And may the best team advance

The state football playoffs this fall will be different. But, for the Greater Spokane League’s teams, the change may not help.

The WIAA this summer did away with an antiquated rule – instituted during the energy crisis of the mid-‘70s – that forced the 4A Eastside schools to face off against other Eastside schools in the first two rounds of the state playoffs.

This rule, designed to cut down on travel, didn’t affect the other classifications as drastically or dramatically. For example, because there are considerably fewer 3A schools on this side of the state, the Cascade Curtain really only draped over the first round.

This year’s format, pushed by the Big Nine Conference, will allow the four 4A playoff teams from our side of the Cascades to face Westside schools in the first round of the tournament and means, for the first time, two Eastside schools could meet in the state title game. Two of the Eastsiders will be in one side of the 16-team bracket, two on the other.

The reason the Big Nine pressed for this is obvious. Since 1996, when the GSL and Big Nine agreed to meet in four play-in games on Tuesdays prior to the tourney start, there have been only two years when a Big Nine school hasn’t been in the state final (one was 1997, when Central Valley won it all).

Usually, the toughest competition en route has been another Big Nine school.

But will this help the GSL much? The league’s four 4A representatives still must survive the Big Nine on play-in Tuesday, when the GSL’s top two teams host and the other two travel.

In those games the GSL has been, let’s put it kindly, putrid. Too harsh? Check out the numbers.

How about 7-25? Or 4-7?

The first is the GSL’s record in the Tuesday night matchups. The second is the record between the two leagues in all other state playoff games.

All of that, of course, is since 1996, when the leagues pooled their four state playoff allocations, bringing in the Tuesday round of games.

Prior, the GSL more than held its own against the Big Nine – and the rest of the state. Don Anderson’s Gonzaga Prep teams were 15-5 against Big Nine schools from 1976 to 1993, and went on to the state championship game in 1977, ‘82, ‘85, ‘86 and ‘87.

But it was that run of success that may have sown the seeds of the GSL’s recent poor harvest.

“At some point, and I think it stems back to when Don Anderson was at Gonzaga and Ed Troxel was at Kennewick, (the Big Nine) was tired of getting beat by Gonzaga,” said East Valley coach Adam Fisher, who observed those years as a player and an assistant coach west of the mountains. “Kennewick was the power of the Big Nine in the ‘80s, and people in the Big Nine were tired of getting beat by Kennewick. And Kennewick was tired of getting beat by Gonzaga.

“So that raised the level of play for everyone. Pasco got better, then Richland, then Walla Walla got tired of getting beat, so they got better.”

Now the pendulum has turned, and it’s the GSL schools getting waxed.

So how did the Big Nine make the change?

One big reason is there is no dominant program, no G-Prep of the ‘80s, in the GSL anymore.

The closest now is probably Lewis and Clark, which has missed the play-in round only twice in the eight years. But the Tigers have yet to win.

Of course, it’s not much better anywhere else, seeing as the GSL is 2-14 in the past four years of play-in games.

The other, and most important, reason is the Big Nine just got better.

“The Big Nine about eight, nine years ago put a great deal of emphasis on football, and their other sports suffered,” Mt. Spokane coach Mike McLaughlin said. “You see more well-rounded athletic programs in the GSL, which we strive to reach. We continue to push our kids to be multisport athletes.

“A lot of GSL schools have upped the ante in the summertime, to try and match what the Big Nine is doing; they are as close to year-round programs as you’re going to get.”

McLaughlin doesn’t think that is the only reason for the Big Nine’s success – he also cited bigger schools, a run of excellent athletes and a better scouting system – but he does think it is the major one, and one he doesn’t like.

“Specialization is not a good thing. I’m totally against it; it cheats kids out of experiences,” he said, and he’s right.

But it just might help the Big Nine on those Tuesday nights.