PREPS

There is a lot of inaccurate information being posted on Mike Vlahovich's Prep Report blog - not by Mike but by readers commenting on his recent Gonzaga Prep post. Most of the pronlem posts concern the sites for the state semifinals.

Let me try to clear it up a little.

The WIAA mandates state semifinal football games have to be at WIAA-approved sites. First round and quarterfinal games can be on home sites, but not semifinals (if they are not on the WIAA-approved list - this is a clarification of an earlier statement). As part of having the finals at the Tacoma Dome, the WIAA has all the West Side semifinals there as well. Coaches I have talked to over the years like this, because it gives their teams an opportunity to play on the surface – which is new this year – and in the facility prior to the championships. Some have even told me they thought it was a big advantage to play in the Dome semifinal week.

Over on this side of the state, the WIAA has approved certain stadiums for semifinal play. They include Albi (though last year, with the old turf, Albi was out of the rotation), Martin Stadium, Pasco's Edgar Brown and Kennewick's Lampson Stadium.

Now, whether you play on the East Side or West Side is all determined by the bracket. If Eastlake had held on and defeated G-Prep last week, the Oak Harbor-Eastlake game would have been at the Tacoma Dome.

And, if the school districts hadn't replaced the turf at Albi Stadium last summer, this Saturday's G-Prep-Oak Harbor game would have been in either Pullman or, more likely, the Tri-Cities.

As for the game-time change, the first times posted on the WIAA website are usually not official. The official times, in my experience, don't usually get determined until late Monday morning, after all the calls are made and all the site schedules worked out. If you want to read about a real time snafu, check out this post by Rene Ferran concerning Saturday's Kamiakin game.

By the way, there's a real good chance there will be snow showers Saturday.

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