The postseason for high school athletics across the state looks a little different and it has nothing to do with the pandemic. 

Last year, MSHSAA began implementing what is called the “championship factor,” which replaced the multiplier rule for non-public schools, in addition to adding one or two more classes to each sport. 

In years past, non-public schools submitted their enrollment to MSHSAA, and then it was adjusted with a 1.35 multiplier. For many non-public schools, the multiplier may have pushed them up a classification.

Under the championship factor, the 1.35 multiplier is gone, and a non-public school’s enrollment will be treated the same as a public school’s enrollment. Instead, MSHSAA will look at the performance from the previous six seasons of each non-public school program. Classification is made by sport and gender, so if you have a highly successful football team, but not as successful softball team, the softball team has the ability to play schools closer to their size, while the football team can move up and play more challenging programs.

This season, boys basketball is divided into 6 classes and 8 districts, with 8 teams per district. The boys basketball team is in Class 5 District 3 with Cardinal Ritter, Clayton, De Smet, Gateway, Ladue, Parkway North and Westminster. 

To say this district will be difficult is an understatement. Our district now includes reigning state champion Cardinal Ritter, Class 5 quarterfinalist De Smet and Class 4 runner-up Westminster. Ritter has won back-to-back state championships despite being moved into Class 5 last season due to MSHSAA’s championship multiplier for private schools. 

A few athletes had opinions about the district assignments this year.

“It’s a very hard district and may be the hardest in Missouri,” said Joe Siervo (12). “Just to win 1 game is going to be pretty hard to do considering what we were placed in.”

The boys team has been working hard during the off-season to prepare for the challenging postseason they will face.

“As a team we played in two different summer/fall leagues and played in many tournaments like the Lindenwood Tournament,” said Drew Glassman (12).

The boys have been working hard to be a solid and tough defensive team, while also ensuring their offense works on sharing the ball and playing together, which will benefit them in the postseason.

“We will not change anything about the way we go about things. We are to trying to focus on the process and one day at a time,” said Coach Aaron Mueller. “We want to keep getting better throughout the season so we are playing our best basketball when district time comes around.”

There are many outlooks about the district assignments and some districts being overloaded with powerhouse teams. In the last few years, we’ve only faced 1 or 2 private schools and now, this year, we will face 3 state tournament teams. 

“Our district has 3 of the top teams in the entire state, and several other tough teams on top of that,” said Mueller. “This does not make a lot of sense to me, but there is nothing we can do to control or change it.”

Despite the tough competition they will face, our boys have no doubt they can compete with these teams.

“In the playoffs, I think we are going to be challenged with very good teams and the difficulty of those teams will be based on our seeding but it will be nothing we can’t accomplish,” said Brian Schenberg (12).