Sometimes long way is right way

Speaking prior to last week’s game against Freeman, Colfax football coach Mike Morgan said his team could reach the state playoffs by “either going through the tunnel in the mountain, or climbing up the mountain, through the trees and over a cliff to reach the other side.”

In other words, the Bulldogs could win the Northeast A League by beating the Scotties and stay home for a state qualifying playoff game against the Caribou Trail League’s fourth finisher.

Or, even by losing, Colfax could still reach state by a more difficult route, as is the case Friday, with a win at Caribou No. 2 finisher Okanogan.

Either way, at least the opportunity was available thanks to a formula borrowed from the Greater Spokane and Columbia Basin blueprint begun years ago.

The NEA and Caribou Trail have pooled their total state berths and formed an eight-team regional football alliance. Up for grabs this Friday are four spots on the State 1A bracket.

Such state preliminary games are the ultimate in risk/reward. Teams that ordinarily wouldn’t make the postseason get an opportunity to qualify because those already assured a berth are willing to take a chance.

Putting it together wasn’t necessarily easy because of past results in other regionalized sports between the leagues, said Morgan.

“In the old days there were hard feelings between Caribou Trail and the Northeast A when our girls swept everything in volleyball and basketball,” he said.

With expansion in the Caribou Trail, former 2A teams accustomed to such a playoff formula were amenable to the idea.

Mind you, when football playoffs begin this week games technically are preliminaries to state, not state per se. There are 16 4A and 3A, even more 1A “play-in” or qualifying games which ipso facto at least doubles the size of many Washington Interscholastic Activities Association state championships.

Class 2A has 11 such qualifying games (excluding the Great Northern League, which sends its two teams directly into the state round of 16). The Northeast and Southeast 1B leagues cross over five teams each in preliminary qualifiers to the eight-team 8-man football championships. Only the State 2B seeds its bracket strictly by league.

There’s something noble about such play-in concepts. It’s not often that anyone willingly sacrifices a sure thing, yet coaches have agreed in order to make certain that the best teams and individuals advance to state.

The concept works. Last weekend, for instance, Greater Spokane League cross country had eight of the available 10 state qualifying teams. Columbia Basin League (the old Big Nine) football has a 30-9 advantage since leagues went to the eight- (or six-) team preliminaries in 1996. Without that willingness to pool, not all those teams would have advanced.

Surely self-interest is involved in the NEA/Caribou Trail alliance. It’s no-lose for coaches gambling that their third- and fourth-place league finishers will earn a second chance at state. There has been a resultant financial windfall.

But it’s admirable that league top-finishing coaches will risk foregoing the tunnel for rugged terrain knowing the potential consequences. We could all learn by their example.