The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1940-04-04

Coach Ray Schwartz sat in
on the meeting. He had taken
a bunch Of the boys down to
see the championship game.
They overlooked only one little
item-the possibility of getting
tickets. Carl Perry. who also
drove to the Cities, said it was
nice ride. As far as seeing
any of the tournament they
might just as well have been
in Peoria.
Coaches representing some of the
smaller schools went down to the
meeting armed to the teeth with
varied proposals. Most of them
hinged on an A and B setup, div
ided along population or school en-
rollment lines, with some kind of
meeting between the two systems
-. All of them provided in some
manner for that. It's been point
ed out that under the present sys-
tenn the small school is penalized.
For while I might have
rabidly supported the theory.
It's easy now to fall in line, but
this corner has always opposed
provisOs just on the principle
itself. But to the A and
b setTp, provided it had been
a clean break, I might have adj
hered. But none of the pro-
pOsals made for a clean break.
Sponsors of the movements,
clearly as they wanted to elm
mate competition between
smaller and larger schools,
somehow saw in the crystal
chance for the smaller schools
to compete with the larger on
some future date. So far
as I'm concerned those argu-
ments only postponed the
squabbles from the district to
the regional and state. -.
But more clear is the thought
of competition. It should not be
disturbed. In sports the more they
try to legislate competition on a
more even keel, the more the ship
lists to one side or the other. :.
From all quarters come the reports
this year that this was the best.
-. And the way the small schools
walked up and slapped the big
wigs on the kisser, without taking
any backtalk, is reason enough to
oppose any change.
OF course, the small fellows
aren't going to step in every
year like that. But it HAS been
done now; it'll happen again.
And for the simple reason, as
we've pointed OUt before, that
Podunk is gone. It's not
that the quality of big town
basketball is on the wane, ratfr-
er that the game in the small
er precincts is definitely on a
higher plan. And it's evident
too that over the whole system
the game is better, but the
larger improvement has been
shown In the smaller centers.
Which is logical since there
was greater room for improve
Be that as it may I'm for any
thing that keeps the game on
good level of competition. There
are always the minor instances
that are held up to poo poo any
system. But by and large the setup
functions pretty well. What's
more it doesn't take the game COM
pletely out Of the hands Of the kids
playing and into the hands Of
rules committee with axes to grind.
Perhaps Mr.. Bernie Bierman
has a noble thought In his pro-
posed high school football
league setup. Anyway no
one less than the able Mr.. Bier
man has proposed a football
title, to be decided along lines
similar to those in which the
basketballers Of the state
choose their champs. He
saws further IL Is not SUCH
remote possibility. -.
It is not entirely clear just what
he proposes, since necessary de-
tails were not reported. But he did
saw that "all you needed to do"
is divide the state into eight reg
ions. He proposed teams should
play six games, and then decide
the regional championship. Just
how isn't quite clear. Probably on
the basis of percentages. The
seventh game could pare the state
field to four, the eighth to the
semi-finals, and the ninth would
name the champ. ). just as bas-
ketball tournament has aided bas-
ketball interest, it would probably
heighten interest in prep football.
The boys talked Of one other
thing of major importance.
They tossed spring football
hack into the legal setup.
Spring football was OUtlawed q
year ago. It was to 60 into
effect this spring and therefore
was never even tried in some
places. It's been out here