The postseason is upon us in Idaho and Washington wrestling and boys and girls basketball. From here until the first weekend in March it's going to be a roller coaster for yours truly. But I love - LOVE - this time of the winter season. And I'm especially enjoying the sunshine today.
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The Greater Spokane League boys and girls basketball teams are in their next-to-last week of regular-season play.
If I read it right, the Central Valley girls (15-0 overall, 13-0 league), top ranked in the state, can clinch no worse than a share of the league championship and the top seed to the District 8 4A tournament when the Bears travel to surging Shadle Park (10-6, 9-5) Tuesday. Tipoff is at 7.
** The Freeman boys and girls each secured Northeast A League championships. The District 7 1A boys tourney begins Friday and the girls get started Saturday.
** Over in Idaho, the 4A Region I girls tourney begins Tuesday with No. 3 Sandpoint at No. 2 Lakeland. The winner advances to play at No. 1 Moscow on Thursday. The tourney concludes next week.
The 5A Region I tourney begins Friday at either Coeur d'Alene or Lewiston. Lewiston finishes regular-season play Tuesday with a home game against Lake City. A Lewiston win gives the Bengals a share of the league title with Coeur d'Alene. With that a distinct possibility, a coin flip was held Saturday to determine the top two seeds and which school would host the first night of the regional. School officials decided not to release the outcome of the coin flip until after Tuesday's game.
** In Washington, wrestlers begin the pursuit of state berths this weekend.
3:40 p.m. Jan 30
In case you missed it, here it is:
The new “CBL” 3A/4A league has been formed and athletic directors will meet to build schedules soon. Sunnyside opted to stay with the CBBN league and be the only 3A team. They will be included in 3A playoffs down south for two years until they are 4A eligible in 2014.
Kind of surprised that Moses Lake, being 66 miles from the Wenatchee schools and 120 from the Yakima schools, wouldn’t consider asking to be in the GSL. Being a 4A school, they would bring to 6 our GSL number of 4A’s thus allowing 2 births to State every other year. The league they are now in will always generate 1. And, here’s the big change. The 4A CBBN schools have told the CBL league to go play in traffic. They will NOT schedule games with them!!! Period. So, the CBBN is going to take their one birth and say’ “see you at State”. BIG departure from the way it was. Wouldn’t be surprised if this carried on for years as I hear the North schools are livid. Anyway, here is the look for 2012.
2012 CBL 4A
Chiawana
Pasco
Walla Walla
Richland
2012 GSL 4A
Central Valley
Ferris
G-Prep
Lewis & Clark
Mead
2012 CBBN 4A
Davis
Eastmont
Eisenhower
Moses Lake
Wenatchee
2012 CBL 3A
Hanford
Kamiakin
Kennewick
Southridge
2012 GSL 3A
Mt. Spokane
North Central
Rogers
Shadle Park
University
2012 CBL 3A
Sunnyside
4:54 p.m. Jan 30
Hey why no love for the GNL… Some tight races going on there.. You probably have the best player in the state playing the GNL and still barely a mention!!
9:05 a.m. Jan 31
If that is the case, then it looks like the 4A schools in GSL, CBL and CBBN will each get one berth to state in all sports. Unless one or more of those leagues agree to pool their berths in a regional setup the way we were formerly doing.
If the GSL goes to separate 4A and 3A divisions there would seem to be lots of opportunities for non-league games in all sports with the CBL and CBBN. If you were GP, LC or Ferris, would you rather play a competitive game with Wenatchee or a blowout with Rogers? (although Rogers is competitive in boys basketball and baseball).
Hope the GSL thinks out of the box.
10:45 a.m. Jan 31
Here is a link to the Tri-Cities Herald regarding the break-up of the CBBN:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/01/28/1804959/its-official-tri-cities-wa-hi.html
I don’t understand the motivation. The travel could not have been that big a deal.
2:11 p.m. Jan 31
Honestly, Al - I’d rather see LC/Rogers or G-Prep/Rogers…those are old school, time-honored thru the generations matchups. And, while the Pirates have had a bit of a rough go lately, they are improving under Coach Miethe and, someday, somehow, they will beat one of the bigger, scarier schools.
Though the wins are few and far between, when Rogers beats Prep or LC those are held as legendary moments for Hillyard.
I feel the same way about North Central though they are really fighting an uphill battle in terms of enrollment. It would not surprise me to see them start considering dropping to 2A - the competition balance is just too great.
I’d really like to see two divisions in basketball and baseball. Play all the schools of similar size twice and the smaller/larger other division schools once. It still maintains the old rivalries but allows for a little flexibility in non-conference scheduling.
3:29 p.m. Jan 31
You could still do “traditional” games like GP vs. Rogers (but honestly, I don’t think it has been a rivalry since about 1970 when Rogers was known as “Dave Wood High School” after their 4-sport star (football, basketball, baseball and track).).
You could still schedule non-league traditional games, but honestly, I suspect Rogers would rather play a 2A team once in awhile. The 4A schools would have to stop worrying about getting criticized for running up the score. I am not trying to slam Rogers. I know they have some dedicated staff up there. But a double-digit losing streak in GSL football is not good for anybody. Also, their girls basketball team has only recently started scoring more than 19 points a game for the first time in 2 years.
They do well in some sports like boys basketball, baseball and some other sports, and they deserve credit for that. I am just saying that Rogers and NC would benefit greatly if they did not have to play the 4A schools in a round-robin schedule. in some sports. I agree with the divisional concept.