“Classic” Changes Come To Plano Hoop Tourney

By Bill Lidinsky

For the Ottawa Times

Back on January 2, 2009, The Times Sports Staff reported on some potential changes the Plano Boys Basketball Christmas Classic might experience in the near future.
Well the future is now for the 46 year old event as Plano High School Athletic Director Jim Schmidt revealed on Monday the addition of four new teams that will take the court at the "Classic" next December.

Rockford Christian, Yorkville, Morris, and Kaneland have all agreed to join the 16-team field next winter. That gives the tournament a much bigger look in terms of the overall number of larger schools participating.

The 47th edition of the "Classic" next December will now be comprised for four 3A teams (Sandwich, Yorkville, Kaneland, Morris), eight 2A teams (Plano, Seneca, Coal City, Forreston, Genoa-Kingston, Hall, Rockford Christian, Mendota) and four 1A squads (Newark, Somonauk, Putnam County, Hinckley-Big Rock).

The main difference from this past campaign is that the tournament now adds a trio of 3A schools up from one a single 2A squad. Gone are a pair each of 2A and 1A teams.

"I want everyone to understand that we didn't think the tournament was bad in terms of how it was comprised this past season. We just felt we had to evolve into what Plano was going to be in the future," Schmidt said. "We don't know when the future is that we're going to switch to 3A. If the economy changes it may be soon. So I thought we had an opportunity to make a move now after a couple of smaller schools pulled out here in January."

After the recent withdrawal this month of Aurora Christian and Ottawa-Marquette, Schmidt decided to strike while the iron was hot in order to shift more toward a 2A/3A sized field rather than stand pat with the familiar 1A/2A squads that have traditionally participated.

Plano itself is bordering some 100 students shy of the 3A level so Schmidt decided to exercise some options.

"When Aurora Christian opted not to return, I offered that position immediately to Rockford Christian. Then after the article in "The Times", people from other schools contacted me," Schmidt said. "I actually didn't see this happening so soon until I got a lot of interest especially from Yorkville. Once I got Yorkville, it was kind of a no brainer because of the location of the school and the quality of fans they've brought to our tournament in the past."

Yorkville was a long time member of the "Classic" until it departed after winning the championship back in 2003. The Foxes at that time were the big fish in the small pond and opted to leave for stiffer competition after being in the championship game at Plano five years in a row.

"When we left five seasons ago it was because there was a lack of double A teams in the tournament at that time during the IHSA two class system. Now that Plano is revamping how it will run things with adding more 3A and 2A teams, we're thrilled to come back," said Yorkville head basketball coach Jerry Farber. "We think it will be a great tournament as it always has been. We've got great memories of our years playing in the finals especially back in 2003, when we won it. Hopefully we can have some fun like that again. I know we'll bring a lot of people. We always did when we played at Plano before."

Another new school thrilled to be apart of the Plano Christmas experience is Morris. The Redskins were one of the 3A schools along with Ottawa and Kaneland that Schmidt targeted. Morris gladly accepted his invite.

“Every coach that I’ve ever talked to that plays at Plano has nothing but good things to say about how they ran it. It’s organized, it gets a lot of press, and every game is streamed on the Internet,” said Morris head basketball coach Joe Blumberg. “It’s a great fit for our program and where we are now. We’re thrilled to be able now to participate there and be involved with one of the great basketball traditions in our area.”

After Morris accepted, Schmidt offered another position in the tourney to Ottawa . The Pirates declined for the time being and Schmidt moved on to Kaneland a former two-time winner of the event in 1988 and 1994 before leaving in 2001 for many of the same reasons Yorkville did.

“ Ottawa decided that they wanted to wait a year or two and that was fine. But then Kaneland contacted me and wanted to get back in. Being another 3A school, a former long time member of the event and close in location, I thought it would be a great idea to have them back, Schmidt said.

So the die was cast and four different schools will now be participating at Plano next December.

But with the positive growth came some tough decisions for Schmidt. He knew he had to cut two schools whom already had expressed the desire to return in 2009 unlike Aurora Christian and Marquette.

Both Serena and Indian Creek are 1A in terms of population and Schmidt decided that he had to make a couple of difficult choices to exclude both schools in order to benefit Plano ’s rising school enrollment.

“I really love those two schools. They’ve had great history in our tournament and it was very difficult to pick them both,” Schmidt said. “I just had to go by who’s been in the tournament the longest. Newark and Hinckley-Big Rock have been at Plano longer than most schools so I put overall history into my decision. It was no negative reflection on Serena or Indian Creek it was just a matter of who’s been here the longest.”

“We were surprised. Upon some research we’ve figured that we were at Plano a good 30 years, so it was disappointing,’ said Serena Athletic Director Dean DeRango. “But it is their tournament to do with what they want and I totally understand his (Schmidt) reasoning. It’s just disappointing we won’t be there now. A lot of our people look forward to the Plano tournament. Year after year, we have kids play in it whose parents played in it. It’s a long tradition that’s now broke, but I’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision.”

The changes at Plano now throw a whole new look onto a tournament that has stood as a small school holiday hoop staple for 46 years, but will up the ante in size come year number 47.

“Its exciting and it really raises the level of competition to hopefully make all of us better,” Schmidt said. “I think Plano basketball will be very competitive over the next several years and hopefully the Reapers can finally win a Christmas Classic, which we never have. The running joke is who will win a championship first, the Cubs or Plano at the Classic. Hopefully it will be us soon.”

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