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Made the trip south of the border last night for the Maryland "A" Western Region Semifinals, a doubleheader at Ft. Hill HS. Westmar defeated Clear Spring and Allegany beat So. Garrett in the other semi. Excellent games, excellent and electric atmosphere. All the teams were along the lines of the D5 and 6 "A" and "AA" championship teams. Allegany plays Westmar on Saturday night for the Regional title and the right to go to the U. of Maryland for the final four next weekend. Last nights games were basically the sweet sixteen games in the state of maryland.

Articles are below for anyone interested in seeing info/pics but some interesting observations. COACHING BOX...I'm convinced more than ever that this could work in PA. There would be a year where "growing pains" would be perevolent but I think it would work wonder in the long run and actually cut down on coaches badgering officials and Bench technicals. Here's why.

It's a HUGE advantage to be up and moving coaching your team, your more visible and can be more involved. Do the coaches question officials...You bet....However, officials I saw last night (who were really good) were quick to explain their call and keep the game moving and one got the feeling that if the coaches had "badgered" or continued to argue much after the explanation that they would have been tagged immediately and relegated to the bench for the rest of the game. A huge disadvantage.

I think it would settle coaches down because they would not want to be disadvantaged (seated) as opposed to the opposing coach being up and more involved. Thus, I think it would cut back on technical fouls from the coaches. I really wish PA would try this as we are one of the only states to restrict/alter this National Federation Rule.

The Cumberland Times-News article and pic's regarding both games can be found at the following link:

http://www.times-news.com/framework/ click on sports and look for heading Alco, Westmar to meet....

The coaching box sounds like a really great idea....

Do the floors need to be altered or how does this work?

There's just a line...it's about from foul line extended to almost half court...no major adjustment to the court at all.

Agree on the coaching box. It seemed like a great advantage for the coaches.

I also agree with HR that they were 2 great games. I thought Alleghany and Southern were both better than Westmar and Clear Spring.

I'm still confused on how Maryland comes up with their classifications. I talked to someone from Cumberland today and he told me Alleghany graduates around 225. Westmar on the other hand graduates less than 100 yet they are both class A.

They split all the schools up into fourths just like PA does except there are so many huge schools in Maryland (Baltimore City and 'burbs and DC 'burbs) that the numbers are far different than PA and Single-A goes from the Westmar's and Clear Spring's of the world (similar to 5/6-A) to the Allegany and So. Garrett's which would be AAA in Pennsy. And there are still only in the neighborhood of 50 schools in the state at the Single-A level.

TMFan...remember our discussion last night about the first game being like a game between two excellent WestPac/SHL type schools and the second game being more like watching an LHAC game. Truer than we realized, huh!

I would love to be able to be up and around. I think it would be great for coaches and players.

I think the biggest adjustment would be for the officials. I think they would have trouble with the coaches being more animated.

A bit of information that really means nothing to us but I found it interesting.

West Virginia's classifications must be similar to ours. Frankfort HS in Fort Ashby,WV graduates around 120 and they are AA in WV. If they play and beat Alleghany (which is in Maryland) they are awarded points according to WV's classification. Alleghany would be AAA in WV so therefore Frankfort would get points for beating a AAA team when Alleghany is actually an A team.

Did that make sense or did I confuse everyone.

made perfect sense to us who are scholars of enrollment classifications!

A couple of thought on WV and MD.

I think that WV has three classes with AAA being the biggest. Remember that PA is much larger than either WV and MD so there is more parity in PA within each class. MD has seperate private and public (what a great idea!) not sure about WV. Also I think that MD has one enrollment figure for all sports in other words if your A in one sport your A in all sports in PA the figures change based on the sport.

The coaching box is a great idea. About 7 years ago Bedford used to have a JH Bball tourney at the end of the season and Fort Hill used to come to it. One year they had a new coach and he thought he should be allowed to stand up and use the box as if he was in Maryland. The ref came over to me and asked if that was okay (we (CR) were playing FH) and said sure if I can do the same thing. The ref said no I couldn't be up then I said neither can he. The Fort Hill coach threw a fit about but had to sit down for the game. That's as close as I came to using a "coaching box"