AHSAA basketball regionals move from Troy to Mobile

The road to a state basketball championship just got a lot longer for Wiregrass teams.

Tuesday night, the Alabama High School Athletic Association announced that it was moving the South Regional from Troy’s Trojan Arena, where it had been since the mid-1990s, to South Alabama’s Mitchell Center in Mobile.

The Press-Register in Mobile said that contract will run through 2012. AHSAA executive director Steve Savarese said travel was the main reason for the change. Two years ago, the AHSAA moved a regional from Mobile to Montgomery.

The last two years had some schools from Mobile going to the regional in Troy and others to Montgomery.

“No matter where we have it,” Savarese told the Press-Register, “there will be a travel issue. Now, we make travel an issue for southeast Alabama.”

That issue drew the ire from Wiregrass coaches, who were not pleased with the move.

Geneva boys coach Michael Crews has taken his team there three of the last four years.

“That stinks,” Crews said. “It’s a disappointment for teams in the southeast. It’s been convenient for all of us to get to Troy and several teams have had success there.”

Last year, Barbour County won the Class 2A boys state title, and Abbeville went to the Class 3A boys Final Four in Birmingham. The Barbour County girls and the Andalusia boys and girls also advanced.

Abbeville boys and girls coach Moses Knight, who regularly has both teams playing in the regionals, also wasn’t happy with the move.

“I wish it would stay at Troy,” Knight said. “We’d have to make arrangements to leave the night before (a game), if not earlier. We do pretty good here with our budget, but it causes a lot of inconvenience.”

Crews estimated the cost of travel was a dollar per mile, and a trip to Troy is roughly $120. It’s just less than 170 miles to Mobile from Geneva, which is one of the closer Wiregrass schools to Mobile.

Google maps lists Eufaula, another regular regional contender, as 234 miles from Mobile, but the first half of that trip is through two-lane back roads.

“It doesn’t help financially,” Crews said. “It’s supposed to be a reward to go to a regional, but if you’re spending at least $1,000, with hotels and all, is it really a reward?”

Troy head coach Don Maestri has had to adjust his practice schedule during the week of the regional, either practicing early in the morning or at the school’s recreation center, but said it was never a problem.

He’ll be sad to see the regional leave Troy.

“It’s been good for kids to come see our campus,” Maestri said. “Not only players, but parents, support people, cheerleaders and students to be exposed to Troy University.”

Maestri would like to see the AHSAA move the regional back to Troy in 2012. By then, he anticipates Troy’s new arena being built.

The target date is the 2011-12 season.

“I don’t think that’s out of the question,” Maestri said. “Everybody’s pushing for it to get done on the fast track, as long as it’s done right and first-class.”