Toss Of A Coin Demolishes Tiger Football Playoff Hopes

Thu., Nov. 14, 1996

John Miller Correspondent

A coin toss ended the Lewis and Clark football team’s playoff dreams.

The Tigers’ victory over Gonzaga Prep put LC in a third-place tie, but LC lost the coin toss with Gonzaga Prep and Central Valley.

Their season over, LC players are understandably dejected.

“You work four years for a chance to go to the playoffs, then it’s decided by a toss of a coin,” said senior Chris Sherlock, an offensive end and inside linebacker. “It’s mostly hard on the seniors.”

Ties previously were not decided by coin toss. The Greater Spokane League in three of the last five years used a Kansas tiebreaker to break ties.

In that method, each team involved got a chance to score from the opposing team’s 25-yard line.

But when post-season play was expanded this year to include four teams from both the GSL and Big Nine - in the past only first- and second-place teams from the leagues had qualified - an extra Tuesday night playoff game was added. As a consequence, there simply wasn’t enough time this week to play a Kansas tiebreaker.

Enter the coin toss.

When the GSL and Big Nine officials agreed last May to these changes in the playoff format, administrators and coaches saw the potential problem and eventually decided that a coin flip was the easiest resolution.

“Under the circumstances we were faced with, the coaches agreed that after head-to-head competition and after total points for wins were compiled, if it wasn’t resolved at that point, then it would be resolved through a coin toss,” said Ray Hare, GSL football coordinator.

LC coach Hook said he is waiting for a Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association sports committee meeting Dec. 16 before deciding whether to push for changes in the tie-breaker rule.

Hook did say one solution would be to begin the regular season a week earlier, which some GSL coaches and administrators had supported doing last year. Hook said that would give teams enough time to settle any ties in the standings on the field instead of by flipping a coin.

An extra week would also give teams a chance to recuperate from the regular season, Hook said.

“The current format is not ideal, preparationwise or healthwise,” he said.

This isn’t the first time LC has lost out in a tiebreaker. Since 1986, three losses in Kansas tiebreakers have crushed Tiger playoff hopes.

But winding up on the wrong side of a coin, says senior captain Bryce Stack, hurts even more.

“I was very, very disappointed. We had a really good season (5-3, including a win over South Side rival Ferris),” Stack said. “Until the coin toss.”

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