While we have a little bit of time between the end of the winter prep sports season and the start of the spring prep sports season, let’s take a look at a couple of proposals that the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association will be considering later this month.
And before we get to those proposals, I’d like to make one of my own — you know, just in case it’s not too late.
Ever since the WIAA condensed the state basketball tournament formats, it created this dead week so that there is no overlap between the winter and spring seasons.
I think there is an opportunity there.
So what if we allowed two sports that are not weather-contigent — boys soccer and track and field — and let them start their seasons one week earlier than the other spring sports.
This would allow these sports to finish their seasons a week earlier than the others.
The spring sports season finishes with this mad rush for sports in the same week, golf, tennis, baseball, softball, boys soccer and track and field.
That spreads fans thin, making them choose between many championship events on the same weekend. It also spread those of us in the media thin, trying to cover these sports properly.
But if we take two sports and move them up, it would give them the penultimate weekend in May (this year May 22-23) for soccer and track to share the state spotlight, and leave the last weekend for baseball, softball and tennis (with golf playing earlier in the week).
Well, that just makes too much sense NOT to do. Doesn’t it?
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OK, now let’s get to some of the proposals at hand.
First, there is a proposal to change the reclassification cycle from every two years to every four years.
Yes, yes, yes, please.
The every-two-year rotation causes headaches. Just as you get used to one league alignment, it gets changed up. And really, the whole idea of basing classification purely on enrollment is flawed anyway. So if we’re going to make changes, let’s at least stick with those changes for four years.
There is a proposal to change the running clock rule in football. Right now, the rule is the running clock rule kicks in when a team takes a 40-point lead or greater by halftime or in the second half. This proposal would basically extend that rule to the first half too.
Hey, anything that gets me back to the office and making deadline on a Friday night, I’m all for it.
In another proposal, basketball teams are asking that three- or four-day tournaments be counted as two games toward the 20-game season limit, and two-day tournaments be counted as one.
The issue here is teams that play in large leagues, which causes most of their 20-game schedule to be eaten up by league games. Then a team has to exhaust most or all of its non-league dates to play in tournaments. By having these tournament games count less provides teams with more opportunities to play in tournaments.
I don’t like this proposal. It seems like we’re pitting the haves vs. the have-nots. Teams with resources have more opportunities to play in tournaments, particularly out-of-state tournaments against high-profile opponents.
Teams without the resources don’t play in as many tournaments.
So basically this rule would allow the better programs to get stronger, while leading the weaker teams to become weaker. We need to be going the other direction.
The most interesting proposal involves transfers. (OK, administrators, don’t lose your marbles about me using the word “transfer.” It’s in the proposal.)
Basically, this rule says that if a student moves from one school to another school that is less than 50 miles away, the student would be ineligible to play a sport at his or her new school until after the 50 percent date.
The 50 percent date is important because athletes added to the team roster after the halfway point in the season are ineligible for postseason competition.
I’m intrigued by this idea. The number of students switching schools for athletic reasons is getting out of control. They say they are changing for academic or personal reasons, but in most cases, that’s a sham. It’s for sports. And it needs to stop.
But I think the 50-mile radius is a bit large. A 25-mile radius would do the trick.
