What Memphis area basketball coaches said about state of MSCIAA city championship games
Ridgeway boys basketball coach Curtis Wooten remembers back when he played for the Roadrunners and what playing in a city championship game meant.
He played at the now delipidated Mid-South Coliseum and how it was a big spectacle, determining which team was the best in Memphis in each class.
Nowadays, even though he’s still part of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools Athletic Association as a coach, he was able to tell the difference between the city championships of yesteryear and present.
It made him wonder, could the vibe around the city championships be revived to mean what it used to?
"The talent is so divided,” Wooten added. “Back in the day, everyone went to their home school for four years. Then, the significance of it was really big."
It doesn’t help the games have no affect on the postseason standings. The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association treats it as a non-district, regular-season games.
The outcome is only for bragging rights. Years ago, that was enough, but as of lately, it’s lost its luster.
"It was pride, but our main focus is to win state,” said Jarmon Brittman of Douglass who was named MVP of the 2A game.
Interestingly, this was the second year in a row the Class 4A city title game included plenty of drama. Last season, Germantown played its reserves in the game against Overton because it had a game later that evening with playoff implications.
This year, Cordova couldn’t play in the game because it already had played the maximum amount of varsity games, per the TSSAA rules. The TSSAA permits its partner schools to play no more than 24 regular season games and Cordova’s 24th game was on Friday.
In the case of in-season tournaments, Cordova coach Terrance Scales said regardless of how many games you play, it only counts as two games toward your allotment.
"It’s designed to be a showcase for two deserving teams who had a good regular season,” Scales said. “... I think if it had a little more incentive, that would make it even a little more spice to the game.”
Because Cordova couldn’t play, Whitehaven was awarded the 4A city champions and a game wasn’t played. Cordova did not receive a forfeit.
The city championships can work for teams that aren’t used to being in the spotlight. Ridgeway girls won just two games last season. On Saturday, Ridgeway defeated Craigmont 44-32 in the 3A city championship game.
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"It feels amazing, especially for my girls,” coach Demetrius Bradshaw said after the win. “... Everybody laughed at us, talked about us and we weren’t even a topic of girls basketball (last year).”
That's the best-case scenario for the city championship games. But if MSCIAA can’t find a way to make the games more worthy, it may be hard keeping the games exciting. Every game was a blowout at Southwind. Ridgeway boys won 78-53 and Douglass won 77-25, improving to 27-0 and getting its fifth-straight city championship.
Maybe it’s time for the school district to find a way to bring back the pride of the city championships.
“I would love to see them just put the best against the best, regardless of class,” Douglass coach Greg Williams said. “I think the city would enjoy that even more.”
Reach Wynston Wilcox at wwilcox@gannett.com and on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @wynstonw__.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis area basketball coaches reflect on MSCIAA city championships
