A work in progress

Lisa Paine — Sports Editor So, here are we are again facing another crossroads of sorts with the high school basketball schedules. Near-empty gyms on some nights in comparison with full houses on others, coupled with just plain tired kids, parents, coaches and administrators has some crying foul.

This time, conferences to the north are saying they are going to start swapping the start times of the boys and girls varsity games on marquee nights of Friday games. The reasons laid out are because the current start of boys playing first and girls last, the girls come out to near-empty gyms. Fans and friends of the boys’ teams, which have just played their game, leave the school grounds to go out and enjoy a meal, leaving the girls to play with very small crowds.

Here’s the problem with that rotation system solution. It won’t work.

We’ve seen both start times fail in all of our leagues over the past two seasons and that include the BWAC, Flint Metro, Big Nine and Genesee Area Conferences. It matters not who you put on the floor at 6 p.m. and whom you make wait until the 7:30 p.m. game. Someone’s going to face the larger crowds, and the other has to settle with whoever is left in the stands. It’s not a slight against either team, but more a family life decision day to day.

A better solution would be to align the basketball seasons like the football season. Freshmen play on Wednesday, JV on Thursday and yes, the varsity get the marquee Friday night.

And, I still don’t think it matters who plays first. Parents are already faced with enough tough choices in getting home from work in time to whip up some semblance of order to get the younger kids to their sitter, karate class or into the car, and then their high school child to the games.

Some even split up the detail with mom or dad sitting in on the earlier game, while the parent at home gets to come out and enjoy the later game, while the first parent gets the siblings ready for homework and bed. It’s been a makethe best-of-a-not-so-greatsituation with teams playing every single night of the week. What a nightmare it’s been for everyone.

I’m not saying it’s a perfect solution, but something

clearly has to change.

Kids are whipped, struggling to find time to do their homework, and are so over-scheduled that it’s not even funny. I’ve overheard bits and pieces of conversations outside gymnasiums as the kids from the first time slot pack up everything they left the house with that morning and just don’t care to stick around and support their counterparts, male or female. They just want to go home and relax, finally.

I’ve even done head counts as I show up to shoot the games and can imagine just how disappointing it is for the kids to find just 75 people sitting in the bleachers. Some schools have barely had 55 in each fan section. That’s barely worth turning on the lights and firing up the hot dog wagon and popcorn cart.

It’s too many games on too many nights. And don’t think this won’t affect your child’s school, because the Michigan Women’s Commission started the most recent claim with the Michigan Dept. of Civil Rights citing discrimination with the ladies-first rotation. It says it’s coming after every league in the area to force it to follow a similar rotation system.

Schools that already put the girls last, like the BWAC, likely won’t like that at all, while most others are fine with the girls up first.