It's almost over. The first weekend of state track and field is in the books and there is still the soccer and baseball playoffs to go, but the high school sports season has just a handful of weeks before the 2020-21 campaign is done.
With preseason practices starting in early August for fall sports, to baseball concluding in mid-June, it's always been a marathon.
These last nine months have been a learning experience. Changes needed to be made due to the pandemic, seemingly almost overnight at times, to make sure the competitions went on as safely as possible.
But they were made and we've played a full schedule.
I believe some of the ideas that were thought to be essential this season should be carried over into the future, especially when you look at the winter sports.
There's absolutely no reason the basketball playoffs after districts need to be played at neutral sites prior to the Final Four. It's the only sport that does it. Why? If it's good enough for football, baseball and softball, basketball should follow suit.
I know there are people that think the opportunity to play in college arenas for the sectional and quarterfinal rounds are great for the teams and players who may never get a shot at doing it again. But take it from a guy who has traveled a few miles watching girls basketball teams in this city play in the postseason, the facilities here in town are as good - to be honest, better - than those they've had to travel two or more hours to play in.
You don't make baseball and softball and soccer and football have to play at colleges, there's no reason to do it for basketball.
And the top seeds in the district tournaments should host games instead of the entire tournament being played at one site. There should be a reward for having a great season, not the potential of having to play a lower seed on its home floor for the right to advance to the state bracket.
One-day wrestling tournaments should be the norm, not the exception.
I'm going to use the Missouri Duals, hosted by Helias and attended by Jefferson City and Blair Oaks, as an example. You can get in five matches that day against some of the top competition in the state, there's no need to get eight in two days. Just add another tournament somewhere on the schedule.
And the state tournaments should be done in one day as well. It was done this year, wrestling one class and the girls tournament per day. It took five days this year, you could easily cut it to three like it normally has been. Give the girls one day to themselves, with a look to the future of when there is more than one classification for the girls, then have two classes wrestle on each of the other two days. Rotate which classes wrestle on which day.
Do I think any of this will happen? I know there are coaches and athletic directors that think it should, not all, but some. But there's no time like the present to talk about it instead of going back to old ways only because that's the way we've always done it.
There are positives that can be taken from lessons learned in the past nine months. Hopefully they will be remembered and carried over into the future.