[Lambert #1]

Your are completely correct Barrel, I should have made my point more clearly. I do think that it is impressive that Morgan, Bell, Bluegrass Middle, and Grant made it to the final four. I was trying to complain about the method those teams were chosen and I do still think that it shouldn't have been called/named the State Championship. I personally think that until everyone or every conference is represented you cannot call it State anything! If and it seems that Bluegrass Middle was that impressive they probably would have advanced in a true playoff format. Our school plays in the Big Sandy Conference and I do know that our coach thought that his conference would be represented in the tourney. He stated that he thought it had to be done through the conference though. Our conference tourney was still going on during this time period though. I think that they are onto something really good if they can get the kinds worked out. It needs to be moved up a few weeks so that everyone can rework their conference tournaments and have a representative. I do not think that an 8 team bracket can determine the best Middle School in the state though. First they need to make it clear that ALL conferences that intend to play needs to apply no later than August 1st or something like that. Then they need to plan on the playoffs lasting a minimum of two, probably three weeks. This would mean that the Middle School State Semi's would be played in mid to late November. I do realize that this would interfere with Middle School basketball but it's the only answer. The only way around this would be to start playing football games August 1st to get a full schedule of games in. I think our coach will take care of the paperwork himself next year but it would be better if it went through the Conferences. Each one should pay up front and register their conference winner or runner up early so this same problem does not come up again next year. I think it can work and probably went better than most people thought it would this year. Just needs some tweeking to get it right next time.

I apologize if anyone from Morgan, Bell, Grant, Bluegrass Middle thought that I was saying that their team did not deserve to be in the tournament, Great job by those coaches, players, parents for giving their boys a chance to play in the state Tournament. Congrats to Bluegrass Middle, you had one heck of a season.