Rep Assembly rejects GSL’s proposal regarding forfeits

Though the addition of a new classification garnered most of the attention, the WIAA’s Representative Assembly acted on other amendments Friday in its annual meeting at Emerald Downs.

The Assembly turned down by a 26-27 vote an amendment proposed by the Greater Spokane League to change the way districts deal with forfeits due to ineligible players.

The GSL proposal, which needed 32 votes to pass, would have allowed the WIAA’s districts to consider extenuating circumstances before ruling on a game forfeit. Currently, the use of an ineligible player in a team sport forces an automatic forfeiture, no matter how inconsequential the ineligible player’s contribution.

“The districts that voted against wouldn’t discuss why they were against it,” Cheney principal Tom Gresch said. “My best assumption is they don’t trust each other. I can only assume they have so many differences within their districts, they can’t come to a consensus on this amendment.”

In other key amendments, the Assembly voted 35-0 to change to a proportion of the schools participating in a sport (from a fixed number) in deciding whether to hold a state tournament in that classification.

Under the new guidelines, if less than 30 percent of a classification’s schools participate in the sport, there would be no state tournament. If 30 to 59 percent participate, an eight-team tournament would be held. Sixty percent or more would necessitate a 16-team tournament.

The Assembly also voted 26-9 to allow two-day tennis tournaments to be counted as one day, as long as only semifinalists advance to a second day. This is the case at Spokane’s 59-year-old Inland Empire Tennis Tournament.

The Assembly also expanded, on a vote of 28-7, the number of matches each wrestler can compete in during the season. Washington wrestlers will be able to wrestle 33 matches in 2006 instead of 29. The length of the season was not changed.

The change should allow the midlevel wrestler, who usually wrestles more matches in a tournament’s consolation bracket, to compete in another tournament during the year.