The decision to eliminate girls' six-player basketball was met with shock and disappointment, even from coaches already involved in the five-player game.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union's board of directors at Wednesday's monthly meeting in Des Moines voted to end the six-player tradition that began in 1898.

All schools will use the five-player format starting in the fall 1994.

"I hate to see it happen," said Cedar Rapids Jefferson Coach Larry Niemeyer, who has been coaching the five-player game since the 1984-85 season when it first came into existence in Iowa. "There's a lot of history and emotion there. The six-player game served a lot of kids well. I coached six player for 18 seasons and enjoyed every second."

Tony Petersen, in his third season of coaching six-player at Elk Horn-Kimballton, said he thought it would eventually happen but was surprised by the timing.

"I thought we would have three to five years left," he said. "Our conference, the Rolling Hills, and the Western Iowa Conference, had discussed it but we had no idea it would happen this soon. I guess we'll have to get a whole lot smarter a whole lot quicker."

Petersen said he was disappointed.

"You wonder what the sport is for, to prepare kids for the college game or for the participation of a lot of kids," he said. "We get kids coming out for six-player who wouldn't normally be able to play for a five-player team, but we have kids who can play five-player and we'll have to roll with the flow. Our younger kids will have a challenge ahead of them."

Dick Rasmussen of Ankeny, who coached the six-player game for 29 seasons prior to switching to five-player two seasons ago, said he was taken by surprise.

"I thought the end would come eventually but would wear itself down like fall softball to where there were very few schools playing it," he said. "A lot of tradition will be left behind. A lot of us old-timers still have fond memories of the six-player game with the big crowds."

Rasmussen, who has won more than 500 games and three state championships, and Niemeyer, who topped the 600-victory mark this season, credited the six-player game for the success of Iowa's girls' high school program.

"If we just had the five-player program we wouldn't have gotten the write-ups in the New York papers and Sports Illustrated," Niemeyer said. "(Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union Executive Directory E. Wayne Cooley) used that and the uniqueness of the game to build a name in Iowa that we're all proud of.

"Wayne gave us a game that we didn't have to go and compete with the boys, a game that we could play better than if we had played the same game."

Rasmussen said: "I have an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach. The six player game is such an integral part of Iowa girls' history. I'm happy to have been a part of it."

What advice would Rasmussen give to coaches switching to the five player rules?

"It's a transition that can be made, but it takes a lot of effort to learn the game," he said.  "It's a completely different game to coach and teach."

Both Rasmussen and Niemeyer emphasized they also enjoy the five-player game.

"When we start playing well, which we will, and start winning, the crowds will start coming back," Rasmussen said.

"I liked six-player and five player, and I would like four-player," Niemeyer said. "Most coaches coach because they enjoy kids."

Indianola Coach Jerry Wetzel, who is in his second season of five-player rules after coaching 32 seasons of six-player, said he thinks the move will help unite the state's coaches.

"You could see potential problems arising between five-player and six-player coaches," he said. "Six player coaches didn't see themselves in the inner-circle of five player coaches and vice versa. I think coaches were becoming annoyed with each other. Basketball is basketball."

Wetzel hit the 500-victory mark in the first game this season.

Emmetsburg Coach Ted Riley, who guided the E'Hawks to the 1991 six-player championship, said he thinks the girls' union made a wise move.

"The six-player game will now go out with a great deal of dignity like it deserves," he said. "It's been a big bread-winner for small schools for so long."

He said the younger players at his school are playing five-player.

Emmetsburg elected to drop out of the Lakes Conference this season in order to play six-player rules. The Lakes is in its first season of five-player rules.

"I know a lot of conferences were going to vote on it this spring," Riley said.

Emmetsburg, which was turned down for entrance to the North Iowa Conference, will rejoin the Lakes Conference and play five-player rules next season.

"We tried to get into the North Iowa not only because of girls' basketball but because the schools were more our size than the Lakes," Riley said. "I'm just glad we were such a big part of the six-player game in recent years."