By Scott Brinton
Squad members went into their final game against Hempstead knowing they could make the playoffs if they grabbed a win. So, players said, they fought hard.
"In the last game, we were still playing for something," said Harris Wichard, a Kennedy guard who is now a junior. The playoffs, however, were not to be last year. Kennedy lost its final outing.
This season, things seemed different. Kennedy posted more wins in 2006-07 than it had in the previous two seasons combined, ending with a 16-2 record overall. In league play, the squad went 11-2. Many Kennedy fans believed the squad had to make the playoffs.
Operative word: believed.
Once again, Kennedy did not qualify for the playoffs, despite its winning record. And squad members knew they wouldn't make the postseason as they headed into their final game against East Meadow, played at home on Senior Night before a crowd.
This year, Section 8 boys' basketball moved to a new system of assigning teams to their respective leagues by ability. Most teams in the higher ability groups automatically qualified for the playoffs before the season began; only a handful of teams in the lower ability groups made it, no matter what their records were.
In League AAIV of Conference AA, in which Kennedy played, only one team qualified for the playoffs. That squad was Hicksville, which posted a slightly better record than the Cougars.
To determine the ability groups, the Nassau County Basketball Coaches Association first divided teams by school size. Schools with more than 950 students were placed in Conference AA; schools with 550 to 949 students in Conference A; and schools with fewer than 550 students in Conference B-C.
Then the association looked at teams' records over the past four years and coaches' recommendations to decide their ability groups. A committee reviewed those determinations and either accepted or rejected them.
Competitive ball
Saul Lerner, the Section 8 boys' basketball coordinator, developed the new system with Rory Block, the Kennedy boys' basketball coach. Lerner and Block said ability grouping has made games more competitive. In past years, the top squads, which played lower-ranked teams twice during the regular season, would often blow out those schools by 30 to 50 points, while handily advancing to the playoffs. Under the new system, games were generally decided by five or so points, and many times by a single basket.
Lerner said a number of teams that traditionally attracted relatively few fans - mainly parents and teachers - drew record crowds this season because they posted winning records in games that often went to the final buzzer. At Kennedy, players spoke about how they had to pull out a third section of bleachers to accommodate all the spectators. No one could remember the last time that happened.
"You have to find a system that is good for as many schools as possible," said Lerner, the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District athletic director. "My goal was to make competitive games."
Coaches, players weigh in
While the new system has many proponents, it has its critics as well, including some members of the Kennedy team.
In past years, Kennedy, which admittedly was never a top squad, often played teams that dominated the Nassau basketball scene. Without a strong basketball tradition, the Cougars had a hard time winning, and the squad often got thumped. This year, as it turned out, Kennedy fielded a talented team. So, in playing squads closer to its ability level, it excelled in the regular season.
Even so, Nick Taldi, Kennedy's junior guard with a knack for hitting three-pointers, preferred the old system in which Kennedy played the higher-ranked squads. "It made us a better team because we were playing against better competitors," he said.
At the same time, Taldi noted, a number of the top teams may not have been motivated to play their best during the regular season this year because they knew they would make the playoffs even if they never won a game. "Some of the teams may not have been playing for anything," he said, "because they knew they were going to make the playoffs anyway."
Taldi did, however, say that he enjoyed playing before crowds at home games.
Taldi's teammate, senior forward Michael Segal, said 2006-07 "was a lot better than the past two seasons. Every game was a lot closer because we were playing teams a lot closer to our ability level."
And Troy Haimowitz, a Kennedy senior small forward, said, "A lot of kids, when they get blown out consistently, their hearts fade." Under the old system, at least some players gave up, he said. With a greater number of tight games this year, most players hung tough throughout the season.
The Kennedy players' comments reflected the ambivalence about ability grouping that a number of coaches expressed. Jerry D'Angelo, coach of the South Side High School team in Rockville Centre and president of the basketball coaches association, said, "There are things I like and things I don't like" about ability grouping.
The new system has "increased competitive basketball. The days of the 52-point blowouts are less," said D'Angelo, whose squad played in the highest ability group of Conference A. "In the overall scope, everyone gets a good shake at a good competitive game."
But D'Angelo also said the season was one long battle because there were no easy games in which the outcome was predicted beforehand. "Every game is a war," he said. "The wear-and-tear factor is inevitable...I might enter the playoffs with four injured players because they're so battered and bruised. There is no rest time for the top players."
Nick Simone, Floral Park's basketball coach, said, "While I understand the concept behind ability grouping, and I appreciate that coaches and athletic directors want games to be as competitive as possible, I disagree that this is the best way to achieve that goal.
"High school athletics is about competing, kids working hard and challenging themselves to play against the best," Simone said. "For many high school athletes, that one time that they achieved that upset is the highlight of their high school career. We've taken that out of the equation."
The alternatives
Simone said boys' basketball teams should be grouped by school size, but he suggested that they then be subdivided in leagues by region rather than ability. He said teams often develop fierce rivalries with neighboring schools. "It would be more exciting [for squads] to play the teams that are right near them," he said.
And then there's Suffolk County's system, in which teams are grouped solely by school size. "It's the cleanest system," said D'Angelo. "You don't have to worry about seeding the teams."
A handful of other high school sports, notably soccer, use ability grouping. Lerner said that county athletic officials are now considering trying it in a number of other sports.
The basketball coaches association plans to continue ability grouping next year, Lerner said, adding that it will likely realign the leagues slightly to reflect this year's standings, as well as develop new criteria to determine groupings.
Block agreed that the leagues need tweaking. He hopes Kennedy will be ranked higher next year. Of the Cougars' performance in 2006-07, the coach said, "Our guys really pulled together, and we gained confidence as we went along... . We were disappointed that we didn't qualify for the playoffs, but that doesn't take away from all that we did accomplish."
Comments about this story? Sbrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
