Plan to get there early for Falls-MUHS first place showdown
It's all very reminiscent of the mid-1970s at old Falls North, when Dave Gross, Don Lex and Mickey Kohl were leading the way for the powerhouse Indian boys basketball teams.
If you didn't get there by halftime of the junior varsity game, you were out of luck as far as a seat was concerned.
Such has been the case for the current Falls team (7-0 in conference and 10-3 overall) in the J.P. Tokoto era.
Falls officials had to turn people away at last Friday's rout of Brookfield Central where the crowd included Division I collegiate coaches Bo Ryan of Wisconsin and Roy Williams of North Carolina, and they are anticipating huge crowds again for Tuesday's 7:30 p.m. first-place showdown with Marquette (6-1, 8-5) and for the Tuesday, Feb. 2 tilt with border rival Sussex Hamilton (5-2, 9-5).
Athletic Director Dave Petroff, who was around as a teacher and football coach back at North in the mid-1970s, said various ideas have been discussed and dismissed as to how best to deal with the situation.
"There's little we can do, except put a full sign on the door," he said. "We thought about putting closed circuit TV in the cafeteria, but nobody's going to want to do that, and we can't do a pre-sale today (Monday) because the kids aren't in school. Also with the pre-sale, you risk not getting in touch with certain people like senior citizens (who aren't as computer savvy). You don't want to alienate anyone in this situation, but there is some difficulty in getting word out to people (about potential overcrowding)."
As it stands, the game will be broadcast on cable sports channel 32 as well as on local access channels (consult listings).
Petroff said that Falls officials will gauge the situation at the Marquette game and adjust accordingly for Sussex Hamilton and future contests. Pre-sales of tickets will be back on the table then, he said.
"If tomorrow is a disaster, we'll look to do things differently in the future," he said.
As it stands, Petroff said that additional people have been posted at the pass gates and as for crowd control, there will be four school staff, plus himself, Principal William Hintz and two police officers on hand.
"We're hoping that that's adequate," he said. "People just have to realize that they can't come at 7:35 p.m. and expect to find a seat."
And as for the phenomenon of Tokoto and his exciting team drawing all these people to games, helping out with the athletic budget in the process, Petroff can only smile.
"It's a nice problem to have," he said.
Adult tickets are $4 and students are $3.
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