Reorganization could give CBL advantage
The ripple effect
(Posted Jan. 24) I opined (last week in The Spokesman-Review) on the dilemma facing the Greater Spokane League 4A schools relevant to the reorganization in the Columbia Basin.
Next year there will be 11 4A schools in what is now the CBL, and it will increase to 12, a year later, while the GSL will have 7 or maybe 6. School activities coordinators are worried what that might mean for the regionalization concept that began with wrestling in 1972, expanded to basketball in 1988 and subsequently carried over into football, cross country and track.
Regionals were an offshoot of basketball when the WIAA in 1964 ended the 16-team state tournament and created four regions that sent their winner to the State Final Four as it were.
Back then, the top two finishers from the Big Nine and Spokane leagues would meet in the old Coliseum to determine which team advanced. The concept continued into the 1980s before evolving back to today’s 16-team format.
Following the wrestling proponents, who determined that it’s best to risk your berths to assure that the best competitors have chances to win state, the format expanded into the other sports. But GSL activities coordinators are concerned that, with a 2-to-1 school advantage, the Columbia Basin could discard the concept.
Imagine what would happen if the GSL is relegated to one state berth per sport. State tournaments would be compromised. There would be no GSL cross country dominance as in recent years and many of the state’s best teams and runners would stay home. Lewis and Clark would not reign as state football champion. There would be no opportunity for Mead-LC and LC-University state volleyball and basketball finals.
I’m an optimist and believe league administrators will hammer out a fair method to make sure the GSL is not left out in the cold. There could be an 18-wrestler or track regional (including two pigtail matches) or 6-3 regional concept with one play-in game for volleyball and basketball. Football might be problematic, but seed the No. 1 teams and figure out a playoff for the other state berths.
The regional concept is too valuable, assuring the highest quality state tournaments, to abandon because some years a league is just too strong to be given short-shrift. Look at the ebbs and flows of regional wrestling over 36 years and you understand the wisdom of those forward thinking coaches and administrators.
Good teams, great game
(Posted Jan. 25) If you weren’t in attendance (and I’d guess there were more than 2,000 at SFCC where the upper bleachers were open on both sides and fairly full) for the Ferris and Shadle Park boys basketball game last Thursday you missed a dandy.
Ferris had the wherewithal to pull out their second meeting in nearly the same fashion as the first, with a 14-4 scoring spurt during a 4 ½ minute span beginning at the 6:06 mark of the fourth quarter. There were 14 ties or lead changes and no more than six points separated either team.
Jared Karstetter once more showed why coaches voted him MVP last year, with 11 second-half points and 18 overall. He led the Saxons to a first-quarter lead, hit a clutch 3-pointer to break a 42-42 tie in the fourth quarter and made three free throws down the stretch to maintain a lead that had gone to 49-44 with 2:36 left to play.
Both teams battled, particularly on defense where DeAngelo Casto and Aaron Dunn played evenly. Zack Humphrey made three long 3-pointers, the Highlanders had five overall, and finished with 19 points.
It was a great game played by two state-worthy teams.