Steve Christilaw: Complaining and blaming WIAA is the easy route

There’s an old joke that says “everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”

Yeah, it’s more ironic than funny.

Turns out it’s true for more things than we care to admit.

Complaining is easy. Complaining vents a little anger, exorcises a few inner demons and lets us get back to what we were otherwise preoccupied not doing and ultimately accomplishes nothing.

Complaining is, literally, the least you can do.

You can blame Sir Isaac Newton, who not only failed to account for fallout while resting under an apple tree, but also quantified the problem with his first law of motion.

Objects in motion remain in motion; objects at rest remain at rest.

That also explains my philosophy of personal exercise. The latter part, not the former.

For as long as I can remember, one of the topics guaranteed to get me, and a good number of others, out of that chair for a good long rant has been the way the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has divvied up playoff spots.

To be blunt, the system has always favored teams from Western Washington.

The WIAA is made up of representatives from its member schools. It’s is democratic and demographic both. That simple fact gives Western Washington a greater voice in deciding such things as who plays where in the post-season by virtue of the simple fact that more people in this state live west of the Cascade mountains.

That played out in ways that have been unfair to Eastern Washington schools and their leagues. For years, they would invariably be paired against a league opponent in the first round of the playoffs.

For a league like the Class 2A Great Northern League, what already faces each other three times during the regular season and again in the district playoffs to determine postseason seeding, that fact falls into a category that can be best described as cruel and unusual punishment.

But I give the WIAA credit. It moves at a glacial pace sometimes, but it does move toward fixing what’s broke. If we all live long enough, it will someday be close to an even playing field between Eastern and Western Washington.

In years past, the WIAA would announce how the football playoffs would be paired before the season starts – inequalities and all.

No more.

This year, the WIAA implemented a set of committees made up of coaches, administrators and media members that will determine seeding for the 2018 high school football playoffs.

It’s a fine idea. Bring together voices from across the state with varying perspectives to hammer out a playoff hierarchy.

Except that, well, there are 32 members on these committees. One member is from Spokane and there are just three coaches from Eastern Washington named to the committee.

And I am not blaming the WIAA at all for that under representation. Not one bit.

No complaining about the committee allocations from me. No sir.

The WIAA accepted applications for committee assignments. Football coaches could apply. Former football coaches could apply. Administrators could apply. Media members could apply.

Eight from Eastern Washington did. All eight were accepted and placed on a committee.

Like the famous Pogo cartoon says, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

There are dozens of names flowing off the top of my head who would be fantastic resources for committees like this. Coaches who know and understand the history and rivalries that make high school football playoff games so special. Administrators who are adept at finding consensus. Scribes who know their subject matter backwards and forwards who could add a deep level of perspective for the process.

Not blaming them, either.

Volunteering for a committee isn’t something any of us savors. And these forums will gobble up a member’s time during the holiday season.

But at the same time, volunteer committees are made up of people who will offer to show up.

We can’t complain come November if the playoffs send every Eastern Washington team to Bellingham for a first round game. Or has every second-round game held at the Tacoma Dome and Renton Stadium.

I am betting that seeing these playoff committees drawn up without voices from this side of the state is more than enough impetus to get more experts to volunteer the next time the request goes out.

Sometimes you just have to see the results before you jump in to plug your finger into the dike.

We’ll do better next time.