Basketball won’t be played this weekend for Class 4A and 3A teams.
Officials from the West Central/Southwest bi-district tournaments postponed all boys and girls games Friday and Saturday in anticipation for more winter weather to hit across Western Washington.
And this weekend’s postponements are just the start of possible future scheduling headaches.
That’s why Cale Piland, athletic director for Evergreen Public Schools, in addition to Joe Keller and Tim Thompson from District 3 among others, were in discussions Thursday coming up with contingency plans should weather continue to impact postseason events into next week. Both 4A and 3A bi-districts feature three leagues stretching as far north as Thurston, Pierce and south King counties.
For now, basketball games originally scheduled for Friday and Saturday do not have a tentative reschedule date. Piland said a decision will be made before Monday if games are rescheduled or how the tournament will be altered should weather be an ongoing concern.
He said Thursday the 4A and 3A boys and girls tournaments can be completed in full by the end of next week should games resume starting Monday. But if postponements continue, ideas are being floated — albeit not finalized — on how teams can qualify for regionals out of the bi-district. One could include automatic berths for league champions and also factoring in RPI.
Piland and others hope it doesn’t come to that.
“The first plan,” he said, “is to wait for what does hit, and how severe (the weather) is.”
The National Weather Service in Portland predicts snow locally as early as Friday. More snow also is forecast next week across Western Washington.
In 2A, officials Thursday moved all of Saturday’s 2A boys first-round district games ahead one day to 6 p.m. Friday. All first-round girls games will remain on Friday, but tip off at 6 p.m. The 2A district swim meet, hosted by Mark Morris, is now a one-day event Friday.
“It’s an err on the side of safety,” Woodland athletic director Paul Huddleston said of the changes.
As of Thursday, all local regional wrestling tournaments — Camas (4A), Washougal (2A) and Castle Rock (1A) — will go on as scheduled, but Piland added Sunday is a usable competition date by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association should regionals statewide be postponed. Mat Classic, the all-classification state wrestling tournament, is Feb. 15-16.
The 4A regional at Camas, with teams arriving from as far away as Spokane and the Tri-Cities, is a two-day event that starts at 4 p.m. Friday. Regionals hosted by Washougal and Castle Rock are Saturday. Clark County wrestlers competing at 3A regionals travel to Inglemoor High School near Seattle.
4A and 3A district swimming at Kelso starting Friday and 4A/3A/2A district gymnastics at Northpoint is still on as scheduled.
