Sports

AHSAA Central Board votes in favor of regional tournaments

By Griffin Pritchard
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For years after adopting fastpitch softball and phasing out the slowpitch game, the Alabama High School Athletic Association postseason has witnessed little change.

Teams would meet in an area tournament where the two finalists would move-on to sub-state. The area champ hosted the first round and the area runner-up traveled.

Spring 2009, however, that is going to change as the AHSAA’s Central Board voted unanimously in July to form a regional tournament instead of two sub-state games.

“This is just a matter of finances,” said Ron Ingram, media relations representative for the AHSAA.

“The AHSAA had the foresight to begin doing things to cut costs. Our baseball and softball coaches agreed to play 18 games this year instead of 20 regular season games last year. And we changed the number of tournaments from unlimited to seven and some teams, baseball and softball, ended up playing around 60 games by the time they got to state. Mississippi cut every sport’s budget by 10 percent across the board. That’s something we didn’t want to do.”

Softball, however, wasn’t immune to postseason changes either as the Central Board of the AHSAA voted to re-structure the sub-state rounds.

Softball’s postseason will now mirror basketball’s format with an area tournament, then a regional that leads to the state tournament at Lagoon Park.

Basketball’s postseason format has been in place since 1994.

The vote, unanimous by the Central Board, named Gulf Shores Sports Complex, Montgomery’s Lagoon Park, Birmingham’s Liberty Park and Huntsville’s Kiwanis Metro Park as the sites for the four regional tournaments.

“We have four great regional sites,” said Wanda Gilliland, AHSAA assistant director and organizer of softball’s new regional tournament format. “Each site has six field and the format is the same as the state tournament. This gives college coaches four new sites to evaluate our softball talent.”

Lagoon Park will still serve as the host-site for the state softball tournament.

“I’m excited about it and all of the tournament atmosphere that comes with it,” said Wilbur Terrell, coach of the Lady Panthers. “It’s going to add a lot more to the excitement. In the past we’ve played in front of crowds of 30 and 40 people. I think we are going to see excitement like in basketball when you get down to those final four teams.”

In Elmore County, Wetumpka and Stanhope Elmore both made road trips to Mobile en route to a state tourney berth in Montgomery.

“Softball is a tournament sport,” said Randy Stough, coach of the Lady Indians. “It’s another tournament that you have to play and advance through. We are used to winning sub-state games and winning tournaments. The only drawback is if you had a bad tournament weekend, then you could end up staying at the house and not going to state. But that could happen before too.”

One year earlier, Elmore County advanced to the state tournament.

“Not having to travel is going to be a big plus,” said Terrell. “In the past we’ve had to travel to Birmingham to play sub-state games and then year before last, down to Ashford. Going to Lagoon to play our sub-state games is going to be a big plus. Right now, I don’t see any negatives to this.”

Stanhope Elmore lost in the first round of Sub-State, after finishing as area runners-up behind Prattville, to Murphy. A handful of days later, Wetumpka eliminated Murphy from competition with a two-game sweep.

“When we were in 5A, we’d advance to the second sub-state game for two straight years and have to go Hueytown both times,” said Stough. “They’d beat us by one run every time we played them. Had this format been in place in the past, we’d be going to the state tournament because the team made it into the second round of sub-state and would probably have to play Hueytown again, but we’d play them at Lagoon instead of their place.”

After the area championships, 32 teams in each of the AHSAA’s six classes will still be playing softball. However, instead of each team hitting the road, the field of 32 will be divided into four-eight team fields and will compete in the regional tournament.

The championship pairing will advance to the state tournament, where the field of eight will be whittled down to a state champion.

“”I don’t think I’m going to have a problem getting my girls excited to play in a tournament like this. But we’ve got to be more tournament tested now than we have in the past,” said Terrell. “Pitching is going to be very important in a tournament like this. If you’re going through with only one pitcher, she’s going to have a lot of endurance. If you mess around and get in that loser’s bracket it’s going to be tough.”

In an eight-team, double-elimination tournament four games separate an unbeaten team from the championship trophy. A loss, however, means seven games stand between a team and the championship.

“This is going to equal things out more,” said Stough. “In the old system you could have one good pitcher that could carry you through the first and second round. All you had to do was win a double-header and advance. I’m not going to say that I haven’t done that before. But to advance far in the state tournament, you’ve got to have more than one pitcher. You get to see that in the earlier rounds now, especially in the regional tournament.”

By having four regional tournaments and taking the top eight teams, the state tournament is going to become more competitive as a result.

“Now I think you are going to get more teams in Montgomery for the state tournament that are going to be a little more dominant than you’ve seen in the past,” said Stough.

Before either Wetumpka or Elmore County can advance to the regional tournament, they must advance through the area tournament. Beginning this spring, Wetumpka’s area consists of Stanhope Elmore, Benjamin Russell and Auburn.

Elmore County’s area is comprised of Alabama Christian, Holtville, Book T. Magnet and Montgomery Catholic.

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