Preps Find A Home In Nampa Boys, Girls Basketball Tourneys Will Be Held Together In ‘96-97
Beginning in the 1996-97 school year, Idaho high school boys’ and girls’ basketball teams may start calling the road to state the “Road to Nampa.”
The Idaho High School Activities Association last week awarded the city of Nampa five-year deals to host the state boys’ and girls’ basketball tournaments.
The tournaments will be held in the yet-to-be built Treasure Valley Events Center, a pavilion that will seat 10,500.
IHSAA executive director Bill Young cited two obvious reasons for entering into a permanent site arrangement for the tournaments. First, Nampa is a central site in the state. Second, the tournaments are guaranteed their dates and there’s no conflict in scheduling as there’s been in the past with the Boise State University Pavilion and Idaho State Universty’s Holt Arena.
Young also likes the idea of featuring the boys and girls in the same site.
“We’re striving for equity in girls sports; the girls are just as important as the boys,” Young said. “We want to feature the girls as much as we do the boys.”
To that end, the State A-1 and A-2 girls championship games, which will be held in February at College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, will be televised for the first time ever on Idaho Public Television, just like the boys, Young said.
The state wrestling tournaments have also been locked into a five-year agreement and will be held, beginning in 1997, at ISU.
In negotiating permanent sites, the IHSAA was also able to move the dates for the girls tournaments and wrestling tournaments. The girls season will start two weeks later and not overlap the volleyball season and state will be held the third weekend in February instead of the first weekend, Young said.
The wrestling tournament will be moved from the second week in March to the last weekend in February. The boys tournament will remain the same, the first weekend in March.
Wrestling coaches state wide have campaigned in recent years for a shorter season. The news was welcomed by Lake City coach Pat Whitcomb.
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