FALL RIVER — The Massachusetts Interscholatics Athletic Association recently released its football tournament seedings.
It’s official, Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School will be making its first appearance in the playoffs since the 2013 season. That season, the Bengals won a first-round matchup with Upper Cape.
This time around, Diman will be facing a formidable opponent in unbeaten King Philip this coming Friday night in the opening round of the Division 2 playoffs.
And while not pleased with the Bengals opponent, Diman second-year athletic director Bobby Bailey said he’s not going to diminish the accomplishment of the football team.
“We’re building on something here,” he said. “I don’t want our momentum to be knocked down on who we’re playing going in. But there is no secret.”
Bailey stated he had a conversation with Sherry Bryant at the MIAA District 8 meeting on Sept. 20 regarding appeals. According to Bryant, the new alignment is based not only on enrollment but Objective Data and Competitive Equity Modifier. She said alignments are on a two-year cycle and just because an appeal took place, doesn’t necessarily mean a school will be approved. Diman currently has 1,438 students total enrollment.
Bailey also said the according to MIAA executive director Bob Baldwin, Objective Data comes from peers (ADs and principals) in District 8 along with MIAA representatives.
“This means our district leaders could have been part of the decision making of moving us to Division 1 for athletics,” said Bailey, whose fall teams are in Division I. “No one takes into accountability that [our] school has had five ADs in five years. At one point, do we have to accept what it is that things might have got lost in the shuffle. I don’t know, but no one is addressing that either.”
Greater New Bedford head football coach Justin Cruz said its bad for Diman kids and bad for King Philip kids.
“Common sense would say if they missed the appeal, they’re still way out of division,” Cruz said. “I think the Diman kids are tough and they’re going to try their best. I just think they’re going to be outmatched where it is not going to be good football.
“I believe they’re going to go in there tough and Luke [Bahry] will prepare them against all odds. It’s good to make the playoffs. It would have been better to make the playoffs in Division 5 or Division 6.”
Vocational schools stick together
Southeastern AD Dan Tripp said the MIAA goes by enrollment and they have a chance to appeal. However, the schools are only allowed a two-division drop.
Tripp, who is in his 15th year, said he started out in Division 6 in 2022 and appealed the decision to move up to Division 2. He weighed in on Diman’s matchup with King Philip.
“How ridulous is that?,” Tripp said. “It would be equally as ridiculous if we were playing King Philip. It is just not a good situation, it’s not a healthy situation. Unfortunately the only thing the MIAA looks at is student enrollment.”
Tripp said the thing no one wants to look at is the type of student that attends vocational schools.
“People always say we get the cream of the crop,” Tripp said. “We have over 1,600 kids and there’s 1,000 kids applying to get in. I have twin boys that are freshmen and only one was accepted. It’s not like vocational school are manipulating their admission criteria to get kids in because they’re better than anyone else. MIAA thinks that because our schools are big we should have better teams. My response is that is not the case.”
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Tripp said the 1,000 kids that are applying, 800 of them want to make a good living or learn a trade.
“Honestly, I’m going to say 98% of them are ever going to sniff a down of football after high school,” Tripp said. “I can count the number of kids that went on to play any college sports on one hand. They think our kids are the same and they’re not. They’re a different breed of kids. There’s something there that needs to be discussed. Unfortunately, there are variables that are not being considered at the state level.
“I don’t hate the MIAA. Everyone there are nice people and we’re all trying to get our kids in the best situation that we can get them. I just feel there could be deeper conversions about divisional alignments, specifically when it comes to vocational schools.”
Not blowing up schedules for rankings
Longtime athletic director at Montachusett RVT High School, Dave Reid, voiced his opinion on the current alignment. His school has an enrollment of 1,400.
“I think it is good to give state championship their dues but we being a vocational school and the others is that we’re not getting a fair deal,” Reid said. “I’m not blowing up my schedule to play highly competitive teams that’s not even close to us just to get a better power ranking. I like playing the teams in my area like I have been for 50 years.
“Some vocational schools are good. There have been great schools out there. Greater New Bedford being one and a couple others here that have won championships, but so far and in between Voc schools are not running the show for sure. They’ve also got to figure out how to give winning teams some credit even though they are not in your division.”
Bailey, Tripp, Reid and Cruz can all agree that they’re in the same boat when it comes to fairness for vocational schools in the new alignment. Maybe down the road, the MIAA will sit down with the schools and hash out their differences.
Cruz’ Bears made the playoffs in his second season on the sidelines in Division 5.
“Playoff bracket was different back then,” he said. “We played Rockland, which again tough football team and something we went into. But it wasn’t King Philip. Even us going against King Philip, I would not want that to be the matchup.”
“You have to be realistic when it comes to a vocational school,” Bailey said. “Here’s the deal, your best player gets a job tomorrow, he no longer plays.”
Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette sports editor Steven Sanchez can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @Chezsports.
2023-10-31 08:08:24
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