SACCO: Time for the others to join the fun

Even if fans of Southern Valley DoesStink basketball woke up Monday morning with their heads sewn to the carpet, they would have been more surprised to hear the good news out of Waynesboro’s Athletic Office.

Finally, two of the schools in this supposed “big-boy, no-we’re-not-Podunk” Group AA district got it right after two years of waiting — tonight and again on Jan. 16, Stuarts Draft and Waynesboro will be playing varsity doubleheaders.

Wow. Hide the children. Finally, someone got progressive. Someone led the way after those little country guys and gals in the Shenandoah paved the road. Good on Waynesboro Athletic Director Mel Morris and good on his counterpart at Draft, Steve Hartley.

We’ve been waiting, sitting in the stands listening to fans grumble about why they had to choose between watching the boys play or the girls. Don’t get us started on parents who had two kids playing — one on the girls team and the other on the boys squad. (And let us put “fans grumble” into terms some of the mouth-breathers at Fort Defiance football games would understand – these fans were “grumbling” about these wonks’ inability to schedule, not because their little Snowflake wasn’t getting enough playing time. OK? Get it? Good, let’s move on.)

From the get-go, the district’s hard-line tactic of same night, different site was one that could have been done better. Yet, for two years, they refused to budge.

Heck, even those little down home country schools in the Shenandoah could get it right. But, alas, bigger gyms, bigger student population and bigger classification never means bigger brains. So the Shenandoah District had all the fun while the Southern Valley watched and did, wait for it, wait for it, nothing.

Then came Monday’s e-mail from Waynesboro announcing the scheduling change. And, with it, hopefully a trend will be set. Morris and Hartley deserve all the credit in the world on this one. Shake their hands next time you see them. Say good job.

Then tell them to take a trip to the other three district schools so they can wake up their ADs to the way high school sports should be. Yes, throw Rockbridge in the mix because in a five-team district they’re all rivals and it’s not like a doubleheader trip to Rockbridge requires four potty-break stops and two Red Bull runs.

Yes, questions do remain.

What’s it going to take for all the Southern Valley schools to jump on this bus that Hartley and Morris have so graciously warmed up for the fans?

Why weren’t Tuesday night’s R.E. Lee and Waynesboro games done in this fashion? One of the more storied basketball rivalries in the Valley should have been the one to usher in this new era of “smarts” in the Southern Valley. By the lack of crowd in the Staunton gym for the boys game Tuesday, it appears the fans need some sort of kick in the rear to get back out and support the players. (Can’t blame the fans, though, especially if your last name at Lee is Mickens or Scott since, well, your have a son and daughter playing.)

What better way than to give them what they want?

Hartley and Morris did it the right way as well. When legendary R.E. Lee boys coach Paul Hatcher said last season he wouldn’t mind big-game doubleheaders (you know, like how last season’s meeting No. 2 between both R.E. Lee and Waynesboro boys and girls teams were for district titles), the alpha and omega of Valley basketball did have one concern. Hatcher didn’t want to miss watching his JV players.

Slyly, Hartley and Morris scheduled the JV games as doubleheaders as well, but on the night before the varsity contests.

Now there’s no more excuses. No more administrative handwringing. No reason for the DoesStink to say “no” anymore.

The Shenandoah did it right from the start. Now Hartley and Morris have set the Southern Valley’s table. We’re only missing three things.

Paging Fort Defiance, R.E. Lee and Rockbridge.