Xavier/Dowling
- Thread starter LukeFeddersen
- Start date
Why couldn't they make it up today like all the other games that got postponed? Strange. Feel bad for the kids as I'm sure they would love to play the games.
Dowling didn't want to make another trip to Cedar Rapids, according to the Xavier Saints Twitter feed and I suspect Xavier didn't want to go to Des Moines today.
Why would anyone expect Xavier go to Des Moines at all? The Saints were at Dowling (well, Valley, but you know) last year.
This was a product of district play where 1) non-district games don't mean a thing as far as playoffs go, and 2) you had teams matched up from 100 miles apart. With the lightning lasting well past 10 pm, they could not have gotten this game finished before midnight, with Dowling facing a 2-hour drive back home. When the choice came down to playing until the wee hours to get the game in; making Dowling drive home then back to CR the next day for the rescheduled game; or just canceling it entirely, well ... why not cancel? The game doesn't mean anything for district purposes.
If someone had been thinking outside the box, maybe they could have tried to get a field in Newton or Marshalltown or someplace for Saturday, to kind of split the difference. But again, a lot of work and coordination and travel, with no impact on the standings.
This was a product of district play where 1) non-district games don't mean a thing as far as playoffs go, and 2) you had teams matched up from 100 miles apart. With the lightning lasting well past 10 pm, they could not have gotten this game finished before midnight, with Dowling facing a 2-hour drive back home. When the choice came down to playing until the wee hours to get the game in; making Dowling drive home then back to CR the next day for the rescheduled game; or just canceling it entirely, well ... why not cancel? The game doesn't mean anything for district purposes.
If someone had been thinking outside the box, maybe they could have tried to get a field in Newton or Marshalltown or someplace for Saturday, to kind of split the difference. But again, a lot of work and coordination and travel, with no impact on the standings.
Oh, yeah, I wish they would have figured out a way to play. It just didn't make a lot of sense logistically, and that's an unintended consequence of how district play works.
I think there's something in the IAHSAA regulations that mandates the completion of suspended/postponed games. However, the only "penalty" for not doing that is the potential losing of playoff points. Well, we're not using the point system anymore, so there basically isn't any consequence for simply not making up a postponed nondistrict game.
I think there's something in the IAHSAA regulations that mandates the completion of suspended/postponed games. However, the only "penalty" for not doing that is the potential losing of playoff points. Well, we're not using the point system anymore, so there basically isn't any consequence for simply not making up a postponed nondistrict game.
I guarantee you if it did matter for playoff points, Dowling and Xavier would have postponed the game early and planned on a Saturday night tilt.
Nobody would expect CRX to go to Des Moines but it's a prudent question on Dowling's part, if it was even asked, to see how bad Xavier wanted to play the game. If I'm the coach, I throw it out there just to see if the bait gets taken. That's why.
I thought Grinnell would make a good spot, too. Just over an hour from CR and just under an hour from DSM. Any crowd would be sparse at a neutral site anyway, so stadium size wouldn't likely matter much.
At any rate, it ain't gettin' played so everything's moot at this point.
Both being parochial schools the game could have been played on Sunday, I know after 911 Dowling and Heelan played on Sunday
The other twist on this might be if both teams go on to win their respective class titles, this will be forever the game people wish had been played.
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