The state softball tournament, or, rather, what is left of it, begins this week.

For more than a decade, the Fast Pitch 56 Softball Tournament was the premier event for the Louisiana High School Athletic Association. None of the other state championship events had the electricity that was found every year inside Frasch Park in Sulphur.

Yes, more so than football which despite being played in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome always lacked any real electricity due to the massive amount of empty seats. The closest thing to the softball tournament was when the Cajundome played host to the boy’s basketball tournament in Lafayette.

The traffic jam to the ballpark in Lake Charles was always a mile or two long to even get to the park, but once you were parked in the parking lot you were greeted with the loud and joyous roars from the multiple fields of softball action going on inside the park.

The fandom was intensified due to the two-day format as all quarterfinal games were played on Friday, and then semi-finals on Saturday morning and then the final on Saturday night. Even if their teams were eliminated, it wasn’t uncommon for die-hard fans to remain in Frasch Park to take in the tournament’s final games.

That is all history now.

When the LHSAA decided to expand the state playoff split between select and non-select schools it killed what made the softball tournament truly special. Previously the teams that played in the seven classifications had to win two games just to get to Sulphur. Now with 12 classifications, which has forced the event to stretch over three days — which has lessened the excitement level, there is no such thing anymore as “The Road to Sulphur.”

The Division V bracket is the best example of this watered-down and embarrassing product.

There were only seven teams that earned berths into the postseason, all seven received first-round byes that meant every team that earned a playoff berth automatically gets to go to Sulphur. Even worse is top seed Northside Christian, which won’t have to play a game until the semifinals.

That’s like training for a marathon, running the first say 14 miles and then getting a lift from Uber for the next six miles before getting out to run the rest.

That’s not to take away from the two Teche Area teams (Catholic High and Centerville) for earning trips to Sulphur. These girls should be proud of what they have accomplished this season and we will all be cheering for them this coming week.

With that said, it is just disheartening that the state’s principals’ push to split the playoffs (largely due to the dominance of private schools John Curtis and Evangel Christian in football) has not only watered down football, but now it has contaminated other sports — and unfortunately damaged what used to be the state’s premier high school athletic event.

RAYMOND PARTSCH III

MANAGING EDITOR