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| Published March 10, 2004 :: Home |
Upsetting? Not
Really Day of upsets, right? East Valley’s boys, with the rather underwhelming season record of 13-10, whip up on Steilacoom, which had won 22 of its 23 games. Lakeside’s boys, with an even shakier record than East Valley (13-12), pounds Foster, runner-up to Steilacoom in the West Central District. Pullman’s six-loss girls team holds 20-3 Eatonville to 24 total points. Day of upsets? Naah. Just a tournament playing to form. Since its outset, the Class 2A tournament has been an exercise in the have-nots against the haves, the teams from districts that year-in, year-out compete well and the districts that send teams that historically go two-and-out — unless they happen to play each other, that is. Then it’s usually three-and-out. Not a dis, just fact. Should Hoquiam’s boys or LaCenter’s girls win this tournament, it would go profoundly against tradition. Since 1998, when the WIAA’s classification realignment created the 2A division, teams from the Southwest District and the West Central District have won one title in the boys and none in the girls. Since Elma’s boys won in 1998, in fact, boys teams from those two districts have a combined 32-58 record (.355) in state-tournament play coming into the 2004 tourney. Teams from the CWAC, meanwhile, have gone 49-34 (.590) over that five-year span. “Our league is a monster,” East Valley boys coach Steve Elder said Wednesday. “Any day, you can get your lunch or you can get somebody else their lunch.” The Great Northern Conference was the same way this year, with Medical Lake, Pullman, Chewelah, Riverside and Lakeside beating each other to a pulp every night — with every one of the five capable of nailing down a state-tournament trophy ... and only two got to come through district. “In league play, we play Tuesdays and Fridays, and it’s not like you can prepare for Tuesday’s game and not Friday’s because it’s a challenge every night,” Lakeside coach Ron Cox said after his team’s win. “Our district and league atamosphere is so intense because of the competition, and you get over here and these games — other than the idea that this is state, so in a sense it means more — but these aren’t any more intense than what we’ve been playing all year long. “Just getting out of our district is a great accomplishment.” The Nisqually League and West Central District, on the other hand, comprise an extremely top-heavy situation. Steilacoom had Nisqually League winning margins of 57, 46 (twice) and 40 points. Foster and Eatonville, the other two Nisqually qualifiers to state, won games by 54- and 64-point margins, respectively. None of them lost to anybody else in the 10-team league, and most of the games with those other teams were blowouts. It’s not Steilacoom’s fault that the Sentinels come to state unprepared to be tested. Their league just isn’t testing them. “I put them in the toughest non-league schedule we’ve ever had,” Steilacoom coach Gary Wusterbarth said. In league play, though, “There were probably five teams that were solid and five that weren’t ... and the trouble is, you’re playing these other teams for half your (league) season.” Steilacoom football coach Eric Miller faces the same situation when his team gets into the playoffs. Despite often averaging 40-point victory margins during the league, the Sentinels haven’t advanced past the second round ... ever. “I can guarantee it (ease in regular-season games) is an issue in football,” Miller said. “We roll through the league and we obviously don’t know how to handle the tougher competition in the playoffs.” While talent in high school sports is always cyclical, the West Central and Southwest are still looking for their first real “up” cycle in the 2A ranks. And it’s not just the boys, either. Since the classification change, girls teams from those two districts have a combined 39-70 winning record in state-tournament play. And most of those victories have come against, well, each other. When you stack the two “down cycle” districts against the reigning “up cycle” districts, it gets even more ugly. The winningest two districts in boys 2A history coming into 2004, the Northwest (34-22) and CWAC (52-44), have won 37 of 48 games against teams from the Southwest and West Central.
The top two girls’ districts — the CWAC (65-40) and Northeast (32-20) — are
even tougher on the have-nots. They’re 41-10 against the Southwest and West
Central. Upsets? Naah. Just more of the same.
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