About the bad sport stuff... we went to a Boys HS Varsity basketball Sectional championship game last night and boy was it ugly. During the sectionals, I really thought the officials did a good job... probably the best officiating I've seen all season. They let the boys play, as they always do in the postseason, so there were some fouls that went uncalled, but it was called both ways. The host school made it to the finals vs. the school that my wife coaches volleyball for. These teams are extremely intense rivals.
There had been some issues with the host school already in the week (they'd sit in other teams' marked sections so their students wouldn't have enough room). Sure enough for the championship, doors open at 6:30 and shockingly enough, when they let us in the gym was already 3/4 full!

And yes, the host team's fans were sitting in the visiting student section. On Friday night, the AD had the nerve to ask an opponents student section to sit down so that the home fans sitting behind them, in the wrong section, could see... pretty ridiculous.
Anyway, all I have to say is that the good guys won

and will be playing in the Regionals next Saturday. Last night the home crowd stayed true to their colors and I got to see one of their fans arrested for the second time in the 4 times I've been to their gym this year. The first time a student was led out by the police after running onto the floor, mooning the crowd and flipping off the visiting bench. This time a fan ran down the tunnel after the refs... all the police were clear across the gym trying to keep our fans, who were just standing in the stands cheering off the floor. They couldn't even get through the melee that followed that guy into the tunnel to get to him. The worst part was that they have a really good team, and some really good kids on that team. It was a close, hard fought game and they had to sit out on the court, for about 15 minutes, watching our team celebrate, because they couldn't go to the locker room until the police cleared the area. Such a shame that some people just can't be good sports.
On the topic of good sportsmanship though, I saw one of their players come back out onto the floor after he changed clothes and went up to all the seniors on our team to personally congratulate them. Some adults could definitely learn from the maturity of high school kids in this situation.
Our school has an exchange student from Scotland that starts at point guard. He is a good player and said he wanted to come here to experience Indiana high school basketball. The school had a pep rally after the game to greet the team as the bus got back and the coach and a few players got a chance to speak to the crowd. They asked the exchange student if he was rattled by the atmosphere at the championship game and he said that after he saw and heard the crowd during warm ups he thought he might need to change his pants before the game started.

Sorry so long winded, but I got a little ticked off last night. Our school has been asking the IHSAA to have sectionals at neutral sites... and we're willing to give up the girls' sectional that we host to make it happen. It just doesn't make sense to have people packed into a gym that can seat about maybe 1000 or 1500 and is home to one of the teams in the sectional when there is a gym that is home to a team playing in a different sectional just a few miles away that seats at least 3 or 4 times as many and that site would be completely neutral.