Posts Tagged ‘playoffs’

In North Carolina high school playoff action over the weekend, Davidson Day high school outlasted Harrells Christian in a scoring frenzy that would make even Oregon jealous.

Davidson ended up winning 104-80, and quarterback Will Grier set the national passing yardage record with 837 yards through the air to go along with his 10 touchdowns (which ties the national record). Grier has thrown 64 touchdowns on the season.

Harrels Christian running back running back Russell Washington also put up some ridiculous numbers, carrying the ball 46 times for 429 yards and 8 touchdowns. The eight touchdowns in a game was good enough to tie for fourth nationally.

The game lasted nearly four hours (the final buzzer sounded around midnight) and Davidson Day scored on all but one of their possessions, while never leading by more than 24 points. After the game Davidson Day head coach Chad Grier (Will's father) told NewsObserver.com "I sure didn't come in with a plan for us to score 104 points, and I sure as heck didn't have a plan to give up 80."

It's rare to feel a sense of both accomplishment and disappointment after a game, but the bottom line is that a win in the playoffs means you're fortunate enough to be playing next week.

Here's an interesting note. Of the 26 NBA teams that played on that same Friday night, 20 of them failed to put up more points than Davidson Day did. Impressive job.

The high school playoff system in Massachusetts will have an entirely new look beginning next fall.

Due to increased participation from schools sponsoring football, and providing more quality teams an opportunity to compete for a state title, the MIAA football committee voted  in favor of adopting new rules by a margin of 161-131 this past Friday.

The new rules will have schools in Eastern and Central Massachusetts playing a seven week regular season schedule, and Western Massachusetts schools will play an eight week regular season. Teams that fail to make the playoffs "will have their remaining three games determined by a scheduling committee before playing their traditional Thanksgiving game," the Boston Globe explains.

According to the Globe, one state champion will come from each of the six divisions, and all state title games will be played at Gillette Stadium. Central and Western Massachusetts schools will compete in Divisions 2, 4, 5, and 6. Those divisions will be based on enrollment and maintaining a competitive balance.

Another one of the major changes coaches and fans will notice is there will be only a fraction of the post Thanksgiving games that they've had in years past. Under the new rules, only 12 schools will play after turkey day, as opposed to the 74 teams who saw action after the holiday this past season. Also, playing semifinal games on a Tuesday and teams playing three games in a total of ten days will not take place under the new rules.

Under the current plan, only league champions get the opportunity to compete in the post season, meaning that you could go 9-1 or 10-1 and not make the post season. Citing the fact that those deserving teams should get the opportunity to compete for a state title and experience the playoff atmosphere, the new rules state that leagues with five or more schools can get two playoff teams (plus the possibility of more based on their power rankings).

Three coaches in particular, Swampscott's Steve Dembrowski, Fitchburg high school's Ray Cosenza and Xaverian's Charlie Stevenson put in numerous hours coming up with the new playoff plan, which included a few tweaks from a 2010 proposal that was voted against.

The new rules will be a two year run beginning in 2013, and will be revisited after that time period to tweak as needed.

We'll have to see how this all plays out over the next few seasons, but we're sure that there are plenty of coaches in Massachusetts that are resting easy knowing that they won't have to plan for three opponents in a span of ten days to win a state title next year.

The Boston Herald did a nice job of covering and summarizing all of the changes over the weekend, and the video below does a good job of explaining how coaches are reacting to the new rules.