Spring is the time of the year when the member schools of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association votes on proposed changes to its formats and rules.
And there are several of proposals under consideration this spring, ranging from pitch count limitations in baseball to the number of contact practices football teams can hold in a week.
But the one I wanted to discuss concerns an attempt to provide some equity in the reclassification process.
Under this proposal, schools with more than 60 percent of its student body on a free or reduced lunch program would be allowed the option of opting down one classification in the next reclassification process.
The thinking here is that schools from poorer areas have a harder time competing than their more affluent rivals.
I think any honest observer of high school sports in this state — or any state — would agree that this assessment is true.
So then, at first glance, this is a solid proposal that I hope most of the WIAA member schools will support.
Out of 391 schools in the state, 66 would qualify for this opt-down option set at the 60 percent threshold, or 17 percent of all member schools. Two of them reside in Clark County — Fort Vancouver and Hudson’s Bay.
However, 18 of those schools currently compete in Class 1B, so this rule would have no impact on them as there is no lower classification than 1B. Five other schools chose to opt-up in the previous classification cycle.
So that drops the actual impact number down 43 or 11 percent.
But this proposal only deals with half of the problem.
The original proposal had another provision, one that would require any school with fewer than 15 percent of students on free and reduced lunch to opt-up on classification. The portion of the amendment was dropped before it was finalized for a vote.
That was disappointing. I would have hoped that if that provision were dropped, it would have been countered by dropping the opt-down threshold to 50 percent.
There’s another issue with this amendment. The effective date for implementation is the next classification cycle.
As the classification cycle beginning the 2016-17 school year was approved and finalized in January, that means the next classification cycle won’t take place until 2020-21 school year. So relief won’t be happening any time soon.
So while this amendment I think is a good idea, it could have been a better, stronger idea. Problems like the one this one trying to solve required strong, quick action.
The week ahead
It’s the last week of prep sports before spring break. And it figures to be a busy one.
The 4A Greater St. Helens League has four days of league games scheduled in baseball. And the weather looks like it’s going to cooperate. Sunny skies and highs in the 70s are projected for the latter half of the week.
The 3A GSHL opens league play in baseball with games on Tuesday and Friday.
The first 4A GSHL softball games are slated for Wednesday and Friday.
Two of the top girls golf teams in the region, if not the state, will take to the course at Camas Meadows on Tuesday when Union faces Camas.
The weather is going to be great, so get out to a spring event this week.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.
