In case you haven’t heard, Andy States will no longer be with SMACsportsnet. Andy was offered a position with Digital Sports to head up the sites coverage of the SMAC. He will still be around the web, just not at this address.

Because of this things will need to change at SMACsportsnet. The most obvious one is I am in the process of upgrading the site for this season and making it more functional in a way that will allow me to update scores and standings a whole lot easier. It would have been nice to be able to do this last year but I just couldn’t take the site down while the season was going.

The format of the site will change as well. With another site out there reporting on games, I hope SMACsportsnet will take on more of a community aspect, where fans of SMAC sports will get together and talk about games, sports, seasons, etc. We have a message board in place for peole to share thoughts and this year I hope we use them.

Finally, with the loss of Andy it means the site has a huge hole in terms of game coverage. So I’m opening game coverage up to the fans. If you are going to a game and want to let the conference know your team won, I am creating a form that will allow you to easily create a recap of that game. Are you a high school student wanting to know what it’s like to be a reporter? Shoot me an e-mail and I will give you that opportunity. We know the SMAC has some of the best athletes around, now it’s time to use the Internet to tell the world.

Is there anything else you’d like to see on the site? Leave a comment below. You don’t have to be a registered user to comment and I’m open to all sorts of ideas.

Keep checking back for the new SMACsportsnet and I know you won’t be disappointed.

By Jim Higgins, SMACsportsnet.com

With championship weekend for the spring behind us, I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank Andy for all of the stuff he has done lately.

It seems the more I have wanted to do, the busier I have gotten in real life - which culminated with me being out of town until Saturday night, long after all of the state championship games and meets were completed. However, Andy went out and covered titles won by SMAC teams in both baseball and softball, and has kept things going while I have been relatively absent over the spring.

Because of this I wanted to publicly thank him for his hard work and let everyone that frequents the site know what he has done here lately.

Thanks Andy.

By Jim Higgins, SMACsportsnet.com

One of the toughest things about not being a sports writer full time anymore has been finding the times to do something I love, cover games.

But as my life changed I thought a great idea to continue doing what I loved would be to start this web site with Andy.

At the beginning of the school year things were pretty positive, we were covering quite a few games and getting lots of help from our readers (as soon as they heard about us). But as the year has gone on I personally have found it tougher to get to games between juggling my work schedule, family life and free time. Rising gas prices haven’t helped either.

It’s at this point that I want to apologize to our readers and the athletes involved in spring sports for our inability to keep up the pace we undertook in the fall. Andy and I wish we could have done more but with just two people, this task eventually got the best of us.

With the playoffs and key games still on the horizon, we are still dedicated to finishing out the season strong, and hopefully things will work in our favor to do so (although the weather seems to be conspiring against us now too).

Beyond the spring though, I cannot tell you what the future holds exactly for SMACsportsnet.com, but I can tell things will have to change if things are to continue.

Because the site isn’t self-supporting yet, there is a chance I may be the only one back this fall. If that happens, the site itself will change its focus to more of a community-based site as opposed to its news emphasis. We will still carry scores and standings in an easy-to-find format but there may not be as many game stories. I have a full contingency plan in place but I don’t want to go into all of the details at this time.

Once again I want to thank everyone out there for your support and for making the site as successful as it has been and I hope to see you again on the site in the future. And as always, if you have any suggestions for us, leave them in the comments section.

By Andy States, SMACsportsnet.com

You know, sometimes things just don’t make sense.

A few years back at a previous job, one of my duties was to put together All-County teams for various sports. The initial instructions were to put together a first and second team, plus any possible honorable mentions. To me, it just didn’t make sense because in a couple counties, in particular, in some sports there were only three participating schools. If a person had to compile two teams plus honorable mentions, you may as well just print all of the team rosters and call them All-County – and what kind of honor is that?

In all fairness, that’s just the way things had always been done. But that didn’t make it right and it certainly didn’t mean that the system couldn’t be improved. And that thought brings me to an always-popular topic this time of year – the playoff draw system.

The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association released its baseball draw on Wednesday. That yearly occurrence has been a sore spot for more than a couple local coaches over the past few years, specific ally in regard to the 3A South Region where the bulk of the SMAC schools compete against several from Prince George’s County.

The SMAC has typically been one of, if not the, best baseball conferences in the state from top to bottom. And while there are still very good P.G. teams, generally the ones that reside in the 3A/2A/1A ranks aren’t on the same level as the SMAC opposition. So, with just the top four seeds determined based on regular season record and the rest randomly seeded, it leaves open the possibility for plenty of hurt feelings when the draw is released.

Two years ago top 3A South seed Northern – that year’s SMAC champs – were rewarded with a brutal draw against SMAC teams. The Patriots reached the regional final but lost to Huntingtown – which proceeded to within an eyelash of the state championship - which benefitted from an easier draw on the other side.  To be fair, Huntingtown was very good, and proved that with a SMAC championship and successful defense of its regional title last year.

For all the complaints different people have voiced through the years, I usually would be of the opinion that it all evens out eventually. Furthermore, if a team is the best they should just go out and prove it on the field. That said, one needs to look no further than this year’s 3A South draw makes is quite clear that it’s time to change the system.

On the top half of the draw with SMAC champion and No. 1 seed La Plata? Well, the Warriors’ phenomenal regular season is rewarded with tough potential opponents in Chopticon, Lackey (last year’s regional runner-up), Great Mills (which handed La Plata one of its two losses) and Huntingtown (two-time defending region champs) – all SMAC teams.

On the other side, all of the region’s P.G. teams – Largo, Potomac, Crossland and Friendly – with Northern and Westlake from SMAC – both of whom finished in the bottom half of the SMAC standings but would have to be favored to reach the regional final from that half of the bracket. Nothing against those two programs, as both have been extremely competitive through the years. But this isn’t how a tournament is supposed to work. What would happen if the NCAA loaded all the best teams into the top halves of its brackets for the men’s basketball tournament? The madness it loves to market in March would end real quick, that’s what.

In a playoff format where every team gets into the field, there can be nothing more accurate than a team’s record in determining who should be seeded where. Sure, some schools play in stronger conferences, but nothing can be done about that. Seeding by record is still infinitely better than taking chances with a random draw, which has proven time and again in the 3A South to be a less-than-acceptable option.

I’ve heard it argued several times over the years that seeding by record isn’t fair because the lesser teams have nothing to play for if they’re forced to go against teams that are just simply better. I have a couple of thoughts and one illustration on that.

 First, is it only important to be fair to the lesser teams? Because in being ‘fair’ to them by those standards, you’re being unfair to the teams that worked hard to get in position for a top seed. And actually, what is more ‘fair’ than seeding teams in exactly the manner their records would warrant.

Second, life isn’t always fair and, fair or not, that’s something we all have to learn to understand at some point. At its basic level, high school sports should play a role in the complete education and growth in a student.  We don’t all get trophies, and I think most of the kids are smart and mature enough to understand that. It’s baseball (or any other sport). The idea is to compete – one team wins and the other loses.

The other variable in the equation is the fact that some of the lesser teams are actually quite ready for their seasons to end. Back in the spring of 2003, I was covering a lacrosse game, a regular-season finale, between two teams that I’ll refer to as Team A and Team B. Neither team was really a contender in conference or beyond. During the game another coach (of Team C) came to the game and sauntered over to where I was conversing with a colleague.

Team C’s coach went on to tell us that he had come down to inform Team A’s coach that word had filtered through to him through his players (those of Team C, who were county rivals and friends of those on Team A) that many of the players on Team A planned on tanking their first playoff game to get it done with and reclaim their after-school lives with the summer fast approaching. They figured they were going to lose, anyway, so why not expedite it and have the weekend free?

An isolated incident, certainly, but while one would hope those types of things don’t often go on who’s to say they definitely don’t? The bottom line is if a team doesn’t have a great chance of winning, that doesn’t change whether they play the region’s best team or a mediocre team in the first round.

There are a couple of easy solutions to the seeding mess. One, just do the sensible thing and seed everyone according to record. If you don’t do that then you may as well do everything randomly across the board. Get rid of the top four seeds. Stop seeding football playoff teams based on their point average, do that randomly, too. Don’t seed wrestlers for the state tournament based on their regional tournament performances, just throw all 16 names in a hat for each weight class and randomly pick them.

Why does the top seed in say, the 135-pound weight class, wrestle a No. 4 seed (the lowest numbered seed for the non-wrestling folks) in the first-round of the state tournament? Because that’s what they earned when they won a regional championship.

The other solution, and this may not be popular, is to abolish this open format where every school gets into the playoffs. Change the system so teams have to qualify for the postseason, as they do in football and dual wrestling. I would propose knocking the regional fields down to no more than six. You’d risk losing Cinderella runs like the 2003 Patuxent Panthers or last year’s Thomas Stone Cougars – both teams that suffered through mediocre regular seasons in an excellent conference but caught fire in the playoffs – but you’d maintain the integrity of the regular season. Surely the regular season has to count for something, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it?

It’s high time to improve the system. What better time than now?

By Andy States, SMACsportsnet.com

Following a comeback win over La Plata on Feb. 21, Ray Briscoe of Great Mills offered a simple explanation for the turnaround in his team’s season.

“Teamwork,” he said after the team’s 57-55 win at La Plata. “We weren’t playing as a team at first. It was one-on-one game. Then we kicked into gear and played as a team. We started going from there.”

The Hornets had opened the year losers of 7 of their first 12 games, but had won eight in a row with the La Plata win. The streak eventually ended at nine, as Great Mills lost, but by just one point, to SMAC champs Lackey on Tuesdsay night.

As I look at the conference’s boys basketball teams at the dawn of this postseason, I’m not convinced that, individually, the players are on as high a talent level as they’ve been over the past few years. But I do think the teams this year are as good as they’ve been, and that this could well be the year a conference team breaks through to earn a little respect for what’s been a much-maligned basketball conference.

There’s no doubt SMAC has been amongst the state’s top conference’s in sports like softball, baseball, volleyball, wrestling and even football. But basketball has been a different story. Thirty-six years have passed since Thomas Stone’s boys won a state championship. Two years ago Lackey was a half away from breaking the string. T.J. Carter and Chopticon reached the finals in ‘03, but neither was able to put SMAC back on the map. It will be a couple weeks before we know if this is the year, but I think the chance this year is as good as it’s been.

Though tested in the regular-season finale by Great Mills, Lackey’s won 13 in a row and basically run roughshod over just about everybody during that stretch. There are quite a few parallels to the Lackey team that reached the ‘06 final, in that the team enters the postseason on a hot streak and looking like it can play with anyone. The Chargers’ draw in the 3A South looks rather favorable, as well, with all of the region’s Prince George’s County teams on the other half of the draw with No. 2 seed Huntingtown.

Huntingtown’s lost a bit of steam recently, with a couple of losses in the last week, but gave opposing teams fits all season.

In the 4A East, Stone again looks to conquer a region it hasn’t quite been able to escape over the past four years - three of which have seen the Cougars go down a game short of states in the regional final. As the No. 2 seed this year, Stone will first get a chance to avenge one of their season-ending losses from the past two seasons against the winner of the North County/Glen Burnie first-round game. Then most likely third-seeded Arundel, which along with Old Mill, Broadneck and Severna Park look to be the most challenging potential opponents. But only Arundel is on Stone’s side of the bracket, and a potential semifinal encounter would be played at Stone.

In short, after years of knocking at the regional door this well could be the year the Cougars knock it down.

It’s hard to go against Gwynn Park in the 2A South. The Yellow Jackets lost their unbeaten record in their last game against Laurel, which should give them plenty of motivation entering the playoffs. They would have been a tough out, regardless.

McDonough would look to be the SMAC team most capable of pulling the upset. The Rams won some big games on the road this year, including at River Hill - a potential quarterfinal opponent - and against Broadneck. They even were the last team to beat Lackey. The Rams limped down the stretch, though, and were upset by fellow 2A South competitor North Point on Tuesday.

Clearly, McDonough and North Point have their work cut out for them if either is to make a shocking run to the state semifinals.

 I tell you what, though, while basketball success on a state level hasn’t exactly been habit in SMAC, I think this could be the year. In fact, I’d be almost surprised if when March 15 comes around a SMAC program has a state-championship trophy in its possession.

By Jim Higgins, SMACsportsnet.com

Despite the fact there are still games to play and there is still a conference title to contend for, the girls basketball teams from the conference just found out how tough it will be to capture a state title this year.

With conference front runners Great Mills earning a No. 1 seed in the 3A South region, Lackey picking up a No. 3 seed in the same region and North Point also earning a No. 3 seed in the 2A South region, it seems possible to once again have at least one team compete for a region title and the right to play in the state tournament.

The Hornets seem the obvious choice as they not only have remained undefeated this season (heading into a crucial matchup with Lackey on Tuesday), but they have earned a first round bye and would not conceivably face an unwinnable matchup until the regional final. And if seeding holds true, they would get a chance to get revenge on No. 2 Largo, which beat Great Mills in the region final last season.

Lackey would face a similar path to Great Mills early on before having to face Largo in the semifinals. A win over the Lions would probably then give the Chargers another shot at Great Mills. It would be a tougher road, but one that could very well prepare Lackey for what it would face in the state tournament.

I think the surprise candidate to make the state tournament from the SMAC is first year contender North Point. The Eagles have already climbed to the top of the standings this year and while they have struggled against a couple of SMAC schools, being in the 2A South they would avoid most of the teams they have lost to this season. However, the 2A South is filled with challenges of its own, with a 16-5 River Hill team, an undefeated Mt. Hebron team and a 20-2 Gwynn Park team potentially on the docket.

Now I realize I have failed to mention many other teams that, with a little luck could create some havoc in their respective tournaments, the one thing I do feel is that we will see one team reach the state tournament.

This is what March is all about, whether it be high school or college. The excitement of a tournament and the realization that anything could happen, makes this time of year the best.

The only thing could make it better? A state title brought back to Southern Maryland.

Ok, I know we just ran a poll for most of the winter asking what you would like to see added or improved upon on the site but now I want specifics! We have been busy at SMACsportsnet.com trying to establish ourselves as another provider of high school sports content in Southern Maryland but now it’s your turn.

Unlike our message boards, anyone registered or not can comment on this blog post. What we want you to tell us is what you want to see more of. We know everyone wants to see more game coverage but what else are you looking for when you come to this site that you’re not finding? Our goal is to be your one-stop shop for anything related to the conference, so let us know what will get us there.

By Andy States
SMACsportsnet.com 

Well, the road to the football playoffs this year was sure a windy road, wasn’t it?

That’s generally a lot more fun, but it’s supposed to happen on the field. It isn’t as much fun when forfeits by multiple teams change the scenarios every day - all the way up to a few hours ago, once you figure all that is done with, when Lackey dropped three via the forfeit and lost out on the 3A South top seed as well as the share of the SMAC championship that the team earned. 

But then that was the season. You never know exactly what you’re going to get - especially when you think you have it all figured out. Regardless, the six SMAC teams qualified for the playoffs kick off about 17 hours from now, as I write, so we’ll move right to the point of the games. No crazy predictions coming here, just my thoughts on the four games - and, man, I wish I could be at more than one.

Friendly’s forfeits opened up a spot in the 3A South field to initially let Chopticon in with the No. 4 seed before the Lackey stuff came out. Now, Lackey on the field has been hot, of late, and there’s no reason to expect any different on Friday night. But Chopticon is certainly a deserving member of the field, too. The first time the teams played, a 14-7 Lackey win, Braves turned the ball over six times and ran out of time in a late comeback bid. 

I think Round 2 is going to be a better game. Chopticon turned the ball over six times in the first game and still hung in there. I can’t see them giving the ball away that much again. Lackey played the bulk of that game without Michael Johnson, and will obviously be more effective with him in the lineup. I’m thinking a slim Lackey win, no larger than the first game’s margin, but wouldn’t be at all surprised with an upset.

In Waldorf, I just think Westlake is going to have too much down the stretch for Huntingtown. Huntingtown had a great season in moving into the upper tier of the conference and was right with Patuxent for a half and hung around with McDonough. I think they’ll hang with Westlake for a half, too, but won’t be able to keep up down the stretch.

I just hope if Westlake wins that everybody gives the ‘Westlake can’t win in the playoffs’ garbage a rest - permanently, actually.

The 2A slate I wish I had more on. In years past by this point I’d already seen all of the state contenders in person. This year I wasn’t blessed with the time to get out and see them all. But I did cover the Patuxent/Douglass game a year ago, and I wouldn’t expect anything less than another great chapter down in Lusby tonight. It should be the Panthers’ stiffest test of the season to date, and I like them to take the Eagles for the second year in a row in another close one, though without the drama of last year.

And finally, we’ll all know a little more about River Hill. Obviously they’re good - you don’t put up the numbers they have and allow just two touchdowns all season without being good. But with McDonough going up there it will really provide a gauge for the rest of us to look at. So, again without having had the luxury of seeing the Hawks in person, I’ll take them to win but I think the Rams will at the very least hang with them into the fourth quarter.

Enjoy the games everybody, and I’ll see you right back here next week.

By Andy States
SMACsportsnet.com

Two weeks ago it was Chopticon beating Potomac in triple overtime. Last week it was Lackey over Chopticon by a touchdown. This week? Hard to know for sure but there certainly isn’t a week that doesn’t have a direct impact on the playoff races.

With four weeks to go Lackey, Chopticon, Huntingtown and La Plata figure to be vying for the final two 3A South playoff spots behind Friendly and Westlake. Lackey, at 4-2 and on a four-game winning streak after the win over Chopticon, probably won’t be tested until meeting Westlake in Week 9. If you go with the odds and figure the Chargers would be 6-3 going into the final week, they’d probably need a win over a dangerous La Plata squad in the final week to secure a spot in the postseason.

And La Plata … it really seemed no one wanted to take them seriously. Last week probably changed that. At 4-2 and with playoff contenders on the schedule every week the rest of the way, making the postseason may not be realistic. But then people have to stop looking at last year’s 0-10 record and assuming the team stinks. They were better than that then, and obviously they’re better than that now. A few plays go the other way early last season and who knows what happens. One thing I do know is that this past summer no one would have dismissed them as nothing before the first play from scrimmage.

But playoffs or not, this year La Plata has a definite say in who makes the field. At Huntingtown, which otherwise seems to have a relatively clear path to at least a seven-win season and a probable berth, next week. At McDonough on Nov. 2 against a Rams team that needs to win out to have any chance at making the 2A South field. And then against Lackey in the finale. So now, how many of you would have thought the road to the playoffs would go through La Plata?

Chopticon emerged victorious in dramatic fashion against Potomac two weeks ago, and then had the pleasure of spending the next three weeks against SMAC powers Lackey, Patuxent and Westlake in succession. The loss to Lackey in the books, the Braves need to pull an upset one of the next two weeks to keep themselves in the mix.

The beautiful thing is watching it all unfold week-by-week. By the end of the week, with a couple of teams’ chances likely downgraded, the scenarios should be clearer.

Or maybe it will be a jumbled mess, but then that’s more fun to look at, anyway.

If you have it figured out get on the forum and let Jim know what you think (he’s always looking for an edge when he tries to pick winners).

Enjoy this week’s games.

Hello all and welcome to the official blog of SMACsportsnet.com. Here you will find our opinions on what’s going on in the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference.

We have started this blog so that our opinions can be clearly separated from the news of the conference. So check back here often to get our take on what’s going on in the conference.