No Title 2549

Supplement to “Celebrating Sweet Sixteen”

The boys’ and girls’ state basketball tournaments are promoted as the “Greatest Show in Hoops” by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association.

The two tournaments are unique in that, unlike most other states, they are single events, open to all schools regardless of enrollment size. Many states have implemented a class format—Class A, Class AA, and so on—but not Kentucky. Whoever wins here leaves little doubt as to the best teams.

“Every few years we get a push for a class system,” says KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett. “But over the past 10 years we haven’t heard much. Indiana went the class route a few years ago and their revenues are down because they’ve deleted some of their fan base.”

Tackett says that over the years there have been what he calls landmark tournaments that have helped keep the tournaments the way they are.

But you really never know which school will win. You can count on two hands the schools that have won the boys’ Sweet Sixteen more than twice, and it’s the same for the girls.

“The Louisville schools had been winning quite a bit,” Tackett says. “Then in 1976, Edmonson County came along and won it all. They had only about 300 students. And in 1996, Paintsville, with an enrollment of 189 students, wins the tournament.”

At last year’s boys’ tournament, the 1976 Edmonson County team was recognized for their still-talked-about win. Although colorful coach Bobo Davenport died a few years ago, his widow Mary Francis and four of the team’s five starters, including Mark Hennon, Aaron Good, Kevin Clemmons, and Chester Bethel—the only Wildcat to make the all-tournament squad—were in the crowd.

They had to identify somewhat with Shelby Valley, the less-than-600-students school in Pike County, who defeated three-time state champs Ballard of Louisville, serving more than 1,600 students, 73-61 in the finals. Louisville’s Mercy took their second girls’ title, 71-61 over Scott County.

SWEET SIXTEEN TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Go online to the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, www.khsaa.org/basketball/records.html, to view past state champions, individual and state basketball records, all-time winners, and top coaches.

To read the Kentucky Living March 2011 feature that goes along with this supplement, go to Celebrating Sweet Sixteen.