Morgan’s been a coach since 6-on-6

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Johnny Morgan is old-school. And that’s beyond the close-cropped haircut and his preferred style of coaching the McMinn Central High School girls’ basketball team.

Morgan is one of only two coaches at this week’s state tournament whose career began when girls’ basketball in Tennessee was played under six-on-six rules.

The TSSAA is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the girls’ state basketball tournament this year, and it has been 29 years since the governing body made the switch to the five-on-five game. That final year of six-on-six was Morgan’s first season with the Chargerettes.

“I had had one year to coach six-on-six, and when they made the change, I thought because I had played five-on-five that I would just outcoach everbody,” Morgan said. “That wasn’t the case. We were so bad that first year of playing under the new rules. We won eight games, but we beat the same three teams a couple of times.

“We were just awful.”

McMinn Central’s talent level eventually caught up with the competition, and Morgan has coached 642 wins and is making his eighth trip to the Class AA state tournament, all in the last 12 years. The Chargerettes have finished state runners-up twice and Thursday advanced to the 2008 semifinals with a two-point win over defending state champion Austin-East.

Under six-on-six rules, each team had three defensive forwards who could not cross half court and three guards relegated to the other end of the court. After each made field goal, an official passed the ball to a player at midcourt, who then began her team’s offensive possession. When a team secured a defensive rebound, the ball was passed toward the center line and then to a teammate on the offensive end. And of course there was no 3-point line.

Watching the excitement of the frenzied pace at which so many of the girls’ teams at the state tournament play, one has trouble imagining there was any debate over making the switch. But in the late 1970s, the arguments were so heated that TSSAA executive director Ronnie Carter said several principals and athletic directors threatened to pull their schools out of the association if it did away with the six-on-six game.

“People ask me if the public-private split was the most heated decision we’ve ever had, and I tell them it’s not even close,” Carter said. “The younger folks think I’m joking when I say that by far the decision that drew the most protest was when we switched to five-on-five for girls’ basketball. The thing is, that was a decision that affected every area of the state. You had the teams in the West, Middle and from Bradley County into about Maryville that loved the six-on-six format.

“When we made the change, it brought in teams in Memphis and upper East Tennessee that hadn’t been very involved in the girls’ game to that point. People said the six-on-six game was the niche for the girls and that switching it to the boys’ game would hurt the game.”

The 1979 state tournament set a girls’ attendance record that still stands, and it wasn’t until a Title IX lawsuit was filed that the TSSAA finally made the switch the following season. The main reason was the growing popularity of the women’s college game, which needed players already used to the five-on-five style.

“People said the six-on-six game was the niche for the girls and that switching it to the boys’ game would hurt the game,” Morgan said. “The people who had been around for a long while were the ones who fought it. I didn’t care because I was young and just glad to be coaching.

“The girls who could play then could play now. We had some girls who couldn’t shoot worth a lick then, just like now, and we made them defenders. The ones who could shoot then would be fine now. It’s a faster game and it did change the face of the girls’ game for sure.”