For High School Athletes, It's Showtime Across State

You can make the case that March 18-19 is the biggest weekend of the winter high school sports season, but you'd be wrong. Yes, that mid-March weekend sees the crowning of basketball and hockey state champions but that's for the select few. This weekend, however, there's hope for all.

It starts Friday with the announcement of the MIAA's basketball tournament pairings and ends Sunday with the All-State track championship. Here's a sport-by-sport look at what's ahead.

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BASKETBALL - The MIAA announces the field Friday afternoon for its four divisions (1-4) and four sectionals (North, South, Central, and West) in boys' and girls' basketball. A reminder that once again, in the interest of evening out the number of schools in each section, a few schools from Eastern Mass leagues will play in the Central Mass tournament, and same goes for Central Mass teams moving to Western Mass tournament. This is why the Natick girls are the defending Division 1 CMass champions. And to all the EMass hoop fans, yes, you're going back to Springfield for the state championship games. The games will be held March 18 at Springfield College and the Mass Mutual Center once again.

Defending champions - Last year's boys champions were Cambridge (Div. 1), New Mission (Div. 2), Bishop Stang (Div. 3) and St. Mary's (Div. 4). The girls winners were Bishop Feehan (Div. 1), Longmeadow (Div. 2), Bishop Fenwick (Div. 3), and Cathedral (Div. 4).

HOCKEY - Many will say the Super 8 hockey tournament is the best high school tournament in the country. Who are we to argue? The game-within-a-game starts Saturday with the selection of the 10 boys' teams. Ranked 1-10, the last four teams will face off Monday in a play-in game. The two winners advance, and those eight teams become the Super 8 tournament field. The losers drop into the Division 1 tournament. You didn't ask but here's my prediction for the 10 teams the committee will chose: Malden Catholic, Catholic Memorial, BC High, Arlington, Hingham, Austin Prep, Xaverian, St. John's Prep, Central Catholic, and Pope Francis. Also Saturday, the field for the MIAA's Division 1-3A tournaments for boys and Division 1-2 tournaments for girls are selected. The state finals will again be held at TD Garden on March 19.

Defending champions - Last year's boys' champions were Malden Catholic (Super 8), Franklin (Div. 1), Medfield (Div. 2), Hanover (Div. 3), and Nashoba (Div. 3A). The girls winners were Austin Prep (Div. 1) and Notre Dame (H) (Div. 2).

TRACK - If you think track is a never ending sport you're not alone. After a week of five divisional state meets it comes down to one more, the 32nd annual All-State Indoor Championships, which brings together the fastest teenagers in Massachusetts. Held as always at the Reggie Lewis Center on Tremont Street in Boston, Sunday's All-State meet is great theatre. You never know when a state record will be broken. Last year the spotlight was on Norton sprinter Brooke-Lynn Williams when the junior set a state record of 6.91 seconds in the 55-meter dash. The now Penn State-bound senior is back and the top seed in the same event Sunday. And if you like the dash, keep an eye on the boys' 55 where a couple guys named Smith go head-to-head, Smith Charles of Milton and Nikolas Smith of Northampton. The meet starts at 1 p.m.

WRESTLING - Like track, the high school wrestling community has spent the last two weeks narrowing down the field for this weekend's All-State Tournament at Reading High School. Competition gets underway Friday at noon and concludes with the finals at approximately 4 p.m. Saturday. Fourteen weight classes will be decided and the only guarantee is that the finals won't be boring. The focus is on the individual in this competition, although Chelmsford is the defending team champion.

GYMNASTICS - Finally, there's some suspense at Saturday's girls' gymnastics sectionals. Nothing against the Barnstable girls, but year after year everyone knew the Red Raiders would eventually win the state championship. Every other team was competing for second place. But this winter Barnstable is the ninth-seeded team in the South and it would take a miracle for the defending champions to even qualify for the state finals. Now that we've established a reason to pay attention, here's the format. Twelve teams compete in the South Sectional, which begins at 10 a.m. at Hudson High School. Bridgewater-Raynham is the top seed with an average score of 145.2625. The top four finishers advance to the state final. At 3 p.m., 12 schools from the North take over. Defending champion Central Catholic is the top seed at 142.16875. Again, the top four teams advance. If you go to either sectional here's a tip: watch the balance beam. The winners stay on. The losers fall off.