White Goes to Oklahoma and NIAA Cries Again

Gorman Head Football Coach David White has left the program and has taken a Graduate Assistant Coaching position at Oklahoma. This is the same OU program that has former Gorman players Demarco Murray and Ryan Reynolds. Shadow Ridge also lost it's Head Football Coach as he has moved up to Washington State. In other notes, the NIAA is again crying about crowds at the State Tourney at the Orleans.

At the recent Board of Control meeting in Las Vegas held at Palo Verde High School these were the comments of a lead NIAA official. “People in (the rest of) Nevada just don’t like to come to Las Vegas,” Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association assistant director Jay Beesemyer.

He made these comments after the crowd counts came in for the State Tourney held at the Orleans Arena showing that the crowd was down 20% over last year's figures.

Lets examine the obvious regarding the State Tournament. Mojave and Canyon Springs are not programs with large crowd followings. CS is a new school with no Alumni and not alot of corporate following. Mojave made their first State Final and never has had a large following from their student body or from their Alumni. Both are considered inner city schools and are not considered to be well supported programs.

Say what you want to say, but Palo Verde and Gorman coming from more affluent surroundings have greater support for their programs. There is no denying this. For the NIAA to make comments about the crowd count and not recognize the class difference between schools in the State final during the last Orleans Arena Tourney and this year's event. Galena being so strong also will not fill seats, this is the same situation when Southern Nevada teams dominate the State Finals in Hoops in the past in Reno. Put two inner city schools in the State Tourney in Reno, add travel time of 40 minutes to get to the venue as well. See what the crowds look like when a Galena, Reno, Reed or Manogue is not in the State event if they play the game in Reno. The State Cheerleading event was packed to the masses the same weekend in Las Vegas, so I wonder where is the excuse about people not wanting to come to Las Vegas after seeing these crowd counts?

The other question is the utilization of the Orleans Arena and the Tourney Format. How is it when you have played games in the past as early as 9 AM in the morning that other smaller classification games could not be played at the Orleans instead of at High School locations? They make it happen in Reno and when you look at other states they maximize the bigger location and have games being played from 9 AM starts to 9 PM starts. The lack of an 8 team tournament diminishes the event as well. Why not have games starting at 9 AM and having the final game starting at 9 PM - other states do this. The Orleans was vacant until 3 PM on the first day of the tourney. Kids would rather play in a big time venue than a local high school regardless of where they come from in Nevada! To have only 4 teams show up and get only a day and a half of any significant media coverage does not make this a big time event. The NIAA is looking to expand the tourney back to the 8 team format.

In the years when State is played in Reno, make it a 2 or 3 team Northern invite with 5-6 teams being invited from the South.

In the years State is in Las Vegas, make it a 2 team North invite with 6 Southern Nevada slots. The opportunity to get crowds will be stronger with more teams involved in the event, especially when you play the event in Las Vegas. You are only looking at adding one more team for the boys and girls in the 4 A - the expense is not that big! Then you get a better chance to have programs with support be a part of the event to help attendance out.

The issue about costs involved with lodging is something that can be controlled, but the NIAA has gone away from the plan that worked so well in the late 90's. Everyone knows that a Northern team was going to be in Vegas playing in both the girls and boys State Tourney. Block the rooms early. Do they have to stay at the Orleans? No. But, you can control costs with a central booking agency. This is exactly what the CCSD did in the late 1990s and early 2000's. Lower classifications should also go into this pool as well, to protect their costs as well. But, right now no one is protecting their interests and yes costs rise when you arrange everything at the last minute. Hey, I saw Galena and Reed get on Southwest Planes to Las Vegas while our teams bus over 8 hours to Reno! Put the smaller schools all together at a property and book the rooms a year in advance. Heck the Stardust, before they blew it up was a better property than the majority of the Reno major properties!

The NIAA has not increased media coverage at the event in the past 4 years, instead it has shrunk! If the new NIAA Executive Director wants to see growth he needs to figure out this problem and make friends with those who wish to provide exposure for High School sports. The readership of the Las Vegas Review Journal has not increased over the years. Even with them as the lead sponsor, their exposure is not what it used to be when US Bank was the lead sponsor. Internet, cable television and other media has had an impact on readership of the newspapers in America. Jimmy Vaccaro asked me why there is no local radio broadcasts of high school sports anymore on his radio show a couple of months ago. He was shocked by the total lack of coverage and I told him that it has become harder and more expensive to put games on the radio than ever before. Without support, how can a company fund these broadcasts and all of this while the NIAA asks for fees with a lack of protection for those who broadcast games. The NIAA needs to make it easier and needs to be a supporter of the local media outlets. They can not think that they are UNLV or UNR when they deal with the local media. They need to reach out instead of thinking that the media is going to seek them out.

Dont cry about attendance or the fact that people from Northern Nevada like to come to Las Vegas. That is an excuse with very limited thought. What should be asked is how to make this event more attractive for people to attend. The NIAA is competing against successful basketball programs at UNLV and UNR for the entertainment dollar. They need to understand that no matter where the event is held, the event needs to have a jolt of energy put into it. The High School Sports Story needs to be better told by the NIAA than what it is doing currently. People come when it is worthwhile to be a part of it. They will come with planning done by the NIAA for guests no matter if they are coming to Reno or Las Vegas. The event has not become a special event with tons of energy. Instead it has become a mini meal of entertainment through errors in judgement about where this event should rank in the sports fans minds.

Do Southern People like to come to Reno? Is that an excuse when crowds at Lawlor are not large? Never heard that one brought up by NIAA leadership. When I look at the visitation numbers, Las Vegas ranks number 1 in the nation for tourist visitation while Reno is far down the ladder of most locations in the West. So how is it that people dont like to come to Las Vegas?

Still the most spectacular tournament was the boys state event where the final 4 teams had college recruits- Durango with Burns and Saddat, Clark with Gaines, Cimarron with Marcus Banks and Cheyenne with Demetrious Hunter. The average sports fan can relate to seeing great local high school players playing for all of the marbles. But, instead by shrinking the event people have not been able to see the best of the state. People come out to the Big Time when local players are not playing in the event - they come out due to the promotion of the event and the talent that is on the floor that has been promoted. Las Vegas does support High School Hoops, but hard to go to a game when no one is talking about it.

What they dont want to come for is an event with little excitement, little involvement and little promotion. That unfortunately makes it a little event, which we all know it most certainly is not in the bigger scheme of things.NASCAR did not grow their fan base by not aggressively promoting their events to people who had never been involved in the sport. They told the story of why it is exciting and promoted their stars. The NIAA does not do this, they think that the event should speak for it's self. Right now it can not do this.

Eddie Bodine promised to be more involved, instead of allowing staff to slam Las Vegas and make it the excuse. He might want to evaluate the event and see if the NIAA is delivering the same quality of event that I see California, Arizona and Washington run in their State Hoop Tournaments. By the way, you can see their games on FOX SPORTS NET and hear their games on local radio in these states. Some thing that Nevada does not have.I have seen their crowds, seen their excitement, heard and seen their media coverage. What would High School Sports Fans say in these states about what we do in Nevada? I dont hear them talk about how they hate to go to LA to see the State Championships? Smaller schools make the effort to get there because of the excitement and big time atmosphere that is being promoted.

Good companies look at themselves first before casting stones and they fix the problems that they can control. The NIAA with taking the event back to 8 teams can make this happen. That is step number one. They could also make it happen by having runner up games, there is very little travel costs involved by letting a team play a 3rd place game. Let them play early and then leave. They are not going home right after the game the night before.

I ask all High School Fans in Nevada to see the movie Heart of the Game which is out on video right now. The story is about the tournaround of a girls high school basketball program in Seattle. See how their State Tourney is run and then ask yourself why can't we do the same? You will see that teams that make State dont go home, they play for the runner up title. They have corporate sponsors and continue to grow their State Hoops event. Their event continues to grow and thrive with many schools having to travel 8 hours to get to the event.

Look around you NIAA and look into the mirror -the answers are right there in front of you. It beats throwing stones at the people of Las Vegas.