jnwta
02-17-05, 09:55 AM
Victory too good? Champs drop out of playoffs
School pulls out after other private schools complain
When the N.C. Independent Schools playoffs begin next week, five-time defending state champion Victory Christian won't be playing.
Not because the girls' basketball team didn't qualify.
Some 1A private schools complained to Victory and to the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association that the Kings were simply too good and other schools didn't have a chance to win a championship.
So when the state tournament comes to Charlotte next week, the state's best girls' team -- perhaps in any classification -- will be watching.
"I really don't like it," Victory guard Kendria Holmes said after a blowout win at Gaston Day last month. "I mean, we know we could beat those teams. We wanted to end our season with a championship, cutting down the nets, you know? It just doesn't seem right."
Last season, Victory Christian won its fifth straight girls' championship, 84-48 against Gaston Day. In three playoff games, Victory won by an average of 44 points. In 2003, the team won a conference game by 98 points. This season's average margin of victory in conference play is nearly 50. And that's with Victory emptying its bench early in most games.
Over the past five years, Victory (22-4) has been nationally ranked and has had a run of talent that has produced several Division I players, including senior forward Kyria Buford, who has signed with Florida State. Holmes has been recruited by ACC and SEC teams.
"We heard from some schools up east that they didn't like the way the games were going," Victory girls' coach and athletics director Michael Pratt said. "I know they talked to the state association about it. So we wanted to try to be fair. We went to the state association and volunteered to remove ourselves from this year's tournament."
NCISAA executive director Chuck Carter said Victory asked if it could move up a class or two for this year's playoffs. NCISAA officials said they can't remember a school making such a request.
"We tried to come up with a solution," Carter said, "but I didn't think it was a good idea to have them move up because I didn't want to be placed in a position where I could choose which teams could play up in the future and schools in (classifications) above them would have another tough team to deal with. I just didn't feel it was a smooth way to go about it."
Carter said Victory officials then made the offer to drop out of state tournament play. "When they feel their competitive level drops back to more like the rest of the teams in their class," Carter said, "then they'll come back."
Word spread quickly among the private school community, and some coaches didn't like what they heard.
As one private school coach pointed out Monday, South Mecklenburg (21-4) -- a 4A public school that has won its past six games by an average of nearly 50 points -- is beating its conference teams every bit as badly as Victory is. Yet he said, no one is asking the Sabres to drop out of this week's conference tournament.
Carter said some people have it all wrong.
"It's a very nice thing that Victory did," he said. "They recognized that they were very strong and very competitive in the 1A class and they offered to drop out of the state playoffs while they had such strong talent."
School pulls out after other private schools complain
When the N.C. Independent Schools playoffs begin next week, five-time defending state champion Victory Christian won't be playing.
Not because the girls' basketball team didn't qualify.
Some 1A private schools complained to Victory and to the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association that the Kings were simply too good and other schools didn't have a chance to win a championship.
So when the state tournament comes to Charlotte next week, the state's best girls' team -- perhaps in any classification -- will be watching.
"I really don't like it," Victory guard Kendria Holmes said after a blowout win at Gaston Day last month. "I mean, we know we could beat those teams. We wanted to end our season with a championship, cutting down the nets, you know? It just doesn't seem right."
Last season, Victory Christian won its fifth straight girls' championship, 84-48 against Gaston Day. In three playoff games, Victory won by an average of 44 points. In 2003, the team won a conference game by 98 points. This season's average margin of victory in conference play is nearly 50. And that's with Victory emptying its bench early in most games.
Over the past five years, Victory (22-4) has been nationally ranked and has had a run of talent that has produced several Division I players, including senior forward Kyria Buford, who has signed with Florida State. Holmes has been recruited by ACC and SEC teams.
"We heard from some schools up east that they didn't like the way the games were going," Victory girls' coach and athletics director Michael Pratt said. "I know they talked to the state association about it. So we wanted to try to be fair. We went to the state association and volunteered to remove ourselves from this year's tournament."
NCISAA executive director Chuck Carter said Victory asked if it could move up a class or two for this year's playoffs. NCISAA officials said they can't remember a school making such a request.
"We tried to come up with a solution," Carter said, "but I didn't think it was a good idea to have them move up because I didn't want to be placed in a position where I could choose which teams could play up in the future and schools in (classifications) above them would have another tough team to deal with. I just didn't feel it was a smooth way to go about it."
Carter said Victory officials then made the offer to drop out of state tournament play. "When they feel their competitive level drops back to more like the rest of the teams in their class," Carter said, "then they'll come back."
Word spread quickly among the private school community, and some coaches didn't like what they heard.
As one private school coach pointed out Monday, South Mecklenburg (21-4) -- a 4A public school that has won its past six games by an average of nearly 50 points -- is beating its conference teams every bit as badly as Victory is. Yet he said, no one is asking the Sabres to drop out of this week's conference tournament.
Carter said some people have it all wrong.
"It's a very nice thing that Victory did," he said. "They recognized that they were very strong and very competitive in the 1A class and they offered to drop out of the state playoffs while they had such strong talent."