WIAA’s final figures show few surprises
There were few, if any, surprises when the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s Executive Board released the final enrollment figures and the makeup of its six classifications for fall 2006 on Tuesday.
The Greater Spokane League will remain a 4A/3A combined league with only three 3A schools – East Valley, Mt. Spokane and North Central – out of 11 members. The GSL will lose Cheney, Clarkston and West Valley to the 2A Great Northern League after four years of league membership. Starting next fall, the GNL will have eight members.
Leaving the Great Northern will be Chewelah and Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls), dropping to the Northeast A. Lakeside’s school board decided Monday night not to opt up (move into a classification with enrollment more than its size dictates) to 2A and stay in the GNL. All four current Northeast A members will remain, giving the league six schools.
Gonzaga Prep was one of only two Inland Northwest high schools to opt up. The Bullpups, 2A size with 623 students in grades 10 through 12, will be the smallest 4A school in the state.
The other area school to opt up was Blue Mountain Conference member Waitsburg, which decided to join the larger 2B classification, despite being eight students less than the 1B cutoff line of 87.
The makeup of the Spokane-area B league remains to be determined, as all four leagues have members which will be in both B classifications.
In the Panorama, five of the current 11 members are 2B size (88 to 187), with Wellpinit, after its preliminary numbers were adjusted, one of the smallest 2B schools with 89 students. The Bi-County has seven of its 10 members in the 2B ranks; Whitman County one of seven; and Blue Mountain four of nine.
One of the goals of the WIAA hoped to realize by adding a sixth classification and dividing them by percentages, not hard numbers, was an equal opportunity among schools from the different classifications to compete for state titles.
“The ultimate goal was not to be perfect but to make it more level between the classifications,” WIAA Executive Director Mike Colbrese said. “I think we accomplished that. Is it perfect? No. But it is a lot closer than it was before.”
After 31 schools decided to opt-up (with an unannounced number of others still deciding after being granted deadline waivers), there is still unequal numbers between the classifications. As of Tuesday, the new classifications feature 72 competing schools each in 4A and 3A, 55 in 2A, 63 each in 1A and 2B and 56 in 1B.
“There were two goals we wanted the reach,” Colbrese said. “Not only did we want to equalize the classifications but we also wanted to open some opportunities for the smaller schools. It did the latter. The former will take some time.”
In the Big Nine, athletic directors met Monday but were unable to iron out all the scheduling issues related to having a 14-team combined 4A/3A league. The conference reached that size last Thursday when 3A Sunnyside accepted membership starting in the fall.