“WE WON'T LET THIS PULL US DOWN.” Greencastle head coach Doug Greenlee talks through the semistate change; affects on team, community, schedule moving forward

As with any advancement in the postseason or after any game, the common refrain from coaches is to enjoy the evening and be ready the next day to prepare for the next game.

Greencastle girls’ basketball head coach Doug Greenlee didn’t get the chance to bask in the afterglow of Saturday’s Southmont Regional championship until Sunday morning.

Not long after the win and the pep rally at McAnally Center, Greenlee was informed by the IHSAA that, having advanced to the semistate level, the Tiger Cubs would not be allowed to play at home pursuant to IHSAA policy.

Instead of waking up to find out if Greencastle would be playing in front of what would be a fervent Tiger Cub fan base, Greenlee was relegated to informing his squad that they shouldn’t expect a home date this coming Saturday.

The policy in question is located in the IHSAA’s Administrative Procedures, Policies and Guidelines document, section F-22, IHSAA Policy for Alternative Neutral Sites for Semi-State Contests in IHSAA Basketball Tournament Series, which reads:

The host location of all Tournament Series contests in basketball are determined prior to the beginning of each basketball Tournament Series. In the event a Semi-state team’s assigned location is hosted by the Semi-state team’s School, the location of that Semi-state contest will be reassigned and moved to a neutral site.

The policy was put into place following the 2013-14 school year where Bedford North Lawrence, hosting a semistate for a second-straight year, was accused of racial taunts and racist behavior by Lawrence North according to an article in the Indianapolis Star from July 13, 2014.

Only one school had been affected by the change since its implementation, which was Richmond the following year in boys’ basketball.

The Red Devils were scheduled to host the semistate but were instead sent to Seymour to face Evansville Reitz. The Richmond semistate was instead played at Southport. Southport was also chosen to host a South Semi-State in place of Greencastle.

Greenlee was frustrated by the events that unfolded, less so the rules than the timing of everything that took place.

“My biggest complaint is: Why weren’t we notified about this until 9 p.m. Saturday night?” Greenlee said. “When we were given the opportunity to host a semistate, I said yes right away; I never asked any questions about that scenario and (the IHSAA) didn’t say anything about that scenario.

“I feel like, after we won the sectional, maybe I should have asked about, should we win the regional, would we get to host? But they never reached out. If they had told us on Monday or Tuesday after the sectional that you cannot host, your team cannot play on your home court, fine.”

The info instead came from IHSAA Asisstant Comissioner Janie Ulmer, who first congratulated Greenlee for the regional win before informing him that the team could not play on its home floor in the semistate.

Greenlee added that Ulmer asked if the school wanted to hosted the semistate, which Greenlee declined.

“If we’re not going to play at home, we weren’t going to host the semistate,” Greenlee said. “We already did that the week before with the regional, bent over backwards to get that staffed and my people had to stay back while our team performed and played for the regional championship.

“I don’t feel it’s fair to ask them to do that two weeks in-a-row. The semistate is a lot bigger deal; being asked if we still wanted to host a semistate, to me, was a slap in the face as they already knew the answer to the question.”

Ulmer said she would relay to IHSAA Comissioner Paul Neidig that Greencastle would not host the semistate. Greenlee also called Neidig, expressing his disappointment about the timing of the call.

“This was at the 11th hour,” Greenlee said. “The IHSAA is scrambling, wanting to have their TV show and pairings go smooth.

“In my opinion, they already had Southport lined up. Don’t know if they did, don’t know if they didn’t.”

Perhaps the most frustrating part of all was just a few hours prior, Greenlee was regailing a crowd at McAnally Center at a pep session following the regional win, asking the crowd to make sure everyone came out to support the Tiger Cubs at home.

“I want our community to know that this is a huge disappointment because we’ve talked about this all year,” Greenlee added. “I am sorry that this wasn’t found out sooner.

“It was hard to not get excited, hosting a semistate and winning the regional.”

Greenlee informed Greencastle principal Chad Rodgers that night of the call and the decision to not host the semistate, a decision Rodgers supported. The players were informed the next morning through a groupchat about the decision, wanting to make sure the girls were not surprised by the change, adding that parents should also be informed.

“I started getting a lot of emails and texts from friends about winning the regional and how much fun it will be to play in the semistate at home,” Greenlee noted. “I had to tell 50 people the same story and that spread pretty fast.”

The decision was announced formally at the the start of the IHSAA Girls’ Basketball Semi-State Pairing Show. The 2A South Semi-State was announced as taking place at Shelbyville with the Tiger Cubs drawing No. 1 Forest Park in the opening game at 10 a.m.

Beyond the immediate impact at the school, Greenlee said multiple areas of the community were affected by the decision as well.

“Our local business, fast food, restaurants, gas stations, all those vendors will potentially take a hit; even Wally’s, who run our concession stands, will miss out and that affects our athletic budget as we get a portion of those sales,” Greenlee said. “A lot of people come to these semistates.

“A lot of people won’t be able to travel to get to see us for a variety of reasons. It’s going to affect a lot of people who want to see it.

“It will also affect Putnam County,” Greenlee added. “A lot of people like to come to events at higher levels and support from the county schools that might have come out now won’t.

“This affects the community. This is the first time we would have hosted a girls’ basketball semistate ever. To be playing in it is unique.”

The decision also alters all the original plans Greencastle had begun to make to prepare for the games this weekend with Greenlee noting the start time, distance and decisions about what to do between games are up in the air.

“We will have to travel to Shelbyville to practice and we’re still waiting to hear on that,” Greenlee pointed out. “We’re going to have to get up really early as we play at 10 a.m.; I don’t want to stay in a hotel on Friday night because that’s hard on the kids and gets them out of their routine.

“Getting up 6:30-7 a.m. is also out of routine. Once we win, we’re going to have to stay in hotel rooms in the afternoon to rest up, which is also out of routine and the list goes on and on.

“We won’t let this pull us down,” Greenlee added. “We have to start (Monday) with the prep, much like we did in the Northview Tournament when we faced Parke Heritage.

“We started talking about that days before we played as it’s a big shock to play at that time.”

Greenlee again apologized to the community for the sudden change and said how this affected potential postseason hosting in the future was unknown at this time.

“It has been very confusing for everyone to host a class you’re not participating in,” Greenlee said. “I’ve had people ask me about Indian Creek winning and if we play them next, having to tell them no, even though they played in our gym, because it was a 3A regional, not a 2A regional.

“Moving forward, I would prefer to only host in the classes that we’re in. This lack of communication and common courtesy, not telling us this earlier that this was a possibility.

“We had been telling everyone at the pep session to bring their friends and let’s Pack the Mac; well, no, we’re not playing here,” Greenlee added. “We didn’t know that at the time; we should have been told that way before the 11th hour and that lack of communication will affect things in the future. I don’t know to what extent.

“We are supposed to host a boys’ basketball sectional; we will flip with Southmont between boys’ and girls’ sectionals next year. As far as regional and semistate, those are done year-by-year and those decisions will year-by-year but this will probably affect March 11, 2023.”