Copyright The Boston Globe
Last year, had the MOV been 6, the same 219 teams would have made the boys’ basketball tournament, and 216 of 217 teams would have been the same on the girls’ side, with some seeds shifting for both. The intention is to reverse a rise in unsportsmanlike incidents at the end of games. “People are calling timeout up 8 trying to get to 10,” Newhall said. “Coaches aren’t putting in subs if they’re up 14 with 90 seconds left. It’s leading to issues with coaches and officials at the end of games.” There was pushback that changing the MOV isn’t addressing the root issue. “I don’t know that changing the number will get at a culture problem,” said Kara Sheridan, assistant principal at Hampshire Regional. “In school, if you have an attendance problem, we don’t just change the number of days you’re allowed to miss. It’s a culture thing around behavior.” For others, the calculus was simple. “More kids are going to get to play, and to me that’s the bottom line,” said Dedham principal Jim Forrest. “And hopefully it stops kids from punching each other in the face, but that’s just a wish.” It was noted that after lacrosse reduced its MOV from 10 to 5 for safety considerations, it actually saw an increase in expulsions. “We just made a vote based on feelings, not on data,” said committee chair Shaun Hart, the Burlington AD after the vote. ▪ The rejection of three proposed calendar pillars was a bit of a surprise. The TMC voted 12-1 against starting every sport two Mondays before Labor Day, 13-0 against starting winter sports on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, and 13-0 against releasing all tournament brackets on weekdays. The proposal to end the spring season on the third weekend in June, as keeping with past practice, was approved, 13-0. Moving the winter start date back a day was the most discussed. It’s intention was to give athletic directors more time to make the shift from fall to winter sports. Many were dubious. “If you’re not ready to go on Monday, you’re not ready to go on Tuesday,” said Scituate AD Scott Paine. Added Oakmont AD Eric Dawley: “The winter athletes are chomping at the bit. They’re ready to go. Telling them they have to wait a day only causes confusion.” Some major points raised: By not starting earlier in August, football would lose an open Saturday for scrimmages. By moving the winter start, it would push back when the first wrestling and hockey games could be held. “[Football] coaches will go crazy about not having that Saturday scrimmage,” said Hart. A few other topics the committee touched on: ▪ The lengthiest conversation centered around neutral locations for state quarterfinal games. Initially proposed by the basketball committee, after the hockey committee made a similar move — albeit with unique rink access issues — the issue is small gyms that are unable to host big matchups, and local athletic directors having to choose between turning fans away from a home game, or moving it to a neutral location and drawing the ire of their fans and team, which earned a home game. “We played Abington [last season] and I moved it out of our gym at a fairly early stage and thankfully I did,” Newhall said. “It out-sold our place by 290 tickets and those 290 would have been banging on the doors, yelling at the people at the gates. I would have needed more cops.” “I hate to have people get turned away from a game and not be able to get in,” added Chris Mastrangelo, Malden principal and former Peabody boys’ basketball coach. “When you get on a bus to go to a neutral site game, you know you have accomplished something. Maybe that’s being overly romantic, but there’s something to be said when both teams have to travel.” Others disagreed. “When my [Burlington team] got to play in the elite eight with 2,000 people there, if they had to get on a bus to go to Lowell it wouldn’t have been the same,” Hart said. The last two years, the Division 1 boys’ quarterfinals averaged 1,074 fans, with Division 2 averaging nearly 779. Across all divisions the boys’ tournament averaged 688 fans in 2025 and 655 in 2024, while girls averaged 406 last spring and 395 in 2024. The committee decided it needed more data on sports beyond basketball, preferring to make a universal switch instead of on a sport-by-sport basis. ▪ Last spring, the TMC approved disparate lacrosse seasons for boys and girls, and the topic was brought up as something that might need correcting. As requested by the girls’ lacrosse committee, the maximum number of games was reduced by two, to match the boys, but the cut-off date was moved five days earlier than the boys (May 20 vs. 25), allowing for tournament play over Memorial Day weekend. “Scheduling in the spring is the most challenging,” Dawley said. “We need the biggest window to get 18 games in and they reduced it by five.” The girls’ lacrosse committee will be asked to explain its rationale at the virtual Nov. 20 TMC meeting. ▪ Now that each sport has expressed interest in pursuing, or not pursuing, Division 1A tournaments, the conversation turns to what would the tournament actually look like. Double-elimination? How many teams? An All-State tourney? “These conversations have gotten people to think outside the box and what kind of tournament might create excitement and benefit the kids,” Paine said.
