest HS fieldhouse in New Castle, which I have had the pleasure of going to. 

Anyway, back to the state tournament it's crazy it has gone thru changes when I was in school it was one class and everyone played, and then the small schools got whiny and a vote was taken and 1998 was the first year where there were 4 classes.  Attendance has dipped some since that went into place partly because you got to drive all over tarnation.  Both the 1 class and the class system run the same you have sectionals, regionals, semi state, and state.  Some slight differences in a one class system after sectionals you had to win 2 games at every level to keep advancing so they'd have two semi finals in the morning and then a championship game that night.  Kokomo had an amazing run when I was in school where the girls would play 4 weeks straight usually winning state, and then boys would usually make it to semi state making 7 straight weeks of road trips!  The other great part was the venues especially semi state once you got to that level in a one class system you were sent to one of four sites, down south to Indiana State/Evansville they rotated, Indy area to Butler, north west Purdue, and North East went to either Notre Dame, or the Fort Wayne Coliseum(which was Kokomo's semi state) and then the final four was held in Indy, it has been at Butler, Market Square, the RCA Dome, and now Conseco Fieldhouse.  The state of Indiana still holds the record for National HS attendance when the RCA dome was completely sold out to watch Damon Bailey and BNL take down Shawn Kemp and Concord for the state title.  Now in multiple class tournaments a lot of that atmosphere has been taken away and semi states are played at big HS gyms.  

So this past week sectionals kicked off and the Kats won!  beating Marion, Lafayette Jefferson, and McCutcheon(who was on sportscenter the night before we beat them!) and now head to the regional round to face the state's number 1 team, and I can't wait! 

I am sure this was a boring post for most of you but I wanted to share the history that is our state basketball tournament if you have seen Hoosiers(and seriously who hasn't?!) you know Hoosier Hysteria is a pretty exciting time.  So, this Saturday think positive thoughts for the Kats as they travel to Marion for the regional! Game time is Noon.   Also speaking of basketball tournaments even though the Boilers will not be in March Madness, I am still doing my bracket contest hopefully you all will play again! 

Have a great week
Phats