By Juan Carlos Ramirez ’18
THE ROUNDUP

A season is composed of home and away games, but beyond that how does creating a schedule for a certain sport happen?

Athletic Director Mr. Bill Woods said that there are many factors into scheduling for a team sport.

“In fact this year, the scheduling changed from prior years,” Mr. Woods said. “So the focus in prior years used to be scheduling by school’s ability. Now, the scheduling is two parts. It’s scheduling by region and then scheduling by ability a little bit.”

He said that this is for the team sports, but for individual sports, it’s a bit different.

“In the individual sports, like tennis, somebody does the scheduling,” Mr. Woods said. “In fact this year I did the scheduling for two thirds of the state. So, I went through and decided which teams play who and on what day.”

Varsity tennis player Jack Woodrow ’18 said that there is some advantage in playing a home game versus away.

“With tennis, most of the sites are pretty neutral,” Woodrow said. “But it is nice to have the home court advantage because you know how the surface is going to play. Some schools don’t keep up their tennis courts, and there will be dead sport where you will not know.”

He also added that the crowd is not a big factor because there is usually not a huge student section presence, and the parents are the ones who comprise most of the cheering section.

Student Council member Bennett Houck ’18 said that he likes more home games in a season because it makes it easier for the students to support the teams.

“Having more home games permits a bigger student section,” Houck said. “Being able to support with a bigger crowd is normally more helpful for the team. Home games also make it easier for people to be there.”

Mr. Woods said that the decision over home and away games for team sports is based on a two year block.

“Most team sports have something that we call a two-year block,” Mr. Woods said. “That two-year block means that you are going to play a team this year and next year. And then you will switch who is home and who is away. In football, the goal is five home, five away every year. Doesn’t always happen that way. Sometimes you end up six and four depending on the teams that you are going to play.”

If a team wants to travel out of state, that would have to be worked in by the school and would not involve the state, according to Mr. Woods.

“Football is a good example of that,” Mr. Woods said. “So last year we traveled to California. We set that as our game. State has nothing to do with that. That means for next year, we have to set up a game too. We decided next year to play a team that is in state. So we’re are not going to California next year. We are playing another team that went to California last year and doesn’t want to go next year.”

Mr. Woods said that other fall sports are currently being scheduled while football has already been finalized.

He added that the football schedule will play the same teams on the same weeks like last season, with the exception that the previous home and away games will change to away or home for next season.