Four years ago, Craig Phillips took a six-win Fort Plain boys' basketball team to the Section II Class C semifinals, taking advantage of the open sectional.
The Hilltoppers also took advantage of their trip to the tournament by posting wins over Duanesburg and Rensselaer and earned a spot in the Section II Class C semifinal game, where they eventually fell to the Cambridge Indians, another sub-.500 team making a run of its own.
This year, Cinderella will have to stay home and scrub the hardwood because, while the bracket will remain open to anyone who wants in, it will be closed to the Hilltoppers.
"The thing that bothers me the most is that I let these kids down," said Phillips, who returned to the Fort Plain bench this season after a two-year hiatus. "We have to win six league games to go to sectionals because of the state cutback. It's a shame that this team isn't going because they work so hard every day. They got to not play."
This year's Hilltoppers are right on pace with their counterparts from the 2004-05 season (6-13 overall, 4-8 WAC North at the end of the regular season). They are (7-9 overall, 4-7 WAC North), leaving them two short of the required six wins and the .500 record that was mandated by the Fort Plain Board of Education to allow the team to go to the sectional tournament.
It's all because of the belt-tightening that's happening all over the state as the Fort Plain school board looks to get a jump on the expected large cut in state aid for next year.
The biggest cuts from the New York State Public High School Athletic Association came in the reduction of varsity and junior varsity schedule. Sports with 24 contests (baseball, softball and volleyball) have been cut down to 24, while sports that allow teams to play up to 20 games (basketball) will be reduced to 18 and sports that allow for up to 18 games (soccer) will be reduced by two to 16.
However, all teams already have their mandated number of league games that they need to play to fill out their season. The Foothills Council teams play 14 league games each, while local teams in the Western Athletic Conference play 12 league games during the winter basketball season, but in soccer and baseball play divisional opponents twice and each team in the other division once.
Football, which has the least number of games, made out the best, as the sport has been reduced from 10 games to nine. However, the only teams that play 10 games in Section II are those that are competiting for sectional championships.
The ninth game is permitted with sectional approval for teams not playing in the tournament, but teams that advance all the way to the Carrier Dome to play for the state championship will still play 13 games.
"The intention was to save the member schoools, leagues and conferences money," NYSPHSAA Executive Director Nina Van Erk said. "The reduction of contests saves the association nothing. All savings are reflected at the school level."
Van Erk said she made a conservative estimation that the cost of cutting two games off the basketball and soccer schedules, assuming the two games are a home and away contest, could save $3 million across the state just from the cost of putting on the game. That doesn't include transportation costs or possible mileage reimbursements to officials that only some sections provide.
"I think most coaches probably aren't happy about cutting two games from these sports," Fonda-Fultonville boys' basketball coach Eric Wilson said. "I don't have the numbers, I don't know. I can't imagine it saving that much in the long run. I just don't agree with cutting contests and I think athletics are an important part of education."
All changes will take effect starting with the Fall 2009 season and will carry on until the conclusion of the 2010-11 school year.
However, the changes in Fort Plain were implemented and made effective immediately.
Other changes also have been made, but none have had the reaction that the cutdown in athletic contests, which will last for at least the next two years.
"That's why the timing at the January meeting was so important," Van Erk said. "So we can get it set up for the 09-10 school year and carry it into the 2010-11 school year."
Other changes include supporting conference calls and video conferencing for meetings to reduce travel reimbursement costs to the sections and the state. Officials from host sections will officiate regional games. That will be effective the 2009-10 school year and continue into the 2000-11 year.
The state also established a moratorium eliminating mandated attendance next year at the safety, Life of an Athlete, Sportsmanship and Chemical Health workshops.
Other proposals for change have been forwarded to the championship advisory committee, such as a reduction in the number of classes and divisions in team and individual NYSPHSAA competition and a reduction in the number of participants in individual and combination sports.
The championship advisory committee will meet April 24.
"That's going to be another long discussion," Van Erk said. "I'm sure it will be very philosophical as well."
The cuts at the state level could change the way certain teams prepare their non-league schedule for next season. Both the Fonda-Fultonville boys' and girls' teams have the opposite issue as Fort Plain. As the largest school in the league, the Braves face Class CC and smaller schools for most of the season.
So, in order to better prepare for sectionals, they have to look to competition outside of their league. The Western Athletic Conference schedule requires 12 divisional games with two games tacked on at the end of the season for the WAC Cup or crossovers.
Playing 14 required games only left the Braves with six non-leaguers this year and for the next two years they'll be down to four.
"Those non-league games are important to us and important to us and other Class B schools in our league," Wilson said. "We're still going to go out and look for that competition. It's too bad that we're going to have two less games."
Local teams, however, may not be playing less games for long. After the 2010-11 school year, the NYSPHSAA will look back at the revisions and if the state budget is on more steady footing, then it will look at putting the lost contests back in.
"That was the intention of the motion limiting this to two years," Van Erk said. "No one wants to take away opportunities for kids. This was done to save the integrity of the entire interscholastic sports program."
