Moving the girls’ basketball season from the fall to winter this school year has caused challenges for some players, coaches, athletic directors and families.

Bill and Jeri Lee of Maple City faced the same situation as many families this winter: which games to attend. Their son John was on the Glen Lake boys’ varsity basketball team, while daughter Cassie played on the girls’ junior varsity team.

"The biggest change this year was all the time we spent in the gym," Jeri Lee said. "Basketball is a long season and there were a lot of weeks where we were in the gym four or five nights a week."

Lee said it was nice to see many familiar faces at the games the family attended.

"Having the elementary school kids come in and play during halftime at the varsity games was a good move. That brought in a lot of the families that wouldn’t normally be there," she said, adding the 2007-08 basketball season was a fun one for her and her family.

Glen Lake athletic director Paul Christiansen said with changes such as having the young students playing at halftime, attendance for both girls’ and boys’ games was up compared to last season. For the final girls’ basketball season in fall 2006, Glen Lake had gross receipts of $3,024. For the 2007-08 season, the Laker girls’ team brought in $3,285, an increase of 8.6 percent. The boys’ team took in $5,386 for 2006-07 and $5,910 for 2007-08, and increase of 9.7 percent.

"We didn’t increase our ticket prices from last year, so that means we had more people at the games," Christiansen said. The figures did not include the games the boys’ and girls’ teams played at The Palace of Auburn Hills in January against Buckley. "Those were technically home games for us and we sold 500 tickets overall. Without those sales, we still had a great season," Christiansen said.

Leland athletic director Ryan Knudsen said attendance at girls’ basketball games was down 21 percent from fall 2006, while the Comet boys’ team saw a gain of 26 percent.

"Overall, between the boys’ and girls’ teams we saw a 5 percent increase in rough figures based on revenue brought in by both teams. Obviously the success of the boys’ team this season helped bring more people to the games," he said.

Knudsen said with Leland joining the Northwest Conference this school year, he thought the Comets would see attendance figures increase for both the boys’ and girls’ teams. "Overall, we’re pretty even," he said.

St. Mary School athletic director Cathy Herman said attendance for boys’ and girls’ basketball was about the same as last year. Herman said school officials had planned for a 25 percent drop in revenues for both teams this school year.

"We just closed out the books for the season and we were only down 17 percent as far as revenue," she said, adding that more people received complimentary passes this year than last season.

"I think we had about the same number of people coming out for the games, we had pretty full stands most of the time. We have a strong family base, we tend to family-up at St. Mary," Herman said.

Northport Public School athletic director Marshall Collins said Wildcat girls’ and boys’ teams held their own on attendance. "We’re about the same as last year for the boys and girls. We’re a tight community up here and everyone tries to get out to the games," he said.

Suttons Bay superintendent Mike Murray didn’t have attendance figures, but said it appeared crowds were down for both the girls’ and boys’ games this year.