Two Bs should not be

Let’s start with an existential question. Why do things have to change?

Now let’s put it in basketball terms. Why did the State B tournament have to change?

I have no answer for the first, other than to say that’s just the way life is. Deal with it.

For the second, I have no answer either, other than to say it didn’t have to. It was a foolish idea to split the classification in two a year ago, and it’s foolish now.

And now we are dealing with it.

Let’s recap. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s schools decided to add a sixth classification of athletic competition, starting last fall. The five classifications were split into six, divided proportionally. The change left each classification with fewer schools and the B class – the state’s smallest schools – split in two.

The 1B consists of the state’s smallest 55 schools that have athletics. The 2B, the next 63. In the past, most of those 118 schools would be trying to make the State B basketball tournament in Spokane, a tradition that’s been around longer than I have.

This year, 16 boys and 16 girls teams will start the 1B tournament in Yakima this Wednesday. That’s 29.1 percent of the schools in the classification playing in the state tournament. The 2B tournament will be a little better, with 25.4 percent playing at state next week in Spokane.

In other words, more than one of every four 1B schools in Washington made the state tournament. Wow, what an honor.

There are boys’ teams in Yakima this week with records of 9-13, 8-15, 11-15, 11-11 and 12-10. The best of the best.

Yes, we know these teams qualified following the same criteria as everyone else – and the magnitude of their effort is to be praised – but it is the criterion that’s worth criticizing.

A state championship is something special – or at least should be. But every time you devalue its worth, you devalue the accomplishment.

If Sunnyside Christian’s boys, who come into the 1B tournament this season 22-0, win four games – possibly all against teams who enter the tournament at .500 or worse – finish 26-0 and take home the gold ball, will it mean as much as the school’s 2002 or 2005 titles?

That 2005 title came at the end of a four-day run through tough teams, including the title game against Willapa Valley, an experienced team from a much bigger school.

It marked the fourth time in six years a boys’ team from a smaller school, now classified as 1B, had won the title. Still the Knights’ win was an upset, a triumph for the little guy.

But that won’t happen again. Not this year – or anymore.

In the name of giving more students an opportunity at a state tournament, the B is no longer, replaced by two Bs (not to be confused with the 2B, which will hold its state tournament in Spokane next week).

But the goal of equal opportunity in state championships has always been a sham anyway.

With the reclassification, there are 55 1B schools with no more than 87 students in each. Even if every school had the maximum number of students (they don’t), that would mean there are about 4,700 total students in the 1B classification, or the size of a couple 4A schools.

Do we need a state tournament for each two 4A schools then?

Of course the answer is no. Just like we didn’t need another B tournament.

Next week, when the Republics and the Willapa Valleys and the Northwest Christians of the state file into the Arena in an attempt to win a 2B boys or girls title, the Sprague-Harringtons, the Sunnyside Christians, the St. John-Endicotts will be at home. That’s too bad. It’s the result of wrong decision.

But one we are left to deal with.