Notes, quotes and a thought or two…
In my travels and workings around the state this summer, I have had the pleasure to meet Winona football coach Joey Tompkins.
As some of you will remember, it was Winona that beat Newton in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs last year in a game that had multiple weather delays. Newton led for most of the game before Winona kicked it in gear and took a late win that propelled helped propel them to the Class 2A championship game.
Well, it has been an interesting summer for Tompkins when the school district announced it was going to consolidate with Montgomery County. MHSAA rules at the time stated that Winona would have to play as an independent for the school year and not be eligible for the playoffs.
Winona appealed that ruling and by an 8-6 vote, the MHSAA Executive Committee voted to allow the school to play in Class 3A for the upcoming season, a victory for Tompkins considering the amount of talent he has coming back next year.
The next thing that had to be determined was where would Winona play. MHSAA Executive Director Don Hinton made the decision to put Winona in Division 5-3A with Southeast Lauderdale, Choctaw Central, Morton, Kemper County and Forest.
But here’s the kicker, Winona will have to play all those division games on the road, unless they can talk one of those schools into coming to Winona for financial considerations.
And on top of losing all their home division games, Winona is going to lose two other games, including a home game with rival J.Z. George.
Here’s a sampling of my conversation with Tompkins.
“I’m not real happy about it but nobody asked me.”
“It is what it is.”
“This is a killer. It will set our athletic program back two years.”
“It’s obvious there was a personal agenda here to punish us.”
The financial implications of such decisions are massive for a small school like Winona. For most schools, football is the driving force of the athletic budget. Tompkins said they easily make between $5,000-$6,000 a home football game. That money helps fund other sports that don’t make money.
And the ripple effects from this are far reaching. Kosciusko is losing a home game with Winona. Philadelphia is losing a home game with Forest because that game was giving to Winona.
All of Winona’s division foes in 2-2A are losing a game. Because that was a five-team division, they all had a built-in bye game in their schedule. Now they have two bye games and all are scrambling for an extra game.
The hard part of this for the coaches is the public schools schedule games every two years and are currently in the middle of that two years, which means there are very few open dates.
On the flip side, with Montgomery County no longer existing, all their opponents lose a football game and that sends those coaches looking for a game.
But here’s the real rub. Tompkins said all of this could have been avoided and was told he just had to put up with it since he got what he wanted by moving up to Class 3A. Tompkins said there were alternatives that made much more sense, such as him swapping schedules with J.Z. George, the smallest 3A school in the state. The only reason they are 3A is an error in counting when they turned in their number to the state and currently have 2A numbers. Tompkins said J.Z. George was willing to make the switch but that got shot down.
It’s obvious there are a lot of moving parts in a story like this.
It’s easy to say that you get what you ask for. But in the end, the people who will suffer the most in this is the kids. Right now, their last home game will be Aug. 31, which means that may have to be their Senior night and homecoming all rolled into one and may have to go on the road for at least seven or eight games.
I just wonder how that’s fair. I’m no genius, but that sounds like punishment to me.
Robbie Robertson is sports editor for The Newton County Appeal. You can e-mail him at rrobertson12811@yahoo.com.
