This year's high school basketball postseason was such a whirlwind Warsaw never got a chance to celebrate its sectional and regional championships.

Until this week.

Warsaw will host a celebration at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Tiger Den.

The Tigers won the sectional Saturday at Elkhart and the regional Tuesday at Fort Wayne. Because they were out of town and on the tight schedule, Warsaw never hosted a pep rally.

"The sectional ran into the regional, and the regional ran into semistate," Rhodes said. "We just felt there wasn't enough time to celebrate. We wanted to have an opportunity to thank our players, the pep band, the cheerleaders, the kids who came to the game and the community.

"This puts closure to the season."

The Tigers, one of the final four class 4A teams left, lost to No. 2 Marion in the Lafayette Jeff 4A Semistate championship game. Marion went on to win the state title.

Rhodes was just one of countless coaches who complained about this year's schedule, which featured a sectional championship on Saturday, a regional championship on either Tuesday or Wednesday and the semistate on the following Saturday. There was a week between the semistate and state finals.

Rhodes said the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association approved a three-week postseason schedule, but it was not this three-week schedule.

"The original plan we accepted had the sectional played one week, a traditional, four-team regional the next week and then four teams from each class in the state finals the third week.

"We would have had four different sites for the state finals that day: We could have had 4A at Conseco Fieldhouse, 3A at Hinkle Fieldhouse, 2A at the University of Indianapolis and 1A at Southport. You could have played the state finals on a Friday and Saturday or played both games on Saturday."

Ultimately, this three-week plan was not accepted - Rhodes says high school administrations voted it down -Êand replaced with the three-week plan that featured the mid-week regional. The IHSAA did not want to go to a four-week schedule for the girls tournament and follow that with a four-week schedule for the boys tournament, feeling that scheduling officials so their assignments wouldn't overlap would be a problem.

The schedule figures to be the same next year, unless the coaches protest loud enough.

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Like Father, Like Son

Al Rhodes called Bill Green. He called Sam Alford. And there were others he called.

Rhodes knew there was a chance his boys -ÊChris, now 18, and Curtis, now 16 - would want to play basketball. So he called coaches like Green and Alford, who had sons play high school basketball for them, what it was like to try to coach a team with a son on the team.

"A couple of things came up," Rhodes said. "The first thing they told me was, 'Leave basketball in the gym. At the gym you are coach and player; at home, you are father and son.'

"The second thing they pointed out that was extremely important was, 'Treat your son just as another player.' They warned me there is a tendency to try to be tougher."

Ultimately, Chris, a senior, played basketball, while Curtis, a sophomore, chose not to play basketball and instead became involved in band and football.

Chris, who has a 12.25 GPA on a 12.0 scale and will attend Ball State to study communications/sports management, said he never looked at it as playing for his dad.

"I always wanted to play on the high school team," he said, "and to do that, I had to play for my dad. He treated me like any other player. I know he was not any easier on me."

Chris had to deal with a changing role on the team. When the season began, he started in place of injured Ross Kesler. By the time it ended, he played sparingly. He averaged 1.1 points per game.

"He kept a great attitude," Al said. "He made some contributions on game night, but the majority came in practice. He was always ready to play, and he has an excellent basketball mind. He accepted whatever role he ended up in."

Said Chris: "I knew when Ross came back, my minutes would go down. I do what's best for the team. Last year, I wasn't really a main player, either. It's no big deal."

Another parent Al talked to was former Warsaw principal Ray Green. Green's son Steve played for Warsaw then played at Indiana State with Larry Bird.

Ray set up basketball drills for his oldest son. Steve was younger, and with him, they just had fun playing the game.

"He felt Steve had more fun than the other brother," Al said. "I never set up drills for Chris. We just played like the Globetrotters and did fancy passes when we played. That developed his love of the game."

Chris, who does not plan to coach in the future, agreed.

"He didn't force anything on me," he said. "He didn't make me sit down and watch games or films. I did watch a lot of games, because it's something I enjoy doing."

Both father and son are glad they went through the experience.

"All coaches have to spend a lot of time away from their family," Al said. "That's why this was a great experience for me. We still got to spend a good amount of time together.

"I believe his teammates saw him as another player and not as a coach's son."

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D-Day In May

The only question left for Al Rhodes to answer is whether he will be back coaching the Tigers next season.

Some believe this was Rhodes' final season because he was able to coach his son Chris, a senior, and because this year's group of players - which had eight seniors - was a special group to Rhodes. It was, as Rhodes talked often about how he had dealt with this group of players since the time "they were 10 years old."

Others believe Rhodes will coach until his other son Curtis, who does not play basketball, graduates, so Curtis can finish school at Warsaw. Curtis is a sophomore this year.

Rhodes knows when he will make his decision.

"I'm going to decide in May," he said. "I have to recover from the season. The thing I have always said, it's very important to have Curtis graduate from Warsaw."

Recent speculation that has cropped up from Warsaw to Indianapolis has Rhodes joining the Los Angeles Lakers. While he acknowledged in the future he would like to work with a pro team as some sort of scout, he waved off the Al to L.A. rumor.

"I know, I've had people ask me that," he said. "I think that's just something that gets started because of the (Rick Fox) connection."

Fox, a reserve forward for Los Angeles, played for Rhodes at Warsaw. [[In-content Ad]]