High school teams in Southwest Washington got a bit a good news last week out of Oregon.
A subcommittee made a recommendation to the Oregon School Activities Association that the winning percentage of out-of-state opponents should be included in that state’s power rankings formula.
Last fall, Oregon began using a power rankings formula to seed teams in state tournaments.
That formula for computing a team’s power ranking was made up of three components: the team’s winning percentage (25 percent), the winning percentage of its opponents (50 percent) and the winning percentage of its opponents’ opponents (25 percent).
But this season, when an Oregon team played an out-of-state foe, the latter two components were not used to calculate a team’s power ranking.
That hurt teams like the Sherwood football team, which had a non-league win over Skyview last season.
If the policy had continued, it may have caused Oregon schools to be hesitant to schedule out-of-state opponents. And that would be bad news for Southwest Washington schools, as it is often much easier and cheaper to schedule Portland-area teams than teams from, say, the Puget Sound area.
The proposal still needs final approval from the OSAA executive board, which is not expected to come until the summer.
Peter Weber, OSAA assistant executive director, told the Oregonian that the committee decided it was feasible to collect information for winning percentage of out-of-state opponents. But the committee was not in favor of adding the final component of winning percentage of out-of-state opponents’ opponents.
“That would be one thing in football,” Weber said. “But to try to do that in volleyball or baseball or softball, how realistic is that for people to get all that information?”
Short answer: not very.
But the first two components should be enough to keep Oregon teams scheduling non-league matchups against teams from Southwest Washington.
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And there’s more good news for teams in Southwest Washington.
The weather forecast shows no indication this week of an upcoming winter storm that could potentially lead schools to postpone athletic events, only to have the winter storm fail to show up.
But there are events on this week’s schedule that are rescheduled events from last week’s winter storm that failed to show up.
Actually, last week’s basketball games between White Salmon and Stevenson were legitimate casualties of wintry weather — other postponements were casualties of inaccurate forecasts. The White Salmon-Stevenson boys and girls will play today.
With today being a school holiday, it means that Tuesday’s schedule is very full.
Here’s a look at key games this week:
4A Greater St. Helens League boys: It’s a big week for the Union boys (4-1), who start the week tied for first with Battle Ground. The Titans host Evergreen (4-2) Tuesday before playing at Battle Ground on Friday.
4A GSHL girls: If Evergreen (4-2) hopes to battle Skyview (6-0) for the league title, the Plainsmen will need to beat the Storm Friday at Evergreen.
3A GSHL boys: As the league opens the second half of league player, there are games scheduled for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. First-place Hudson’s Bay (5-1) catches a bit of a break by drawing a bye this week, so the Eagles will only play twice — Tuesday vs. Columbia River and Saturday vs. Prairie.
2A GSHL boys: The first go-around of league play was full of twists. First, Hockinson beat Mark Morris. Then Mark Morris beat R.A. Long. And then R.A. Long beat Hockinson.
But then R.A. Long lost at Washougal on Friday, meaning that Tuesday’s meeting between Mark Morris (3-1) and Hockinson (4-1) will be for sole possession of first place.
1A Trico boys: Just when it looked like Ilwaco was going to run away with the league title, the Fishermen were stunned by a 1-5 Castle Rock team. That left Ilwaco (6-1) with a half-game lead over Ridgefield (6-2) and Kalama (6-2). Ilwaco and Kalama meet on Tuesday.
1A Trico girls: Castle Rock (5-1) sent the Ilwaco girls (6-1) to their first league loss, as well. If Ridgefield (4-2) wants to remain in the thick of the league title hunt, the Spudders will need a win Friday when they host Castle Rock.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep editor for The Columbian. He can be reached by phone at (360) 735-4538 or e-mail at tim.martinez@columbian.com
