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ICGSA girls basketball poll Revealing the mystery and history of the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association weekly poll Each Tuesday morning, every girls basketball faithful runs to the front porch for the morning edition of the newspaper, scans blocks of miniscule print (which even Jiminy Crickett needs specs to read), and quickly runs down the latest coaches poll to see if their hometown team has finally cracked the state's top ten. You either do a small victory dance in your PJs -- to the bewilderment of your neighbor across the street -- or trudge back inside for a cup of coffee, cursing the pollsters under your breath. Just how the heck are these teams picked anyway? Well, before you get your PJ bottoms in a bunch when the first voters' poll is released on November 15, maybe a bit of knowledge about the process behind the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association (ICGSA) poll and its history will help you appreciate the poll itself and understand the process behind it. Long time in coming According to Portage coach Reneé Turpa, who has been a District 1 Representative for the ICGSA and the Indiana Coaches Basketball Association for the past seven years, there really is no mystery behind the poll. The poll is formulated by a highly-structured process with input from coaches all around the state. It does, however, have a storied past that had its beginnings with a single individual. From an historical perspective of girls basketball in Indiana, the girls poll has been around nearly as long as the girls game has been officially recognized by the IHSAA. The first girls poll appeared during the 1977-78 season, just two years after girls basketball became an IHSAA-sanctioned sport. It was not sponsored by the ICGSA at that time, but was conducted, financially supported and promoted by girls equity warrior, Jan Conner, of Martinsville. At the time, Conner was the coach at Benton Central, where she had developed a winning program and was looking to promote the girls game in the media. The struggle to get statewide media recognition for the girls side of the game and the poll itself was monumental. "I paid for the poll out of my own pocket for five years. It was worth it, because it took me three years of calling Associated Press every week and being told that girls basketball wasn't big enough -- until finally they called me and asked for it." Conner
relinquished her management of the poll to the ICGSA in 1982-83, but
ICGSA sponsorship of the poll did not come
easily. In a state where boys basketball
was king, The original ICGSA poll format was different from that which is currently in use. The first polls mirrored the one-class state tournament in place at the time, grouping all school teams together and ranking the top 20 teams in the state, regardless of school size. That format continued for 14 years through the 1996-97 season. Then in 1997-98, the IHSAA implemented the hotly debated four-class system in Indiana. Even though the IBCA boys poll retained the one-class format, the ICGSA opted to rank teams according to class, as it was already doing in other girls sports. The result is actually four separate ICGSA girls basketball sub-polls, in which the state's best teams are ranked from one through ten in their respective classes. The "mysterious" process So, how does the voting process work, and who gets to work it? According to Turpa, there are five voting districts within the state. Generally speaking, the districts represent the northwest, northeast, central, southwest and southeast portions of the state. Each district has three poll raters per class, accounting for 15 separate raters across the state for each class. That also means that each district has 12 raters total -- three raters for each of the four classes. The grand result is 60 raters across the state for all four classes combined. Each coach that is a district poll rater may only rate the teams within his or her own class. Class 4A coaches may only rate 4A teams, 3A coaches 3A teams, etc. This is done to give legitimacy to the rankings, as these coaches will have a better base of knowledge upon which to make rating judgments. Teams
receive points based upon rank by each rater, with each rater's No. 1
team receiving 10 points, the No. 2 team receiving 9 points, and so
on. Raters can rank any and all teams within the state for their
class which they feel meet their top ten criteria, not just the teams in
their district. When looking at teams, raters will use a variety
of criteria, such as examining each team's previous week's ranking,
previous first place votes, win-loss records, strength of opponents,
margins of victory, player injuries, trends of improvement or suspected
slumps, and any other indicators they feel are Once completed, raters submit their ratings to their district poll chair. There are four chairs in each district -- one for each class. The chairs then group their own ratings with the ratings from the other two coaches for their class within the district, and fax the combined tally on Sunday evening for state-wide counting by Garry Donna (of Hoosier Basketball Magazine) on behalf of the ICGSA. Points are tallied from the five districts, teams are ranked, and then the poll is released by Donna the following Monday morning for media publication. District 1 voting District
1 in Northwest Indiana has a solid rating system in place, with
respected coaches giving up valuable time to participate in the ICGSA
poll. The area covered by District 1 stretches eastward to (but
not including) South Bend, and southward to (and including)
Lafayette.
Raters are selected by District Representatives, such as Turpa, and must be members of both the ICGSA and the IBCA in order to vote. "I personally ask coaches in each class who would be most respected and most reliable," explains Turpa. "Once I have a poll rater that is good, I always ask them back the following year." A media poll in the future? Those of us who follow both girls and boys basketball know that the Associated Press puts out its own media poll for boys basketball, but not one for girls. There has been no indication that the AP will be putting out a media poll for the girls anytime soon. A few telltale signs point toward the probability that the majority of sports writers in Indiana do not follow statewide girls basketball closely, and until they do, an AP girls poll may be too far off the mark to gain legitimate respect. But as readers demand additional coverage, more and more writers are becoming knowledgeable about the girls game, not just within their own regions of coverage, but statewide. The growing demand for coverage will hopefully bring about an eventual AP poll for the girls, who are continuing to gain respect each successive season from the mainstream sports media. An
AP poll itself has not been at the forefront of ICGSA discussions over
the past few years, as the overriding issue of class basketball has
taken precedence. The AP did put out All-State player honors at the end of last season, but they were met with some controversy from both coaches and knowledgeable fans due to the omission of several highly-regarded players statewide. Typically, the omitted players had produced outstanding season-long efforts, but were on teams which did not go far into the tournament. Having an unusually good performance in the post-season also gave several players elevated All-State status by the AP. This was an indication that a number of the sportswriters based their votes upon tournament coverage only, and were not aware of the season-long and/or career performances of these players. According to Turpa, the ICGSA puts out its own All-State honors at the end of the season, but understanding the AP issue, "the ICGSA is trying to get its All-State votes to count toward the AP vote." What it all means Just what part does the girls poll play in the grand scheme of things? That is probably a point for debate all by itself. Although most coaches will tell you that the polls mean absolutely nothing -- especially if their teams aren't on them -- they realize that the season polls do play a limited, but important, part in the livelihood of Indiana girls basketball. Polls, from a team perspective, can be a blessing or a curse, depending upon whether or not your team is underrated or overrated. Coaches will frequently use the weekly polls on the locker room bulletin board as a motivator, but cringe when their team is getting unproven respect with a top ten ranking. Teams can become complacent when players think they're as good as the pollsters make them out to be. (Ask any coach who has had to endure the time-honored "OVER-rated" in the closing minutes of an unexpected defeat.) Whether blessing or curse, however, coaches know that the girls basketball poll is a vital component to the overall health of the girls game in Indiana. It gets fans talking and interested, and it also gets the media out to the games when two highly-ranked opponents are facing off for respect. Of course, the ultimate experience tied to the polls is for an unranked team to knock off the favorite in an underdog upset that no one ever expected. And that's what keeps the fans coming back game after game. All in all, the polling process and team evaluations seem to be well thought out by the ICGSA, although it won't ever be without its critics. Even with the rating process explained, not everyone will ever wholly agree with the coaches poll. After all, it is still a highly-subjective process. When it comes right down to it, the rankings are an excellent way to promote the girls game and make regional comparisons. But, the proof in the pudding will always be head-to-head competition in the post-season to determine who really is No. 1. For us basketballaholics, though, it sure is fun following the polls to debate who that will be... (The ICGSA poll can be found on-line regularly at the IBCA's official website, on the Region Roundball Review Rankings & Statistics page, or at the Indianapolis Star.) © 1999 REGION ROUNDBALL REVIEW - This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without prior permission.
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members
of the ICGSA fought long and hard to get approval for an official girls poll
under the umbrella of the IBCA. Finally after years of discussion and debate, the
ICGSA
received the green light to sponsor the poll. 
significant
for evaluation. For teams that raters have not yet seen play, they
will tap their personal network of coaches around the state for input.
According to Turpa, "We fought so
hard just to get a poll at all that we were fairly happy with that, but
I know things must change. We have been so tied up for the past
three years with the class issue that the (AP) poll was something we
never discussed."