Pound for pound, there may not be a better team in Western Mass. high school basketball right now than the Frontier Red Hawks.
In case you haven't been paying attention, the Frontier Regional School contingent has been mowing down pretty much everyone in their path, with the exception of Mohawk, which handed the Red Hawks their first loss of the season two weeks ago. Led by the outside shooting of Jamie Bell, the back-court command of Gary Grandonico, and the almost unstoppable inside presence of Brian and Dan Clark, Frontier should be a lock to win a Western Mass. Division III championship.
Except that they probably won't, not because they aren't good enough, but because of Massachusetts' dysfunctional education system.
In 1993, the commonwealth passed "education reform," part of which included establishment of a system which uses a formula to assign a state aid dollar figure to each student. That student could then leave his hometown schools for other districts, with his allotment of state aid following him. The program was called "school choice," and the hope was that it would force school districts to compete against one another, thereby creating a better educational environment for everyone.
That was the hope. The reality has been somewhat different.
The fact is that school choice has created a financial and logistical nightmare for conventional public schools, which now have more mandates and less money. Some of that cash has gone to "charter schools," institutions with specialized curricula and a finite number of students.
The impact of charter schools has been felt not only in the classroom, but also on the basketball court—which brings us back to the jackpot facing Frontier.
The current system now splits Massachusetts high schools into divisions determined by individual school populations. The largest schools are placed in Division I, the intermediate schools in Division II, and the smallest schools in Division III. Historically, Division I sports have the most advanced level of play because they have a larger student base from which to draw, while the smaller II and III schools compete at a more intermediate level.
The addition of charter schools has effectively turned the entire system on its ear, especially at tournament time, where, almost since its establishment, the D-III tournament has been dominated by either the Sabis International or the New Leadership charter schools. Both are in Springfield and feature players who, were they not at those schools, would probably be playing at one of the many D-I schools in that city—a fact that Frontier coach Marty Sanderson pointed out the first time Sabis knocked Frontier out in the D-III finals.
"I got accused of being a racist when I questioned it then, but it's not about that," Sanderson said. "It's not just charter schools. It's also Catholic, Christian and vocational, or pretty much any school that's independent from a conventional school district. They ought to be in their own division."
Sabis and New Leadership are part of the D-III field because they come from schools with small populations, even though, as Sanderson points out, they can choose from a talent pool of about 3,000 kids, while Frontier has 200 from which to field a team, which doesn't exactly create a fair competitive situation.
"It's completely unfair, and it's a big reason why we've been beaten four of the last five years in the tournament by an independent school," Sanderson said.
It's possible that loss number five won't happen this year, especially if Frontier continues to play at the level they are now. But it's unfortunate that a team that's on this kind of roll even has to deal with this kind of technicality, although Sanderson is refusing to dwell on it.
"I've already told my kids not to think or bellyache, because there's nothing we can do about it until the M.I.A.A. decides to change the rules," Sanderson added. "All we can do is work hard and get ready for the tournament and hope for the best."
And in the process, maybe go down as the best team not to win a Western Mass. championship.
