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Webb School - Bell Buckle girls basketball moving up to DII-AA to cool boarding school talk

MURFREESBORO – Nationally-ranked Webb School-Bell Buckle's girls basketball team will compete against the largest schools in Division II-AA beginning next season.

The TSSAA's Board of Control unanimously approved Webb's proposal to bump its girls basketball team up from DII-A on the heels of winning three straight state championships.

It was a proposal that Webb School - Bell Buckle Ken Cheeseman offered as a chance to cool what has become a hot topic thanks in part to the Lady Feet's dominance in the sport during the past three years under coach Matt Shewmake.

"It's clear that there is a lot of frustration," Cheeseman said. "I don't think there is any one particular reason for it, but the hottest button right now is my girls basketball team. What was clear to me in talking for and against was that something needed to be proposed."

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Ironically, Shewmake recently announced his resignation and is going to Montverde Academy in Florida to coach.

Webb's proposal came as an alternative to a plan that came out of the Legislative Council to move any boarding school with 100 students or more to compete in the largest Division II classification, except in football. In that sport, teams with 265 are fewer must compete in DII-AA and schools with more than 265 must compete in DII-AAA.

That rule would affect Webb School - Bell Buckle (309 enrollment), St. Andrew's - Sewanee (158) and The King's Academy (154). School officials from all three schools were emphatic that their schools would not be able to compete in sports if they were forced to move up in class. Webb's girls basketball team was the exception.

Cheeseman's proposal included a success factor plan where all DII-A teams that won three straight state championships move up in classification. That part of the proposal was not part of what the Board voted on.

Webb's girls basketball program was ranked 11th nationally this past season by MaxPreps after finishing 32-4 with several star players being boarding students. The team has six Power 5 signees, including two headed to LSU in point guard Angelica Velez and center Aalyah Del Rosario. Both were boarding students.

MTCS principal Robert Sain, who is a Legislative Council member, argued that independent schools do not have the same advantages as independent schools that have boarding students. He had support at the Board of Control from several small independent schools including FRA, Friendship Christian and Providence Christian.

Sain believes the problem goes deeper than Webb's girls basketball program, which his school's team has finished state runner-up to the past two seasons.

"I just think the discussion is one that has to occur," Sain said. "There is an opportunity there that is available to those schools that the non-boarding schools don't have."

Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 and tkreager@tennessean.com or on Twitter @Kreager.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA basketball: Webb School - Bell Buckle moving to Division II-AA