By the time, the Cap 6 playoffs tipped off this year, some parents of the girl basketball players looked back on a regular season they considered a disappointment. They complained that playing the boys and girls games on different nights hurt attendance, media coverage and overall support for the girls games.
Parents like Johnny Evans took their concerns to the Cap 6 principals, coaches and athletic directors.
"I would just hope that we would at least consider not to completely eliminate the junior and senior girls from experiencing that varsity experience," he said.
Evans was joined by others like N.C. State Athletic Director Lee Fowler who felt his high school daughter's games lacked the enthusiasm that comes when boys and girls games are played back to back.
Wakefield boys basketball coach Tom Kinkelaar took the other side. He argued to keep girls and boys separate to enable both programs to unify with their junior varsity teams and earn their own support.
"We are separate programs trying to accomplish the same thing. We are not responsible for the others' success," he said.
After hearing both sides, Cap 6 leaders voted 4-2 to make a change, scheduling boys and girls varsity games back on the same nights.
Not only did principals vote to schedule varsity teams together and junior varsity teams together, they took a step further. Teams will alternate start times. On some nights, girls will play first while on other nights, boys will play first. Plus, all Cap 6 games will be played on Tuesdays and Fridays.
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