While there won’t be any tournaments for the current winter season or the upcoming “Fall Sports II” season, the MIAA Tournament Management Committee (TMC) opened the door to potentially holding MIAA-sponsored tournaments starting in the spring season during a virtual meeting Wednesday afternoon. The spring season is currently set to be held from April 26 to July 3.
TMC chairman and St. John’s Prep assistant principal Jim O’Leary got the discussion started, noting that it would make sense to begin preliminary discussions about allowing spring tournaments and that committee members should return to their respective districts to get feedback on the idea.
One of the biggest reasons that some members were for the idea had to do with the fact that spring athletes missed their entire seasons last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think it’s time to talk to consider talking about having some sort of spring tournament,” TMC member and Burlington athletic director Shaun Hart said. “Because of what was lost last spring, these kids deserve some sort of spring tournament.”
Fellow TMC member and Wahconah athletic director Jared Shannon warned against making a hasty decision on tournaments, while others felt it was important to get the ball rolling as soon as possible.
Prior to the discussion on the possibility of spring tournaments, the TMC formally voted by a margin of 16-0 to not host any MIAA-sponsored tournaments for the upcoming “Fall Sports II” season. The “Fall Sports II” season is currently set to run from Feb. 22 to April 25 and will include a number of sports, including football, volleyball, boys and girls soccer, field hockey and any other sports that were not able to be held during the normal fall sports season. Just as has been the case with the fall and winter seasons, individual leagues will have the opportunity to hold smaller conference tournaments in lieu of the state tournament.
Also at the meeting, the MIAA discussed plans for how to move forward with a power ranking system for the new statewide postseason tournaments that will begin for all sports starting in September.
Last March, the MIAA Board of Directors officially voted to use the website MaxPreps for the power ranking system, but in the ensuing months many districts have expressed concerns about how the rankings are calculated.
A new power rating system proposal created by local sports reporter Jim Clark received overwhelming support in Wednesday’s meeting. After listening to arguments for and against, the TMC voted 17-1 in favor of exchanging MaxPreps for Clark’s elaborate system.
The only major concern was the fact that score differential factored into the ratings. Former Rockport athletic director Mary Ryan, who cast the only “no” vote, said the Cape Ann League athletic directors liked the proposal but wanted no part of a point differential.
Shannon shared Ryan’s sentiment.
“I do have some concerns about point differential,” Shannon said. “If a football team is up by 12 points late in the game, do they decide to kick a field goal to help their power ratings? You also might get teams not using their bench at times if point differential is a factor.”
Hart suggested that each sport committee could determine the actual point-differential number for their respective sport. TMC member and St. Mary’s athletic director Jeff Newhall echoed support for the idea that individual sport committees should decide how point differential will factor into the rankings.
The MIAA Tournament Management Committee will meet next on Feb. 24, while the next MIAA Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for Jan. 29.