Tourney adds third referee

For those fans who attend the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament with the intent of badgering the referees, they have another target for the first two days this year.

The Christmas Tournament has gone to three-man officiating crews throughout the four-day event instead of waiting until the semifinal and final rounds.

"Everything in the state is going three-man, so that kind of turns that way, but also it's kind of a way to get some of the younger officials into the flow of the games," tournament director Mitch Wood said. "We have a lot of officials that have been around a long time."

An example is referee Ron Oller, who is working his 17th Christmas Tournament.

"I mean, I'm considered one of the younger officials, and I'm in my early 50s," Oller said, "so we just don't have a lot of younger guys coming up, and it makes it a lot easier for us to get up and down the floor, even though we do it with two-man, also."

In the past, only two referees have been used for the opening two rounds, which put pressure on referees to watch action all over the Show Me Center's expansive playing surface.

"Officials, of course, have been wanting it. It's easier to call three-man than it is two-man," Wood said. "A lot of people don't realize that high school courts are 84 feet and college courts are 94 feet.

"This floor here is really a pro court. It's 104 feet, so it's a little different."

The extra cost for keeping three referees on the court is taken from the tournament's profits, which is split among the schools that participate. Still, the schools approved the change by an overwhelming margin, Wood said.

"It's pretty simple. We have 16 schools, and everybody has a vote," Wood said. "Basically, what happens is we go through there and talk about it, and if everybody decides that's what we want to do, then we'll do that."

Some coaches in the past have been vehement about wanting three officials.

Jackson's Darrin Scott is not one of those who has protested loudly, though he welcomes the change.

"If you're going to have three officials for the final two days, I don't know why you wouldn't have them for all of them," said Scott, who has become one of the elder coaches. "If you have an important game in the first round, first-round games should be just as important as those [final games]."

Chaffee first-year coach Josh Govreau echoed Scott's opinion.

"I think it's better," Govreau said. "I'm not going to say it makes that big of a deal. I mean, I played my whole life with two refs and just recently started doing three refs. Any time you have more eyes out there, I think it's always going to help, so I think it's a good idea.

"The players don't think twice about it. They probably don't even realize there's three of them out there."

Attendance up early

Friday morning's opening session drew 2,078 fans, an increase from the 1,406 that attended the first four games of last year's tournament.

The night attendance of 3,782 made this year's opening day the second-best attended with a total of 5,860. The record on the opening day was 2005, and Friday was only the second opening day to break 5,000 in attendance.

Wood said that attendance is traditionally better when there is an off day in the middle of the tournament like there is this year. No games will be played Sunday.

Ultimately, though, he said the attendance numbers depend more on people's interest in the games than the tournament schedule.

"The matchups -- that's what makes it," Wood said. "It's like this year, with the economy the way it is, people are talking, and I think it's going to hurt us some, but you get the right matchups and you get the right people coming in."

Impressive anthem

Advance cheerleader Jesse Holder got some help from her school's past and present basketball coaches to fulfill her dream of singing the national anthem before a Christmas Tournament game.

The junior, who sings before every Advance home game, said she had been "bugging" her coaches since last year for the opportunity.

Her persistence was rewarded when Oran coach Joe Shoemaker, who coached at Advance last season, and current Hornets coaches Josh Dowdy and James Hamlin successfully joined the Advance cheerleading coach's effort to gain Wood's permission for her to sing.

"Instead of having to try out like people normally do, they just said, 'OK you can sing,'" said a beaming Holder at halftime of Advance's first-round victory over Bell City.

Her performance on the microphone easily drew one of the biggest cheers of the day.