Playoffs this year moved toward an Indiana model, used by that state’s schools for decades and which was immortalized in the basketball movie/drama “Hoosiers”, starring Gene Hackman and Helix graduate Dennis Hopper in 1986.
The Indiana way meant that all teams were eligible, in one division, including many with hopeless records. The San Diego Section positioned playoff teams in multiple divisions.
Not everyone was happy, but prep maven Steve Brand wrote that “neither side, those that were against and those for, really had to worry.”
“The teams expected to win, won,” wrote The San Diego Union reporter. “The teams playing in weaker leagues that might have earned playoff spots over teams with superior schedules under the previous playoff system, lost.”
The regular season would determine league championships and bragging rights, said Brand. The second season was for section championships and state playoff berths.
The San Diego Section 3-A, 2-A, 1-A format of recent years gave way to Divisions I, II, III, IV, and V, based on statewide school enrollments, said Brand.
Of the 67 basketball-playing schools in the section, only three, El Cajon Valley boys, and University City and Midway Baptist girls, declined to participate in the postseason.
PLAYOFF BOOST
Steve Brand also wrote that a playoff procedure in the Southern Section would result in San Diego Section teams earning more berths in the state tournament.
The Southern Section, which did not conduct its playoffs along state divisional lines, ruled that only teams winning section championships would be allowed to move on.
Because of this arrangement no state-designated Division III and only one team each from D-II and D-IV qualified from California’s largest section.
As a result San Diego gained several “at large” girls’ and boys’ berths in divisions II, III, and IV, which, added to winners in sections I-V, brought the total to 19. No D-I boys at-large teams were invited.
