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Reducing tourney fields not so popular By GREG STILES It didn't take long for coaches and athletic directors to respond to an ad hoc committee's recommendation to reduce state basketball tournament fields from 16 to eight teams. The committee addressed playoff and tournament issues for all Oregon School Activities Association championship fields. But it was the 16-team Class 4A basketball fields drawing the sharpest response during the boys and girls tournaments the past two weeks. One of the arguments in the report was the loss of class time. But coaches and athletic directors respond that education isn't limited to school hours. "It is obvious that it was written by someone that doesn't place a whole lot of value in athletics that goes on in the school building, let alone at tournaments," Grants Pass athletic director Tom Blanchard says. "There's a lot of the learning experience that takes place outside the school building." The committee had three pieces of criteria it was asked to work with, says OSAA executive director Wes Ediger: Cost of renting facilities with perhaps less revenue. Availability of facilities. Missed time from school. "When girls tournaments and boys tournaments are different weeks, there's a disruption at school," Ediger says. "Some think it's a big problem. And to others, it's not a big problem." Ediger says that in the near future, expansion to a third state meet qualifier for cross country from each district is far more likely than the shrinkage of basketball tournaments. "It has a lot of steps to go through to become a reality," he says. "The board only recommends amendments to our constitution. A lot of those changes would require delegate assembly decisions." Adding to the woes that help shape the report submitted earlier this month was the fact that Oregon State's Gill Coliseum won't be available for the Class 3A volleyball tournament in November or boys and girls basketball tournaments next March. The University of Oregon has made Mac Court virtually untouchable for OSAA events in recent years. Now OSU has virtually assured a less-than-enticing future for 3A tournament fans by removing Corvallis as an option. "Whatever we do, in some way we need to get back to eight (from the present nine Class 4A) leagues," Ediger says. He spent Monday talking about difficulties created by a ninth district with executive committees from the Oregon athletic directors and coaches associations. The state's athletic directors will weigh in on the issue when they meet April 30-May 2 at Sun River. FALL GOLF CHAMPIONS? -- Another part of the OSAA championship report got Blanchard's attention as well. Country clubs and other golf properties are pressuring the OSAA to move the golf season to the fall. That's because club members and regulars on the course can't find enough tee times in the spring. Many golfers, however, hang up their bags in September when temperatures and days get shorter. "I'm sensitive to club honors," Blanchard says. "I used to be the owner of a racquet club. You've got to serve your membership and in the spring, the membership wants to play. "It kind of makes sense because the courses are still in pretty good shape." FORFEITS, LIMITATIONS, ETC. -- Former Eagle Point wrestling coach and present athletic director Bob Bergen says the best thing about the forfeits caused when Crater had two wrestlers go over their 35-match regular-season limit was that it didn't mess up district and state meet performances. "That would've been brutal," Bergen says. "But it was probably an eye-opener for everybody. It's one of those rules that has always been a pain." Crater was forced to forfeit its dual meet win over Eagle Point in February because it accepted team points for forfeits during a December tournament in Fresno, Calif. Accepting a forfeit goes against an individual match limit and pushed the two Comets past their allotment. That bothers Bergen. "You have an individual rule, where you can only wrestle only five times a day," Bergen says. "That keeps a coach from going nuts too much in a day. "There are 14 dates you can wrestle during a season. That keeps a coach from spending too much money and traveling all over the place." Given those limitations, Bergen doesn't see the reason for the rule that tripped up the Comets. If a wrestler doesn't expend energy on the mat, why count it as a match? "I don't understand why they have such a stupid (rule) like that, but they always have," Bergen says. (Greg Stiles is a Mail Tribune sports writer. He can be reached at 776-4483 or [email protected] ) Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA