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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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Tim Martinez: State brackets aren’t always fair, but teams still need to win

Tim Martinez: High school sports

By , Columbian Assistant Sports Editor
Published:

There was a lot of chatter on Twitter and on the Internet about the draw system used by the WIAA to set its state tournaments.

Fans and media members were outraged by first-round pairings of teams in the state tournament for football and volleyball.

There were calls for changes in the system, suggestions that the WIAA needs to adopt a power rating system similar to the one used in Oregon.

But there are a couple of things to remember.

First, state rankings don’t mean a thing. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about rankings by the media, the coaches or even computers.

In the end, they’re all just best guesses.

Camas’ high ranking, both by the media and computers, didn’t help the Papermakers beat an unranked Bellarmine Prep team. That’s the unpredictable nature of high school sports.

Secondly, the WIAA draw system works just fine … in determining a state champion.

When you get to state, if you win four games, you’re the state champion. No one is going to take that away from you.

Now, it’s possible that you’ll play a tougher opponent in the quarterfinals than you would in the semifinals. But in order to win a state title, you’re going to have to beat good teams.

“At state, the margin for error is really slim,” La Center football coach John Lambert said. “You make mistakes against good teams, you’re going to lose. And at state, they’re all good teams.”

Rankings aren’t going to help prevent that.

Where the WIAA’s current system goes awry is that it doesn’t assure that the second-best team finishes second, or the third-best finishes third, and so on. But they give out trophies for second, third, etc.

There are three issues with the WIAA’s current system: unbalanced districts, the attempt to limit travel and the random nature of the draw.

The WIAA allocates state berths to the different districts. The bigger the district, the more berths it receives. So some districts get six berths to state, while others get one or two.

And if you do that, you’re going to get oddball matchups when you pair up teams for state.

Also, if you try to keep teams on the east side of the state playing other teams from the east side, when you put together the entire bracket, you’re going to get oddball matchups.

Last, this random draw makes no sense. Take 1A volleyball as an example.

Last week, Kalama, the No. 1 seed from District 4, was matched up with Lynden Christian, the No. 2 seed from District 1. Meanwhile, King’s Way Christian, the No. 2 team from District 4 played King’s, the No. 3 team from District 1. King’s was No. 3 because it lost to Lynden Christian at district.

So Kalama beat King’s Way at district, then drew a tougher opponent than what King’s Way did at state.

It makes no sense.

But fear not. There is a solution.

I call it The Wrestling Solution.

In wrestling, state allocations aren’t made through the districts. They are made through regions.

These regions are formed by grouping leagues together to quarter the state. The regions are formed by grouping leagues together, with no regard to their district. For example, at 4A, the Greater St. Helens League (from District 4) is grouped with the South Puget Sound League (from District 3) to form a region.

Each of the four regions sends four wrestlers to state to form the 16-wrestler state bracket.

At state, the No. 1 seed from one region meets the No. 4 seed from another. And the 2s face the 3s. That way, no two No. 1 seeds can meet until the semifinals at the earliest.

It makes such sense in wrestling, why wouldn’t it make sense in other sports?

It might not fix every problem with the current system, but it would go a long way to fix many of them.

Just follow the wrestlers. They got it right.

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