05-14-2021
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARBONDALE - It was announced Tuesday by Carbondale High School athletic director Mark Albertini that the Carbondale Holiday Tournament, after 56 years of existence, has ended.

The ending was inevitable.

The culmination of many years of dwindling attendance and mostly out of state or out of area schools filling up the brackets led to its eventual demise.

Why was it that the CHT brought in out of area teams to play?

There is a simple answer.

If you want to look at the whole picture you can go back 24 years ago to find the beginning of the end for events like the CHT.

In the 1997-98 high school sports year the Illinois High School Association made a big mistake.

I'm talking about a colossal faux pas.

It was the "Merkle Boner" of this organization's history.

It was the year in which the IHSA decided to allow prep varsity basketball teams to play in "three" tournaments instead of "two."

This decision opened Pandora's Box.

The state went from a handful of special tournaments in each area to basically everyone having one.

The "everyone gets a trophy mentality" spilled into high school basketball.

The state went from tournaments in which you had to play well to keep playing to tournaments that guaranteed games with pool play and fifth, seventh and ninth place brackets.

And eventually to games played for 15th place.

That's right, a 15th place game between two teams that have already lost three consecutive games battle it out on the final day in at least two ABV area tournaments.

It's a gluttony of sports and now there are more casualties, including the 56 year old Carbondale Holiday Tournament.

If you look at a current tournament's "annual" number and it's less than 24, it means that tournament came about because of the IHSA rule change.

New Thanksgiving tournaments, post-Thanksgiving tournaments, Holiday tournaments, Mid-winter tournaments, and conference tournaments have all sprung up since this rule change.

Here are three examples of tradition rich holiday tournaments that were adversely effected by the "three tournament" rule.

Holiday tournaments at Breese Mater Dei, Columbia/Freeburg and Vandalia all used to have 16-team bracket play.

There were no alternate brackets.

If you won your first game you needed to win your second game to continue on. If you lost you were done.

Those three tournaments are all pool play events now that are 10-teams.

Now it is all about guaranteed games.

That is 18 teams, six per event, that are missing from that format.

Why? Because there are many more options now that was spawned by the new rule from 1997-98.

It's even worse now because the governing body three years ago went all "Baskin Robbins" on everyone by making it to where teams could play "31" games with no limit on the number of tournaments you can play in.

Several teams around the state played in four regular season tournaments in the 2019-20 season.

And don't get me started about the concept of the "Basketball Shootout."

So folks, don't be surprised if a few more events spring up in the next few years and a few more tournaments like Carbondale fold up the tents and call it a day.

I was fortunate enough to be at SIU Arena on the final night of the tournament in December of 2019 and with the attendance being minuscule it was just a matter of time before the tournament folded.

My memories of the Carbondale Tournament stem from a trip to the event in December of 1971.

My little brother Jeff and myself talked my father into taking us to an afternoon session of the first day of the CHT.

We got to see Dalton Thornridge and their great team led by Quinn Buckner defeat Chicago Marian Catholic and then we saw Lawrenceville lose to Decatur Eisenhower.

Both Lawrenceville and Thornridge, three months later, won the first Class A and AA titles respectively.

From that moment on I was hooked on high school basketball.

However this once honored tournament will now cease to exist although both Carbondale and Marion high schools have in the works a new tournament for 2021 where both schools will host games and have a final day at one of the host schools.

As you might assume I'm all a quiver with excitement over a new tournament with a pool play format.

The sport doesn't need new tournaments, it needs to strengthen the ones they have.

If you are looking at an example of “more not being better” Exhibit A is high school basketball tournaments.

However if you need a blueprint of how to do it right, look to the East to our closest neighbor.

The Indiana High School Athletic Association doesn't allow the kind of scheduling that goes on in Illinois.

The basketball teams (boy's and girl's) are allowed a maximum of (1) regular season tournament.

That is ONE.

If you play in a regular season tournament your maximum amount of regular season games is 20 plus the games in the tournament.

That is TWENTY.

If your school chooses to not play in a regular season tournament, your school may schedule 22 regular season varsity games.

That is TWENTY-TWO.

The IHSSA feels strongly that safety of the kids and academics come first, extra curricular activities are secondary.

So does ABV.

Bottom line is that in Illinois there are too many games played, too many tournaments with too many road trips.

I love high school basketball, but.

Unfortunately the Carbondale Holiday Tournament is just the latest casualty.

Editor's Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any of the advertisers of this website. These views are my own.