East Wants Cap Put On Dome Games

Coaches whose teams played state football semifinal games on the East Side of the state would like to see their games moved inside, or better yet, West Side semifinals moved outside.

Currently, the west semifinals are played in the Tacoma Dome, the site of Gridiron Classic the following weekend.

The big complaints are dehydration and fatigue, rather than the surface or surroundings.

WIAA executive director Mike Colbrese said the Kibbie Dome at the University of Idaho could be an option but most Eastern Washington teams would prefer to play in Washington.

The WIAA did try to get the semifinals involving Colfax and Pullman in the Kibbie Dome but it was booked.

Colbrese said if pressure from the East grows, it is more likely the West would move outside than the east moving inside at UI.

Honorables mentioned

Three All-State teams have been announced and another is due out next week.

The Tacoma News-Tribune and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer select one team for the state, obviously dominated by big schools and college prospects.

Newberry’s Washington Prep Football Report selects two teams, a big-school team (4A, 3A) and a small-school team (2A, 1A, B-11, B-8) and has second-team selections for both.

Only the Associated Press team has separate teams for each classification. Those will be announced next week. AP has the only All-State team voted on after all games are played.

Ron Newberry picked Central Valley defensive lineman Wil Beck as his 4A player of the year, but Beck was left off the TNT team.

CV linebacker Garret Graham made the TNT, P-I and Newberry teams. Beck made the P-I and Newberry teams along with Gonzaga Prep defensive back Shane Hartnett. Mead linebacker Ossim Hatem was selected by the TNT and was on Newberry’s second team.

First-team small-school selections by Newberry include Nick Bates (RB) of Colton, Jacob Keck (OL) and Tyson Curtis (DB) of Colfax, Scott Huston (OL) and Brandon Moore (DL) of Medical Lake, Josh Parrish (DL) and Fred Sunday (LB) of Chewelah and Justin Greger (P) of Freeman.

On Newberry’s second team are Aaron Carr (RB) of Medical Lake, Tony Adams (OL) of Reardan, Nate Brown (WR) of Pullman, Jared Praetorius (DL) of Odessa and Nik Bergman (LB) of Davenport.

Second time a charm

Colfax coach Doug Curtis retired after he led the Bulldogs to the 1981 state championship but returned in 1984.

“I said I’d do it for one year,” he said in Tacoma. “And look what happened.”

He said before the Bulldogs’ heartbreaking 22-20 loss to Lynden Christian he was considering retirement again.

The loss would be enough to make anyone retire. The Lyncs won when Rob Dykstra kicked a 19-yard field goal on the final play of the game. It was his first field goal of the season.

Afterward, Curtis said he hadn’t made up his mind.

The final numbers

The two Friday games of Gridiron Classic drew 6,385 fans. Saturday’s four games drew 12,153. … Not counting 2A, considered the new classification for records, 25 records were set or tied in the other five games at Gridiron Classic. CV had seven, tying for points (49), first downs (22) and PATs (seven by Greg Papich) and setting marks in total yards (480), individual carries and rushing (28 for 254 by Tyree Clowe) and interceptions (three by Justin Folkins).

The final word

“I’d like to thank my offensive line. Without them this wouldn’t be possible.”

Wil Beck, CV offensive lineman after scoring the last touchdown of the season on a “fumble-rooskie” play.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Dave Trimmer The Spokesman-Review