What next?

Victory too good? Champs drop out of playoffs

School pulls out after other private schools complain



When the N.C. Independent Schools playoffs begin next week, five-time defending state champion Victory Christian won't be playing.

Not because the girls' basketball team didn't qualify.

Some 1A private schools complained to Victory and to the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association that the Kings were simply too good and other schools didn't have a chance to win a championship.

So when the state tournament comes to Charlotte next week, the state's best girls' team -- perhaps in any classification -- will be watching.

"I really don't like it," Victory guard Kendria Holmes said after a blowout win at Gaston Day last month. "I mean, we know we could beat those teams. We wanted to end our season with a championship, cutting down the nets, you know? It just doesn't seem right."

Last season, Victory Christian won its fifth straight girls' championship, 84-48 against Gaston Day. In three playoff games, Victory won by an average of 44 points. In 2003, the team won a conference game by 98 points. This season's average margin of victory in conference play is nearly 50. And that's with Victory emptying its bench early in most games.

Over the past five years, Victory (22-4) has been nationally ranked and has had a run of talent that has produced several Division I players, including senior forward Kyria Buford, who has signed with Florida State. Holmes has been recruited by ACC and SEC teams.

"We heard from some schools up east that they didn't like the way the games were going," Victory girls' coach and athletics director Michael Pratt said. "I know they talked to the state association about it. So we wanted to try to be fair. We went to the state association and volunteered to remove ourselves from this year's tournament."

NCISAA executive director Chuck Carter said Victory asked if it could move up a class or two for this year's playoffs. NCISAA officials said they can't remember a school making such a request.

"We tried to come up with a solution," Carter said, "but I didn't think it was a good idea to have them move up because I didn't want to be placed in a position where I could choose which teams could play up in the future and schools in (classifications) above them would have another tough team to deal with. I just didn't feel it was a smooth way to go about it."

Carter said Victory officials then made the offer to drop out of state tournament play. "When they feel their competitive level drops back to more like the rest of the teams in their class," Carter said, "then they'll come back."

Word spread quickly among the private school community, and some coaches didn't like what they heard.

As one private school coach pointed out Monday, South Mecklenburg (21-4) -- a 4A public school that has won its past six games by an average of nearly 50 points -- is beating its conference teams every bit as badly as Victory is. Yet he said, no one is asking the Sabres to drop out of this week's conference tournament.

Carter said some people have it all wrong.

"It's a very nice thing that Victory did," he said. "They recognized that they were very strong and very competitive in the 1A class and they offered to drop out of the state playoffs while they had such strong talent."

 

If you would have played or have a kid that would played against this team, you should be downright ashamed. My kid would wouldnt step on the court in this tournament.

 

I would like to see a public list of the coaches (probably just one or two at the most) that did the crying. The whole idea just makes me sick to my stomach. The schools that did the crying should 1)fire the coaches for being cowards and 2)think about ending the ball programs at their school if they think that the only way to win is to complain about the teams being too good to play against.

 

SW4A Tourney Championship:

#1 South Meck vs #2 Garinger (4 pm @ Providence)

MECA 8 Tourney Championship:

#1 Harding Univ. vs #2 Hopewell (7 pm @ Providence)

NW4A Tourney Championship:

#1 McDowell vs #2 AC Reynolds (6:30 pm @ Freedom)


Arrrgghhh...these teams are all #1 and #2 in their conferences, they should sit out the tourney......it's not fair to the rest of the teams in the state.....ogg!

 

Ok, I am pissed, can you tell?.....I could almost imagine something like this from the pc public schools but private schools????.....like DaveW said, nobody should step on the courts for any of those playoff games.......

 

Victory Christian Girls Pull out of I-A Playoffs

Hmmmm, why is Coach Pratt pulling his team out of the tourney ? ? The girls shouldn't be punished for being a tad better than everybody else!!!!!!! Teams that hate Victory winning state titles all the time should quite their whining and beat them on the court !!!!!!!

THE BOTTOM LINE: I don't think you should punish yourself for being better than everybody else. I doubt the UNC Women's Soccer team thought about pulling out of the NCAA's when they were winning the title ever year nor did John Wooden think about pulling his team out from the NCAA Tourney when they were on their 9 out of 10 title run 'back in the day'. I doubt Vince Lombardi would've given back one of his NFL Titles during the Packers great run in the 1960's would he ? ? ?

A dynasty is truly a special thing in sports. Especially in high school. Its hard to start one and hard to maintain. The girls will remember their title winning years all their lives. Why punish them for their hard work & determination for striving to be the best ? ? ? Many high school teams would die to have the long term success that Victory has enjoyed over the last several years. Like in life, folks are always going to hate those who enjoy success and win. Is preventing the girls from defending their title the right thing to do ? ? I think Coach Pratt has done the wrong thing here IMHO!!!!


Victory Girls Drop out of State Championship Tourney