Nice having eastern WIAA presence

It’s nice having John Miller at the WIAA. The former Mead and Mt. Spokane teacher, coach and athletic director understands eastern Washington concerns and is always available to lend and ear and a voice. I talked with him this week about a number of things, including about this week’s Prep Page column about the state of sports funding and its affect on successful athletic programs.

Topics ranged from: Mead’s ability to avoid fund-raising for state transportation; to the loss of some $40,000 in revenue when pop machines were removed from schools to combat obesity at the expense of athletes which promote fitness; to the future of state tournaments.

Miller wasn’t sure that basketball is in for much change, although he did say a sub-committee has been brain-storming. An amendment is possibly forthcoming to create a private school classification instead of two B classes, he said. A return to the traditional small city B tournament is looking more attractive since the split into 1B and 2B. The smallest school tournaments haven’t taken off creating a longing for the good old days of the Buzzin’ B in Spokane. He said schools are deciding, “it’s not as much fun when when there’s not as much hoopla.”

There has been talk of changing formats - cutting the number of teams, reducing days, and going to single elimination, but “what do you do?” Miller asked. “The feeling is that once you get there you might as well get two games.” It was like the decision - generally opposed by coaches -  to put all eastern Washington football teams on the same side of the bracket to save gas money. It seemed like a good idea until teams saw which other teams were in their half bracket. Whatever happens, he said, is a no-win situation.

Also, here’a s linke to my Prep Page feature today on Gonzaga Prep guard Sean Fischer