In a way, this year's profound changes in the high
school state basketball tournaments -- essentially, from four-day, 16-team
tournaments to three-day, eight-team events preceded the previous weekend by
regional-site games -- has been coming for a long time.
"It's been discussed probably at least the last 15
years," said Mike Colbrese, executive director of the Washington
Interscholastic Activities Association. "There were actually two different
communities -- maybe three -- that have discussed the issue of revamping
state basketball tournaments, but could never get any traction over which
way to go."
Why, then, are so many athletic directors and coaches
around the state responding as if they've been run over by a truck that came
out of nowhere?
Some of the responses by a Herald-Republic statewide
survey of athletic directors, coaches, principals and superintendents
indicate a certain unrest in the ranks.
From an athletic director in the Class 3A Metro League:
"I'm sorry, but if our kids are playing in a regional-site game at Mountlake
Terrace or some other high school and that's as far as they go, you can't
tell me that's a state-tournament experience."
From an AD in Southwest Washington's Class 2B Central
League: "We felt like in our league, our district, that it was just rammed
through and we didn't have a voice."
From an AD in the 3A Seamount League: "My name's not
going to be mentioned, right? Well, I would have preferred to stay at 16."
From a coach in the Class 1A Caribou Trail League: "We
all got blindsided. It's the most ridiculous thing the state has done in,
maybe, ever."
* * * * *
That something needed to be done, particularly at the
3A and 4A level, was a generally accepted premise.
The 4A tournament has seen its attendance dwindle from
33,098 in 2006 to 27,269 last winter, while 3A numbers have dropped from
28,871 in '06 to 23,140 last year -- when they actually went up nearly 4,000
over 2009's abysmal turnout. Consolation-bracket games at the big-school
state tourneys at the Tacoma Dome have routinely been played before
near-empty grandstands.
The WIAA's ill-advised two-year experiment of moving
the 3A tourney to Seattle for 2007 and 2008 was another factor. Instead of
renewing interest in the event, it resulted in a financial bloodletting for
the WIAA. The change in venues ran up an additional $120,000 in expenses
while actually bringing in fewer spectators than the event had drawn in
Tacoma.
For those very reasons, a lot of school administrators
are very supportive of the new format. Among 80 athletic directors surveyed
by the Herald-Republic, a majority of large-school (4A and 3A) support the
change, and a handful of smaller-school ADs do as well.
"We're fine with the change," said Jim Clem, athletic
director at Class 2A Burlington-Edison. "We think with the state that we're
in, as far as education goes and the budget cuts every district is facing,
we're all looking for ways to save money.
"As much as we would like to see the 16-team tournament
stay in place, we also realize that in order to have sports, we need to make
some changes so we can afford to have them."
Brenda Terpstra, another 2A AD at Mount Baker, agreed.
"In a perfect world and from a competitive standpoint,
I'd like to stay with the 16," she said.
"But it's a money issue, and it will save schools
money."
* * * * *
Whether the measure becomes money-saving for schools,
though, may depend a lot on where those schools are. Many smaller-school
representatives were in favor of the regional-site format only to change
their mind when they got a look at the regional brackets, which the WIAA
released this week.
"We could send our girls to Walla Walla and our boys to
Mountlake Terrace (for regional-site games)," said athletic director Charlie
Groth of Class 1B Curlew, which is in northeast Washington, a five-hour
drive from one site
and six hours from the other.
"That means double the transportation costs and,
depending on the game times, probably extra lodging costs. If we have good
teams that are fortunate enough to make it all the way to the final day, it
will end up costing us a lot more."
In 2B, a team from District 6 in North Central
Washington could end up playing its regional-site games 5 1/2 hours away in
Longview, and 1A boys and girls teams from Tonasket near the Canadian border
could end split between Wenatchee and Spokane.
Gary Smith, the girls coach at Okanogan, said making
long road trips on consecutive weekends makes it "much more dangerous" for
some fans.
"I know with the way (the tournament format) has been,
Yakima is a long trip, but it's one trip. They go down there, stay there
until it's over and come home," Smith said. "The first time some players'
grandparents gets killed on the highway coming back from one of these
regional trips will be one too many."
Brewster principal Linda Dezellem said fans should
never have to choose between following their school's boys or girls team.
"Sport is all about the family, and when you make them
have to choose, that's not right," Dezellem said. "I always thought WIAA was
behind the family. I'm kind of upset."
Clearly, Dezellem was not alone.
The Herald-Republic's straw poll asked a simple
question of 121 individuals at 101 schools of all sizes in all corners of
the state: From your perspective at your school, do you 1) support of the
change to the new regional-site, then eight-team final tournament format; 2)
prefer staying at the previous four-day, 16-team format; or 3) wish to see a
split, with the large schools going to the new, eight-team format and leave
the 2A-and-smaller schools in their traditional 16-team format.
The overall results found only 31, including 28
athletic directors, in favor of the new format; 56, half of them ADs, wanted
to stay in the old format; 16 wanted to see the big/small-school split; and
eight opted to take a wait-and-see approach.
Surprisingly, of 17 principals and superintendents
polled -- only one of them from District 5, serving this part of the state
-- only two liked the new format.
And coaches, well, they pretty much hated it.
"Somebody just flat turned their brain off," said
Smith, the Okanogan coach, "when they dreamed this thing up."
East Valley (Yakima) girls coach Robi Raab scoffed at
the "Hardwood Classic name the WIAA has given its new format.
"It's a classic, all right," Raab said. "It's a classic
mistake."
