District Ideas for 2013-2014 Volleyball and Basketball Season

Written Tuesday May 28th, at 1:38 AM

Yes the official announcements of the volleyball/basketball districts are a month away but if I’m on the MHSAA committee to decide the districts especially for Oakland County teams, I have some ideas that you might want to listen too in the near future.

1. Move Clarkston West/Split Clarkston and Lake Orion up: The Wolves have had success in girl’s basketball, boy’s basketball and volleyball in 2010 and 2011. Clarkston Volleyball made it all the way to the State Semifinals in 2011. Clarkston went northwest in the district round and then went northwest. Also the Wolves faced teams like Fenton, Grand Blanc, Holly, Brandon, and Swartz Creek and the likes of Midland Dow, Bay City Western, Saginaw, and Saginaw Arthur Hill in the regional. I think this is an area to look at when it comes to repositioning and giving coaches Kelly Avernall, Dan Fife, and Tim Waslik a good chance to get back to the promise land. Another good idea would be to split both the Dragons and Wolves up, it almost worked in the football playoffs and it certainly worked in the State Semifinals in volleyball as both teams got far and faced each other. It would bring out more competition and put more pressure on both of them to meet again.

2. Keep Lake Orion and Romeo out of districts in basketball and volleyball: Only separated by 20 miles the Dragons and Bulldogs are going to be very good in volleyball and boys basketball. Romeo last season won the Lake Orion district in boy’s basketball by taking out Adams and Clarkston while the Dragons fell to Clarkston. In volleyball the Bulldogs took Clarkston to five games while Clarkston beat Lake Orion in five games in the district. If Romeo is in Macomb County then there is a likelihood that they will play Macomb Dakota in the regional while Lake Orion could play Birmingham Marian in the playoffs but if these two schools do meet in district play then it could be a heck of a district and if Clarkston is in there than this will be the toughest district in the state.

3. Bring the Rochester Schools back together: In 2008-2012 the Rochester schools were together in districts however in 2013 Rochester Adams was placed with Lake Orion, Clarkston, Romeo, and Oxford while Rochester and Stoney Creek went east into Macomb County. I personally think that these three schools need to be paired back together in a district while a team like Romeo should move south to play Utica Eisenhower, Utica, and Utica Ford. Rochester had an easy draw in the boys basketball districts last season and if you put the Rochester schools with Lake Orion and Oxford then they have a better chance moving west than moving east.

4. The Waterford question: Each season Waterford Kettering and Waterford Mott are always in a district with Pontiac, Troy, Troy Athens, and Avondale but both those teams are in the Kensington Lakes Athletic Association. The problem I have here is geographic location of the district. It takes about 20 minutes to get to Troy and about 15-20 minutes to get to Milford, White Lake, and other. I think for league purposes that both Waterford Kettering and Waterford Mott should either be paired with Clarkston since they are closer to Clarkston and move north or go more west where their league rivals are at and see Milford, Lakeland, Howell, or even Grand Blanc in a district. I think it would be a good idea to do that.

5. Keep Farmington Out of Wayne County: In the past few seasons the Falcons location has really hurt them with districts. Farmington has had to go south into Redford and Wayne County. The Falcons should be in a district with their Farmington rivals, North Farmington and Harrison. It’s not right that Farmington gets left out of not facing their two in-town rivals while they go south to face a good Detroit team. That’s got to change, keep Farmington in Oakland County.