State tickets on the table: High school sports districts eye regional playoff

roundsHigh School teams in the two WIAA B division districts on the east side of the state plan to combine state playoff entries next year in what is expected to add a regional round at the end of 2B sports seasons. Top finishers in the regional rounds will get the state berths assigned to the two districts, SE District 9 and NE District 7.

Bob Kirk of Pomeroy, SE District 9 director, said negotiations for the playoff merger are close to be finished, but most of the details have yet to be worked out.

The regional format has already been followed in football with the SE teams and the NE teams in district seven matched up in a crossover round at the end of the league season. Pairings for that week are done in inverted order of finish with the league winners facing the lower finishers on the opposite side.

Football teams advance through the state playoff grid in quarter-final and semi-final round to the championship game.

In some years SE and NE qualifiers collide in the advanced rounds of the football playoffs such as the Waitsburg/Prescott collision with Colfax in last year’s semi-final round.

Colfax Athletic Director Shawna Kneale, who completed her first year in that position last week, said a merger of the two districts’ state fates has been discussed for several years. She said it’s her understanding the plan advanced this year on a format which would require leagues to apply the format to all sports.

Colfax will join other NE district teams in the playoff plan. The District 7 playoffs have included the Bi-County league teams along with Republic.

The NE district teams have traditionally wrapped up their basketball season with district playoff rounds at Mead and Mt. Spokane. Kneale said the regional format will call for top qualifiers from each district to match up for the number of state entries assigned to both leagues.

One expected gain out of the regional round will be an opportunity for the best teams in the area to advance to state. It is expected to counter a situation in which a team advances to the state scene out of a district which has a lineup of weak teams for a particular sports season.

Kneale said one change for the NE lineup this year will be the departure of Kettle Falls which is expected to move back up into the A division. That will leave the Bi-County league lineup plus Republic, a team which is in District 7 but plays most of its regular season games out of the district.

Kirk said the SE’s 2B division will lose Liberty Christian next year because the school’s enrollment will put it into the 1B division.

Asotin, DeSales, Tri-Cities Prep, Waitsburg/Prescott, Dayton and Tekoa/Oakesdale/Rosalia have competed in SE 2B divisions in football. The league lineups, particularly in spring sports, change as schools merge teams in multi-sports seasons. All track athletes in the county competed in the 2B division because of mergers of 1B schools. Those teams advanced along the 2B qualification trail to state.

Pomeroy, the only single-school team in the SE, wound up as the lone SE entry in the state track 1B finals. The Pirates actually rolled north to compete with District 7 schools in the last 1B qualification rounds.

Kneale said sites for the regional finals are expected to alternate during different sports seasons. Sports schedules normally evolve backwards from the anchor dates of the state finals such as the first weekend in March for basketball.

This year’s 2B final eight bracket for basketball finals at the Spokane Arena started with Colfax and Northwest Christian in the boys lineup for the NE and Dayton as the lone finalist for the SE. Those three teams survived the first round of the playoff eliminations the previous weekend under the new B state final eight hoop format.

Reardan, defending champs, was the lone team from the two east side districts to make the final eight hoop grid for 2B girls.