Time to devour a cornucopia of prep miscellanea
Writing a column such as what follows is comparable to cleaning out the refrigerator. You rummage around the back, find the stuff that’s been sitting around a while, check the expiration dates and keep what’s worthwhile. Before you’re done, you’ve gained three pounds. Ooh, chocolate-covered peanuts.
Bon appetit. …
The fall playoffs are about ready to start, and there are some changes, especially for 4A and 3A schools.
The GSL will advance the usual four boys cross country teams to state, but, because of one school outside the area not fielding a girls squad, only three girls teams will move on. It’s all about the state formula and an equation only slightly less dense than Joule’s mechanical equivalent of heat, so don’t ask. Safe to say the GSL gets the berth back next year. Twenty individuals will also move on, as in the past.
Football will be different as well. The four 4A Tuesday night games with the Big Nine will still lead into the playoffs, as in the past. The winners will square off, but the two ensuing games will be on opposite sides of the bracket. That means if two teams from one league continue to win, they would only meet in the finals.
The 3A is similar, with the GSL and Mid-Valley meeting in play-in games and the winners on opposite sides of the bracket.
The other sports look a lot like previous years, though the state volleyball tournament is a week earlier this year (Nov. 5 and 6), thanks to a Disney ice show scheduled at the Everett Events Center.
I will refrain from Mickey Mouse references. …
The Spokane Stars girls basketball elite team had another successful summer, probably the most successful in its nearly 20-year history.
The next step is starting, as the seniors from the team announce their college choices. Riverside’s Angela Hartill, a 6-foot-3 post, kicked it off with her choice of New Mexico, and Lewis and Clark’s 5-8 point guard Briann January picked Arizona State. U-Hi’s Jami Bjorklund, a 5-11 forward, announced this week she’s staying home and going to Gonzaga.
All this adds up to one inescapable conclusion: Girls basketball in our area is pretty good. …
Going a little farther afield, Streets and Smith’s College Basketball preview magazine ranked Garfield’s girls team No. 20 in the nation. The Bulldogs return five starters from last year’s 4A runner-up team, all five of whom were named honorable mention All-Americans by the magazine.
One of those returning is 5-9 point guard Malia O’Neal, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Player of the Year. O’Neal mentioned in a recent PI story she’s limited her college search to three schools: UNLV, Pepperdine and Arizona State. Yes, the same ASU that January’s committed to and where Central Valley point guard Reagan Pariseau will attend as a freshman this year.
Could get crowded at the point there. …
The last note on recruiting comes from Pasco, where last Thursday running back Leon Jackson announced he would attend Nebraska . Jackson, who still needs a qualifying SAT or ACT score to be eligible as a freshman, is averaging more than 17 yards a carry for the 4A top-ranked Bulldogs. …
Boys high school basketball coaches around the state are being polled about adding a shot clock. Girls already use a 30-second clock and the WIAA would like to standardize the two. An earlier proposal before the WIAA’s Executive Board would have dropped the clock from the girls game, but it was defeated after an outcry from some girls coaches.
A quick survey of area coaches indicated most are happy with the game the way it is, but they expect the WIAA to add the clock next year.
Why is a shot clock needed? It’s not like the game is broken. To quote Emerson, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.