Heal Points

Heal points only pertain to Class I, not Class L. It is a pilot program to see if it will be used in the future.

But you do have the basic idea down...now just substitute a Class I team beating a good Class M team with a lot of wins...that would give that Class I team more heal points than it would if you beat a poor Class I team with only a few wins.

I'm reading some articles online it looks like they plan on expanding it to all division in 2010-2011, maybe a NHIAA coach on here will clarify.

Yeah, it will be interesting to see what they do with it. I like the system since it rewards teams for strength of schedule. The only drawback is, it is difficult for people to understand. You may have Team A with a 3-5 record have more heal points than Team B with a 5-3 record.

I asked a person on the committee and heal points are not being planned for Class L/Division 1 at any time. There is no need as every team in that division plays each other whereas Class I is all over the place.

So for Bedford tonight beating Goffstown is actually worth more than beating a Div2. opponent but it doesn't mean jack to Goffstown?

You are correct...providing, as I fully expect, Goffstown goes on to win their share of games. For Goffstown, a win against Bedford is the same in the standings as a win against any other team...plus neighboring bragging rights.

I like the Heal points method in Class I. Because of travel considerations, many Class I teams that are close to each other play a home-and-home series. For example, Portsmouth plays six other Class I teams twice, and four teams once. So, they only play ten of the 22 other teams in the division. If either Portsmouth or St. Thomas should sweep their series, it will generate a ton of points.

One "dislike": the NHIAA didn't do a good job of updating the class I basketball standings on their website, whereas the other class standings are updated in real time. Hopefully they will do better with the baseball standings.

Good luck to all teams. Let the games begin!

You are absolutely right about the NHIAA doing a poor job updating the basketball standings. Not only updating, but on some occasions, they were incorrect. There is a poster to this board who has a Excel system set up that calculates the heal points in real time, the only thing he has to do is enter the scores...he is talking about posting it to a website so all teams can see where they stand on a daily basis. I'd imagine he will respond to this thread when he sees it.

And I'm with you...let the games begin!

I have to confess that I have spent way too much time on understanding Heal Points. I actually developed a spreadsheet to allow for real time tracking and it is time tested over the fall and winter seasons. Most of the previous chatter here has been on point, but it's really a "strength of victory" system more than a "strength of schedule" system. The tournament index is all that is used for playoff seeding and that is in fact the sum of the preliminary indeces of all the teams that you have beaten. So playing up a class only helps if you win and the final record of that team you beat will ultimately determine how many points you receive for that victory. Beating a class M team that goes 10-6 is worth much more than beating a class L team that goes 4-14. Of the entire Class I schedule (194 games) 20 are scheduled against out-of-class opponents - 3 up at Class L and 17 down at Class M.

bl-baseball...good timing!

With the importance of pitching, baseball using heal points presents a coaching challenge unlike the other sports. Scenario - you enter the last week of the season and you have 3 games left to play and all of your pitchers available and you're fighting for a top 4 seed or a home game in the first round or to make the tournament altogether. Opponent #1 has 1 win, Opponent #2 has 6 wins and opponent #3 has 9 wins. Under the traditional standings, a win is a win, but Heal Points make wins against #2 and #3 worth much more than a win over #1. As a coach, you never want to have your players taking any opponent lightly and you want max effort regardless of your opponent's record. In planning your rotation for the week; however, you can't ignore the impact of Heal Points. The other variable is that under the traditional standings you might enter the last week knowing that any 2 wins guarantees you a top 4 seed. With the number of variables in the Heal Point system, you're likely not going to know until the last game has been played by all the Class teams because a game pitting opponets with identical 2-13 records might have a big impact on the standings given that every team that beat either one of thos teams stands to gain by them notching that 3rd victory. Just something (else) to think about.

I heard from our varisty softball coach that the NHIAA wil not use heal points in any sport after the end of this baseball/softball season. He said that ClassI was an experiment and will be discontinued.

We used Heal Points up in Maine (pretty sure thats where it was invented) and I never knew what the heck was going on. But also I never had anyone explain it to me.

fivehole is austin weber on varsity for Kennett this year?

Expect Bedford to earn some strips this year, I really believe they have the talent to be one of the top teams in the State regardless of the Class they play in, as mentioned before they are well rounded, I think that their pitching may even be deeper than the four indicated earlier, this may be over looked due to the ability of those four horses. But don't count Portsmouth or St. Thomas out yet, both are solid programs with a proven track record and solid seniors on both rosters. I think that it is going to be war in this class should be a lot of fun for those of us following. Best of luck to all the players involved.

quote:

bl-baseball

bl-baseball -- great research! 2 out of the 3 L vs. I matchups were played today. Goffstown over Bedford, and St. Thomas over Dover. So, St. Thomas is now rooting for their cross-town neighbor in Class L to win some games.

FYI, the one other L-I matchup is ConVal vs. Keene.

Mike,

Austin Weber is a swing player at this point in the season, I wouldn't be surprised if he moved up full time by the middle of the season. Good kid.

I remember him from the fall he works hard I hope it works out for him this year. Any updates from the North Country? If so send them my way I will get them up on www.granitestatebaseball.org I want to make sure your boys get some attention this spring. Pictures would be great as well. You guys planning on entering teams into the summer league?

If so I would like to discuss the idea of Conway hosting round robin format weekend days get all teams 2 or 3 games on the dates.

I feel that Keene is going to run the table in that game vs. Conval. Keene is always one of the top teams in the State regardless of their class they can flat out play ball in Keene.