Basketball tourney redo highlights flaws in fairness
There is the letter of the law, and there is the spirit of it. Last week, the letter of the law of middle school athletics and middle school basketball was upheld when Santa Fe Public Schools announced it would redo one portion of its postseason seventh grade girls basketball tournament because Turquoise Trail Charter School used two eighth-graders on its way to a short-lived berth in the finals.
As for the spirit of the law ...
Certainly, the folks at Gonzales Community School and Mandela International Magnet School feel good they get a second chance at making some noise in the tournament against an opponent that will meet the requirements set forth by the New Mexico Activities Association that students cannot play down a grade level.
And let it be said that SFPS athletic director Marc Ducharme made a mistake — which he graciously admitted and accepted — in allowing Turquoise Trail to play with eighth-graders in the seventh grade tournament. But in the aftermath of this incident that clearly shook the foundation of athletics (insert eye roll emoji here), the issue shouldn’t be that the infraction happened.
It’s that it was weaponized to the disadvantage of Turquoise Trail and, to an extent, Ducharme. To wit, this issue should have been dealt with before the first game even tipped off, much less after a semifinal game in which Turquoise Trail defeated Gonzales 40-38 on a basket from one of the eighth-graders in the final moments. It wasn’t until then that upset parents alerted the district about the bylaw infraction.
If anything, the actions after the game reek of hypocrisy, because no stink would have been made about breaking NMAA bylaws if Gonzales won. It just would have been some snarky throwaway line by adults talking about how Turquoise Trail tried to cheat its way into a title.
That, if anything, is what makes this whole situation feel worse. Some parents and community members will say a rule is a rule and turning a blind eye will do injustice to the teams that played Turquoise Trail, but here is the bothersome part of that argument.
It’s not like Turquoise Trail hid these girls — they played the entire season. This also was the school’s first season playing within NMAA guidelines, and school administrators clearly were not aware of the bylaws. Ignorance of the law doesn’t excuse what happened, but it’s not like they were scouring Santa Fe looking for the city’s most gifted players. Not every opponent knew about that, but enough did who could have alert Ducharme about it.
No one said anything until an undesired outcome resulted from the oversight.
You can find fault in Ducharme, who admitted he led with his heart by placing a team comprised mostly of sixth-graders in the seventh grade tournament. It’s just that one eighthgrader, who happened to be the team’s leading scorer and best player, put her team on her back and carried it further than even he imagined. Heck, the player should be lauded for doing that because the skill level of an above-average sixth
grader might equal that of an average eighth-grader.
If only Turquoise Trail played in the eighth grade tournament. We might be talking about how one player carried a team of underaged players deep into the postseason. Actually, we wouldn’t because, at the end of the day, we are talking about middle school basketball. Anyone who brags about winning a city middle school championship probably showcases their city league softball home run derby trophy on their mantle, too.
Here is something else to consider. One other team played with eighth-graders in the tournament — Aspen Community School, and it informed Ducharme of that. Aspen lost in opening round of the tournament.
Funny how losing makes an infraction disappear into thin air.
Sad how winning determines if rules truly matter.