Reconstituted GNL ventures into a new Frontier
It’s almost as if Marty McFly and Doc Brown jumped into their DeLorean and (with apologies to Huey Lewis and the News) are gonna go back in time.
The newly configured Great Northern League is almost a carbon copy of the Frontier League that formed in 1973 with charter schools that included Clarkston, Pullman, Cheney, Medical Lake, Colville and West Valley.
At varying times from the beginning through the mid-1990s, Deer Park and Riverside were also part of a league that was product of the then-new, WIAA AA sports classification, which like all are enrollment driven.
But the time-space continuum created several alternate realities, including the creation of 3A (the old AA) and new 2A classifications. Out of it came the GNL and eventual demise of the Frontier that formed an alliance with Idaho schools and eventually sent four charter members, East Valley included, into the Greater Spokane League.
The WIAA’s latest enrollment formula, for 2006-08 at least, has reunited the old Frontier pioneers.
“It’s funny how we got jumbled up for a while and now we’re back to where we started,” said Colville football coach Randy Cornwell.
The change should be good for West Valley, Cheney and Clarkston, which dropped down from the GSL. “I always felt we were a 2A team bumped up into a 3A-4A League,” said WV coach Craig Whitney.
But does that bode well for the remainder of the Great Northern League? It makes sense that schools with smaller enrollments now are at a competitive disadvantage.
Not only do Pullman, Colville, Deer Park, Riverside and Medical Lake have to compete against three old chums who for four years cut teeth against teams like Ferris and Mead, but they are in a beefed-up 2A classification statewide.
Teams such as State 3A football power Prosser, third-place 3A basketball finisher Lynden and the Pacific 8 League in Southwest Washington now pose further obstacles.
“It’s going to make it a more challenging league and much more competitive in that classification particularly,” said Pullman athletic director Mike Davis.
But does it necessarily mean that Pullman must now struggle?
“Obviously, it’s more difficult playing schools with more kids than you,” said new Greyhounds gridiron coach Bill Peterson. “But we look forward to the challenge.”
If it doesn’t affect a school that has won all-sports titles statewide and has football, baseball and track state championships to boot since moving into the 2A classification, what does the statewide restructuring mean for Colville, Deer Park, Medical Lake and Riverside?
“The good news,” said Davis, putting a positive spin on things, “is our level (of league) performance will rise accordingly… hopefully.”
Added Cornwell, “Our league has become instantly tougher, but I don’t see that as a bad thing.”
Indeed, the Greyhounds split games with Prosser, losing by three points in 2004 and beating the State 3A finalists last year, a pretty good indicator of what existing GNL schools can do.
If at first blush it looks like the 2A classification’s degree of difficulty rose exponentially, the same can be said for 3A and 1A classifications.
State 4A football champion Skyline and grid playoff qualifier/state basketball placer/baseball power Southridge have dropped down a class. Lakeside and Chewelah, formerly in the GNL, and schools like Cashmere and Chelan that had 2A success are now 1A schools.
The only schools that stood to gain in the enrollment shuffle, as it turns out, were those that remained 4A.
Although the new configuration may not be doing some of the original Great Northern League teams any favors, Davis said the three new additions to the league are closest geographically to Pullman, plus the Greyhounds will revive their rivalry with nearest neighbor, Clarkston.
That’s the advantage of going back to the future.