A quick three-day ski-cation and fresh powder awaiting us on the slopes was a great way to start. Receiving word Tuesday night while relaxing after a tiring but exhilarating day of trying to stay upright that the Lincoln school bond issue passed made it that much better.
Two new high schools and some much needed athletic facilities give Lincoln prep sports a bright future, one that will accommodate growth, encourage participation and insure quality for the years to come.
Expansion also creates opportunities that were previously unfeasible, but now may make total sense as the new high schools open in 2022 and ’23, respectively.
I’ve always considered the magic number of teams for a conference to be eight, the number of LPS high schools there will be when construction is finished. Throw in Pius X and that’s nine Class A schools in the city. While the new schools will have Class B enrollments when they first open, they will opt up immediately to Class A in athletics. My guess is they will be Class A-sized schools relatively soon.
Looks to me like it’s time to create the Star City Conference.
Conferences of more than eight schools spread all over the state are just a bad idea, especially when it comes to conference basketball tournaments that are then forced into four or five days to complete.
Weather has played havoc with the Heartland Athletic Conference tournaments since it expanded to 11 schools two years ago. Last season, the girls championship game between Lincoln Southwest and Fremont was never played. This season, the boys played the fifth- and seventh-place games two days after the championship was decided.
These scenarios will never happen to the Lincoln schools if they’re together in a Lincoln conference.
Perhaps a more compelling argument from a basketball standpoint is the Class A matrix designed to create equitable schedules for all the schools in the class and insure that there are sufficient crossover games between the Metro and Heartland conferences.
Having a nine-team Lincoln conference that requires just eight conference games that have to be set aside makes it easier for the matrix to get the crossover games necessary to achieve its objective of making the wild-card point system as fair as possible and an accurate barometer of team strength.
For the city taxpayer, a Lincoln conference is a much better arrangement than a 14-team HAC. In recent years, LPS has sent six sports teams in buses and vans to HAC championship events in Grand Island for baseball and softball, Kearney for cross country and track, Norfolk for boys and girls golf, and Fremont for boys and girls tennis and swimming.
That price tag becomes more daunting in a few years when it’s eight LPS schools hitting the road for those conference championships. Adding two more athletic programs to the district’s operating sports budget is going to cost more money, so any way LPS can save and streamline will be vital in the early years as those additional expenses are absorbed.
A new Lincoln Class A conference doesn’t mean that the city schools will quit scheduling Grand Island, Fremont, Kearney, Norfolk and Columbus (a new HAC member in the 2020-21 school year). Those regular-season games, matches, meets and invitationals need to continue in every sport.
So when should HAC-xit occur if a new conference is something the Lincoln Class A schools want to pursue? When the first new school opens in 2022 seems logical. That’s when Lincoln would expand to eight Class As with the ninth coming on board the next year.
That will leave plenty of time for the remaining HAC members to add more schools to get to eight. South Sioux City, which is straddling the enrollment line between Class A and B, looks like it will need a conference with the River Cities on the verge of breaking up. Hastings, a large Class B with lots of Class A history, and North Platte, another school on the A-B enrollment line, would be naturals for the revamped HAC.
It’s inevitable that Lincoln will have its own Class A conference. The city and county are growing at a healthy rate, which means Norris and Waverly could be looking at crossing the Class A threshold in another decade, much like Elkhorn, Elkhorn South and Gretna did in the past decade in the Omaha area. A Lincoln Class A conference already in place will provide them a natural landing spot when that time arrives.
There’s no need to wait 20 years for LPS to expand again. Let’s do the Star City Conference now.
Favorite shots from the basketball court this season
Photos: A look at our favorite shots from the basketball court this season
GRAND ISLAND — Millard North threw down 12 dunks when the Mustangs defeated Creighton Prep in the Metro Conference boys basketball finals last month.
Lincoln Southwest's Ben Hunzeker (right) drives to the basket against Lincoln North Star's Josh Brown (left) and Jake Seip on Jan. 31 at North Star. With two new high schools opening by 2023 in Lincoln, the city could soon have nine Class A schools.