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MPA Suspends Playoffs For Unified Basketball Program

Patty Wight
/
Maine Public File

The Maine Principals' Association (MPA) has decided to suspend championship playoffs in its sanctioned Unified basketball program that combines non-varsity players and students with developmental disabilities. There are concerns there is too much emphasis on competition during the playoffs, which takes away from the "feel-good" nature of the regular season.

"It really changed how people left the game feeling, a lot of hard feelings and accusations that the other team wasn't playing by the same set of rules and so on,” says MPA Assistant Executive Director Michael Bisson.

Bisson says fewer teams have participated in the playoffs in recent years. Instead several teams have participated in end-of-season festivals that celebrate basketball and having fun. So, this year, rather than holding playoffs, the MPA has set aside a week in March for that purpose. Bisson says the MPA will decide after two years whether there's enough interest to resume the playoffs. He says the MPA wants to make a decision that will allow kids to be successful and feel good about what they're doing.

Ed is a Maine native who spent his early childhood in Livermore Falls before moving to Farmington. He graduated from Mount Blue High School in 1970 before going to the University of Maine at Orono where he received his BA in speech in 1974 with a broadcast concentration. It was during that time that he first became involved with public broadcasting. He served as an intern for what was then called MPBN TV and also did volunteer work for MPBN Radio.