After many of the area’s Class 1-3 boys and girls basketball teams punched their tickets to the state quarterfinals fans went from checking brackets to checking gas prices when they saw the location of the games.
MSHSAA designated the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg as the host site for the area’s Class 1-3 boys and girls quarterfinals.
UCM will host six games over two days featuring predominantly Southwest Missouri teams. The teams scheduled to attend the Warrensburg quarterfinal site are the Thayer, Sparta, Hartville, Marionville, St. Elizabeth and Thomas Jefferson boys along with the Fair Grove, Mansfield, Fordland, Norwood, Macks Creek and Leeton girls.
The Leeton girls are the closest to the venue at just 14 miles away. The Macks Creek girls are the next closest at 97 miles. None of the other 10 teams are within 100 miles of the venue. Thayer is 252 miles to the venue, which is the longest distance for any school qualified for the Class 1-3 state quarterfinals.
Across the 48 schools qualified for the Class 1-3 state quarterfinals, there are 16 schools with one-way trips of at least 140 miles. Of those 16 schools, 13 are based in southwest Missouri.
This year’s location choice has prompted the question ‘why doesn’t southwest Missouri have any quarterfinal locations in 2023?’ MSHSAA Communications Director Jason West says no area gyms were available at the time that MSHSAA asked for commitments to host.
“After reaching out to several venues in the area, UCM was the closest venue that was open, willing and could adequately accommodate the possible match-ups,” West said via email on Feb. 8.
Last year, both Republic High School (Class 2) and Southwest Baptist University (Classes 1 & 3) hosted the state quarterfinal round.
Some larger area high schools along with area colleges were asked about hosting. West says those schools were unable to commit at the time of MSHSAA’s asking.
“Larger high schools were contacted, but at the time we need to have commitments they were hoping to host their own district tournaments,” West said via email Mar. 1.
The campus of Missouri State University was ineligible to host due to hosting the final fours for all classes. Also, according to West, “any venue that hosted one of the participating district tournaments or sectionals” is ineligible to host quarterfinals.
West says there is no officially set minimum standard required for a venue to host a state quarterfinal basketball game.
“There is not currently a minimum standard in writing,” West said via email on Mar. 1. “Based on the area, our staff looks for a variety of things in addition to seating capacity. Logistics like the number of locker room areas available, available parking for teams as well as spectators, ADA compliance, concession areas, etc.”
When asked the question: ‘Will more efforts be made in future years to ensure quarterfinals are kept more localized?’ West responded:
“It would be impossible for MORE efforts to made than were made this year. An example of how difficult it was to find venues this year happened just last Friday, when we finally had a venue commit to hosting the Class 4 sectional that is supposed to be played on Monday. This process has taken months to complete. Normally something that is completed in late October or early November was still not finished in January. So, the implication given in the question that a minimal effort was given is a slap in the face to the people who have been working hard on finding the best possible venues.”
For further context about locations, the 12 teams assigned to the Warrensburg site are an average of 139.2 miles from high school address to the venue in Warrensburg. It is the furthest average distance for any quarterfinal site by more than 40 miles. The average distance for the 12 teams at Moberly is 76 miles. The average distance for the 12 teams at St. Joseph is 95.3 miles. The average distance for the eight teams at Farmington is 89 miles. The average distance for the four teams at Van Buren is 91.5 miles.
The St. Joseph average mileage is greatly increased by the three Southwest Missouri teams who were assigned there. Miller (217 miles), Weaubleau (172 miles) and El Dorado Springs (166 miles) increase the average distance from high school to venue for the St. Joseph pod by a whopping 43 miles. Without the SWMO schools, the average distance for the other 9 schools is 52.3 miles.
The Class 4-6 state quarterfinal round for the area’s teams will be contested Friday, Mar. 10 and Saturday, Mar. 11.
