Feature Photo By: Cade Palmer – One of the many EMAC basketball trophies in the trophy closet at Rangeview sits. Every player’s name on the team from that year is engraved on the trophy.
The Rangeview boys basketball team is currently playing in the East Metro Athletic Conference (EMAC) for our league games. I’m a player on the varsity team and I think it’s time for a change when it comes to the league we play in. As a team, we feel like we should be playing in a higher level league such as the Centennial League games throughout the course of the season.
Our current record within the EMAC league is this year is 9-0. Our Rangeview team has won by scores of up to 63 points against other EMAC teams this season. The bracket for just doesn’t seem to be leveled fairly.
Rangeview could be playing in a better league with some of the other top teams in the state if they got out of the EMAC.
We are currently 91-2 since we were put in the EMAC league for basketball. That gives us an overall winning percentage of about 98% in the EMAC. The current win streak is 61 won games in a row for EMAC opponents. This season alone, we have outscored other EMAC teams 1,022 to 570.
Junior forward Jovaughn Wright was asked about his thoughts on Rangeview playing in the EMAC, and he said, “Rangeview should be out of the EMAC because there isn’t a lot of competition and we should be able to play in a different league.”
One of the main reasons we want to get out of EMAC l is because the playoff seeding is based on a team’s Ratings Percentage Index RPI. RPI rankings use 30% of your team’s record, 40% of your opponents’ record, and 30% of your opponents’ opponents record. It is a little confusing, but in short, your opponents’ records matter more than your own team’s record. The fact that right now 7 of the 10 other teams in our league have a losing record, doesn’t help our RPI out very much.
Junior guard Obi Agbim had some interesting ideas regarding our team and the EMAC, “The school would have made more money depending on the teams we played. If we played better teams the crowd would be packed like it was for our non-league games against teams like Overland, and Regis.”
This regular season is now over, and we are headed to the playoffs. We are the third overall seed.
Another junior guard on the team, Isaiah Jamison said, “It’s not preparing us for the playoffs and where we want to be at the end of the season.”
I don’t mean any disrespect towards the teams we play in the EMAC, and there are some skilled players and teams in the league, but we need to make a change. We need the boys basketball team to play in a higher level league, based on how well we have performed in our current league every single year.
