As this article publishes, Brown County High School will have hosted the Indiana High School Athletic Association boys basketball sectional tournament last week.

This will have been the first time in our history that we have been awarded the hosting of the IHSAA boys basketball sectional tournament. The Eagles have competed for the sectional title at Columbus, Bloomington, Bedford, Edgewood and Owen Valley in recent years.

Having the opportunity to host such an event has always been a goal of ours. Finally realizing this goal is of value to us beyond the competitive advantage of playing on our home court.

We have actively sought out the hosting of IHSAA tournaments for many years. This school year we have hosted the IHSAA sectional, regional and semistate meets in cross-country. We have held these events at our Eagle Park for several years.

We also hosted this year’s sectional game in football during the fall. We have had IHSAA girls basketball at our Larry C. Banks Memorial Gymnasium on occasions in the past.

IHSAA softball sectionals have also been held at Eagle Park on several occasions. We hope to host a baseball sectional soon.

The value to our community in holding these events is apparent. They bring many visitors to Brown County. These persons visit our restaurants and sometimes stay in our hotels.

As with our many tourists, some of them also will come early and visit the shops of Nashville. These people bring money to our community in the form of expenditures at our shops and restaurants. They also put our community and our schools on display to many additional visitors who will hopefully return to our area.

We believe that the hosting of these events gives an economic boost to our community. In the case of the basketball sectionals, these additional events bring visitors on slower business times.

This year, the boys basketball sectional coincided with the National Maple Syrup Festival. We believe that both events may have been enhanced by the existence of the other.

Bringing these events to our school means additional work for our staff, administrators, coaches, teachers, parents and volunteers. It also means additional work for our law enforcement personnel.

We appreciate the efforts by our staff members and our community members to prepare facilities and supervise events for other schools. In the example of the IHSAA cross-country meets, we have more than 1,000 additional vehicles with parents and patrons, many more competitors, and a large group of coaches and team support personnel. Administering these events requires a lot of organizational planning and effort. We are always very pleased to hold these events.

We also think it is very nice for our athletes to get to compete for sectional championships on their home fields and home courts. The removal of the necessity of traveling is an important advantage in addition to competing in a familiar venue. Our students deserve this type of advantage when we are awarded these events.

We are able to receive consideration for these events because of having quality facilities for the various tournaments. We have always believed that our student athletes deserve to have the same level of quality in their facilities as other communities have when they compete.

Our Eagle Park facility provides a very nice venue for softball and baseball. Our cross-country course is generally considered one of the top courses in the state of Indiana. The same is true of our Larry C. Banks Memorial Gymnasium. This facility was built and opened in early 1990.

Our major challenge in hosting basketball events is finding enough parking spaces for our visitors and our own supporters. The town of Nashville has assisted us in addressing this challenge and we appreciate the efforts made by the town and the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

In conclusion, we will continue to request the hosting of IHSAA events. We hope that we will be successful in receiving continued consideration for the future.

Many volunteers help us deliver these activities for our students. Thank you to all of those folks and thanks to each of you for supporting these events as a community.