Gsl Soccer Teams Get Friendly

For years, the season for Greater Spokane League soccer teams was 16 league games and playoffs.

Teams never got to play “friendlies,” as non-league games in soccer are called.

In anticipation of the schedule changing when the league expands after next season, coaches voted to change the soccer format. Instead of playing twice through the league for 16 games, the nine teams would play four non-counting games against GSL teams and four more games on their own before league play began.

Early reaction to the change is positive.

The lone complaint is eight “meaningless” games are too many, but that may also change shortly as coaches and activities directors figure out how to schedule more games against quality unknown opponents.

Working on a short schedule, Mead and Gonzaga Prep got Stadium, a perennial state contender from Seattle, to agree to come to Spokane the second weekend of March.

Snow scuttled those plans. Instead, Mead and Prep, the GSL preseason favorites, shared a bus, whipped over to Seattle, posted 1-0 victories over Stadium and returned.

“It was crazy with all the snow (here),” said bus driver and Gonzaga Prep coach Christian Birrer. “We just decided, probably the day before, what we were going to do.”

Considering a preceding week of indoor practices, the bus drive, games on artificial turf and sleeping in the Stadium wrestling room, the wins were surprising.

“At another point in the season, I don’t think it would be considered an upset,” Birrer said, “but (all things considered), it was probably an upset.”

Birrer said next year Mead and Prep would do something similar with Ballermine Prep, another soccer power from Tacoma, and Stadium. The Stadium games were lined up just months before the season, which is very late to schedule.

“I talked to numerous other coaches on the other side of state and they were excited we had open days,” Birrer said. “It should be a breeze getting teams to come over, not to mention the access we have to Tri-City teams and Frontier League teams. It was a matter of choosing what teams we wanted to play. Next year will be easier now that we have a sense of what we want to do.”

Prep and Mead may team up again to travel in the future.

“It was nice to do,” Birrer said. “It was good for the kids, it was more than just soccer. I don’t think we were making friends as much as it was nice to meet with your opponent off the field. Most of those kids are friends anyway, they play on the same club teams.”

League play began Wednesday. GSL matches will be played on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Leader of the pack

Mead’s State AAA girls basketball championship boosted the school past Ferris in the Tacoma News Tribune all-sports standings.

Mead has 104 points and Ferris, which had the third-place team in girls basketball, has 97. Kamiakin, second in the AAA girls tournament, is fourth with 72 points.

No area school is in the top 10 of the AA standings. Gig Harbor has a huge 157-86 lead over Blanchet.

In Class A, Lakeside and Chewelah are tied for fourth with 76 points. Ridgefield leads with 102.

Morton is leading in Class B with 74 points, 10 ahead of Wilbur-Creston, the volleyball champion, St. John-Endicott, the girls basketball champion, and Pateros, the boys basketball champion. Davenport, the B-11 football champion, is fifth with 56 points, four ahead of St. George’s.

Mead won the year-long competition the past seven years. St. George’s was the B winner last year.

Notable

Tom Moore, who has built Prosser into a Class AA football power, turned down an opening at Wenatchee.

Oregon City’s Brad Smith has been selected high school coach of the year by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.

Smith led the Pioneers to their second straight finish as the nation’s top high school girls basketball team in the USA Today rankings. Oregon City won its third straight Class 4A state title and its fourth in five years.

Smith will get the award Friday at a luncheon held in conjunction with the NCAA women’s Final Four at Charlotte, N.C.

The Mead girls, Washington State AAA champions for the third time in the 90s, were ranked 10th in the West in the final USA Today rankings

, DataTimes