Washington state high school reclassification

I had been hearing for awhile about how the WIAA wanted to reclassify the schools in each division.

They want 66 schools in 4A, 3A and 2A; 65 schools in 1A; and 62 schools in 2B and 1B. Currently, there are 78 in 4A, 68 in 3A, 55 in 2A, 63 in 1A, 66 in 2B and 59 in 1B.

Saw this over on the Tacoma News Tribune:

How Washington’s high schools will be classified for the 2010-11 school year is becoming more clear. WIAA executive director Mike Colbrese said Saturday that all 13 Metro League schools will compete in Class 3A. Eleven of the league’s schools will opt up to 3A.

That’s significant for a handful of South Sound schools and every school that’s near the cut-off for 3A and 2A. According to the preliminary enrollment numbers released by the WIAA on Nov. 30, current 3A schools Franklin Pierce, Sumner and Bonney Lake, plus 4A schools Decatur and Wilson stand a good chance of being reclassified into 2A. However, Franklin Pierce, Decatur and Wilson are among the 59 schools that have until Dec. 15 to decide if they want to compete in the classification their enrollment places them in, or opt up to a larger classification. Bonney Lake and Sumner have said they will compete where they are slotted, which looks like it will be 2A.

On Jan. 4, the WIAA will release the list of the new classifications, but schools will have one last opportunity to opt up. But if a school has already opted up, it can’t decide to go back down to the classification its enrollment originally placed it in.

The Bonney Lake and Sumner moves, along with possibly Franklin Pierce would be big news for the SPSL 3A that could lose three teams. My old high school White River is in that league. And it seems the division they are in changes all the time. When I was in school we bounced leagues all four years I was in school.

High School Sports Update: Southridge

To have one player honored as WIAA/Seattle Times State Athlete of the Week is a great achievement, but to have two...for the same week? That is the honor that was bestowed upon Clayton Homme and Caitlin Klepper, both of Southridge High School. Homme and Klepper both had a monster week in garnering 4A player of the week awards.

Homme tore the cover off of the baseball this past week as he went 9 for 12 in three games with 5 doubles, 7 runs scored and 7 RBI. Last season when Southridge was 3A Clayton was named to the 1st team All Columbia Basin League as a utility player. Those kind of numbers shouldn't be surprising for a 6'5" 200 pound senior who has committed to play tight end for the Idaho Vandals next year.

In softball sophomore Klepper, who pitches and plays first base, delivered a stellar 5 inning pitching performance for the Suns by striking out 14 of the 15 batters she faced. The other batter attempted to reach base on a bunt but was unsuccessful. Last season Caitlin made the Columbia Basin League 3A all Conference 1st Team as a pitcher. With performances like this from Klepper, the Suns should be able to improve on their 18-12 record from last season.

High School Sports Feature: The WIAA is just plain money-hungry

No, not the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association but rather the Wisconsin organization that does the same thing. Except they're a bunch of money-grubbing buggers.

The problem with high school athletic associations is that they're bureaucratic, unwavering to their ridiculous policies and largely driven by money. Look at the sponsors at the state tournaments. Guess who sees the money from that? The associations.

Taking advantage of kids? I'd say so.

No the WIAA has just ratcheted it up another notch. They tried to sue a newspaper corporation for webcasting one of their sanctioned games AT PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS. Hmmm. Well now the Newspaper corporation is filing a countersuit, because well, the WIAA are a bunch of douchebags.

The Wisconsin Newspaper Association and Gannett Co. filed a response and counterclaim in federal court in Madison on Tuesday against the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.

The WNA claims the WIAA is violating newspapers' rights under the Copyright Act by granting exclusive contracts to private companies covering tournament events

WIAA spokesman Todd Clark declined to comment, saying he hadn't seen the WNA's counterclaim. Jerry O'Brien, an attorney representing the WIAA, said he had a chance to scan the filing but would need time before he'd be able to comment on specifics of the case.

The WIAA filed its lawsuit in December against the WNA and Gannett, which owns The Post-Crescent of Appleton, after the newspaper's Webcast of a high school playoff game Nov. 8.

The WIAA says one of its contracted private partners owned the Webcast rights to the event and is owed a fee. But WNA lawyers contend that the host schools, all public, didn't object when The Post-Crescent streamed the game and three others over the Internet.

Dan Flannery, executive editor of The Post-Crescent, said reporters used the schools' press boxes to work in and provide audio for the Webcast. But Gannett newspapers did not receive permission and did not use a streaming Internet report on four other games it wanted to cover.

So now you can't cover events unless you pay the WIAA a contract to do so? Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the worst sports organization in the entire country. I've been reading quite a few stories for months now about how the WIAA really restricts access to their events (largely photography) and even tries to censor stories coming out of the tournaments.

Yep, this is high school athletics. At it's worse.

Honestly, the WIAA has no right to privately contract out the coverage of their tournaments but that's business I suppose. (Oh wait this if for the kids right) And what cracks me up is with this "contracting" they usually contract out photographers as well to sell photos to parents. The photographers that they usually contract out that can take exclusive photos for sale are some of the worst out there. If you want to get a blurry, out of focus picture of your kid, go to any state basketball tournament and these scourges of society with their bulging beer guts will be prancing around like their god's gift to photography charging you 30 dollars for absolute photography crap.

They're the same guys that show up to your child's soccer games and try to sell you photos of your kid. Same guys. Creepy. Lazy. And the only thing on their minds is making money, not trying to take good photos.

And in general that's what the WIAA is trying to do, make money. They're not worried about the well-being of the kids or running a smooth tournament. All their worried about is the color green. Shame on them.