SoCal High School & Prep Report

21st Reebok Las Vegas Holiday Classic:
A Note on a Dropout--(December 22, 1997)

If you were there or followed this tournament, then you may be aware that Saint Thomas, from Houston Texas, a not too bad team with some good speed and size, but not much to show for it here at this tourney where they were a bit outclassed and outgunned, did manage to get a bit of good luck, depending upon how you view "good luck." They got to travel about 1000 miles (more or less) to play on Saturday morning against Chris Jeffries, Shame Stallworth & Co. from Fresno's Washington Union, and of course, they lost 83-52.

So they dropped down to the consolation bracket with other teams who lost their opening game. They were slated to play Manual from Denver, Colorado, which had won it's first game played Friday night in which they defeated Westlake (no, not the SoCal team, but a team from Austin, Texas) by a score of 91-78; but Manual also dropped into the consolation bracket when they lost to Simi Valley Saturday morning in Simi's opener.

So what did Manual do? Were they going to play in the consolation bracket.

No way.

And it wasn't because they were bad sports, or didn't think it was worth trying.

On the contrary, they couldn't continue to play.

Just another example of some screwy high school rules at work again.

It seems that under Colorado High School Federation rules, a team may only play three games in a week. Teams which compete at the Las Vegas Prep Tourney must sign a contract agreeing to play 3 games, minimum.

So what did Manual do? They played a game earlier in the same week back in Denver. According to their coach, W.C. Davis, he was "planning" on having his team win both of it's first games and therefore under the rules, they wouldn't have to play again until Monday's games resumed. Different week, new three game count started. Instead, when they lost to Simi, they were required to play the consolation game.

So rather than violate the Colorado Interscholastic rules, they just left.

You'd think their coach would have been a bit more realistic in his scheduling, or at least sought some sort of an exemption from his State's commission. Maybe the tournament organizers will think twice before inviting Manual back again. Seems it's hardly worth the trouble to have them there.

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