Perhaps it also led Minnesota to scrap size-based divisions back in 1995, in favor of having one champion.
Whatever the reason, the new system brought together two very different players in one championship game.
One of those players was Khalid El-Amin. El-Amin was only a sophomore, but the guard was already being recruited by major college basketball teams. Eventually, he went to the University of Connecticut, where he led his team to a NCAA championship. He now plays for the Chicago Bulls.
The other player in that high school championship game was Erik Kelly '01. Now the starting shooting guard for the Jeffs, Kelly was also a sophomore when he led his team to the championship game against El-Amin's Minneapolis North High School.
Kelly comes from a small town , Staples, in rural central Minnesota, where he attended Motley High School. Motley had only 600 students, while North had at least 1,500.
The small size of Kelly's school left the team with only a seven-man rotation, and Kelly often played entire games without rest. Despite this disadvantage, Motley lost only two games during the regular season, winning 25.
This record earned them a berth in the newly formatted state championship tournament. All schools, regardless of size, would now play one another, with the best team earning the chance to be called champion.
Kelly and his team, however, were used to this kind of challenge, and their coach reminded them that any team could beat any other team on any given day.
"Coach never let us use size as an excuse not to beat another team," said Kelly.
It was with this inspiration that Motley tore through the first three days of the state tournament. Forced to play four games in four days to win, Kelly and his teammates shot their way into the finals.
"We actually had to beat a team that was undefeated and ranked above North just to get out of our section," Kelly said.
With the championship on Saturday, the Motley crew had only one night to prepare for El-Amin and North. They remained confident, despite the odds against them.
This confidence was borne out in the game, which remained close throughout, with neither team able to gain a clear advantage over the other.
In fact, the game was tied as the clock ticked down. North held for the final possession, before putting up the potential game winning shot. The shot missed, but North got a putback that won the game.
Kelly, who played the entire game, had twelve points, while El- Amin, the future Division I All-American at UConn, had 14.
Despite the heartbreaking loss, Kelly described the entire experience as "amazing." In fact, he looks at that game as one that led his team to future success. The next two years in a row, Motley placed an impressive third in the state tournament.
Kelly attributes his team's success to the very thing that many would assume was its greatest disadvantage, the small pool of talent from which to make up a team.
"Coming from a rural place, all we did all summer was play ball. We were just a group of small town guys that loved to play," he said.
Kelly retains that love of the game, and every time he suits up for the Jeffs, Amherst is glad that he found his way down the court, from rural Minnesota to rural Massachusetts.