Varsity girls, boys basketball will play doubleheaders

Posted Nov 4, 2009 by Nick Williams

Updated Nov 4, 2009 at 10:50 AM

Hillsborough County athletic director Lanness Robinson confirmed Wednesday boys and girls varsity basketball will play doubleheaders this season.

“Now we’ll have a less number of events,” Robinson said.

Robinson said the decision is a result of moving all junior varsity basketball games to Saturdays because some schools could not field JV teams. In July, however, Robinson said the county would have the “same identical program as the last year” with the exception of junior varsity basketball.

“I think we had seven schools that didn’t have JV girls basketball last year,” Robinson said.

Robinson said it was not a financial-based decision, but in March, he told the Tribune he was preparing a plan to save the department money in anticipation of mandatory cutbacks that included possible doubleheaders or shorter schedules.

“It may help the gate,” he said. “There’s a question mark there.”

Robinson said three JV teams will play a best-of-three format on Saturdays.

“This guarantees (JV) will play all of their games,” he said.

When he first learned of Robinson’s plans to schedule doubleheaders in March, Plant High boys varsity basketball coach Mike Phillips welcomed the proposal that girls and boys teams play doubleheaders at home gyms, with girls games beginning at 6:15 p.m., followed by the boys games.

“I’m fine with that,” Phillips said. “We can put twice as many people in the stands.”