WIAA brackets show variations

High school teams which begin practices this week for the fall sports campaign will be in the second year of competition in school size brackets set up by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.

The state WIAA executive board in January of 2016 approved the brackets under an approach which lists all schools in the state and then attempts to put the same number of schools in each of the six classification brackets.

Counts include the three grades. Seniors are not counted because when a change takes effect in the subsequent school year the seniors are no longer at the school.

In the counts starting the last sports’ season, the state had 64 schools in 4A with counts above 1,343, 66 in 3A with counts between 971 and 1,343, 65 in 2A with counts between 461 and 971, 65 in 1A with counts between 214.5 and 461, 60 in 2B with counts between 83.2 and 214.4, and 64 in 1B with counts 82.9 students and below.

Pullman competed near the bottom of the 2A bracket with a count of 576.2 at the start of 2016.

Colfax and Tekoa/Rosalia again will campaign in the 2B division which carries a wide range of school sizes. Northwest Christian last year was the second largest school in 2B with a 206.5 count. The second largest school in the NE league was Kettle Falls with 170.2. Others are Colfax 162.7, Lind/Ritzville/ Sprague 155.2, Asotin 151.2, Reardan 143, Davenport 136.6, St. George’s 122.8, Mary Walker 114.7, Wilbur Creston 103.5, Liberty 94.6,and Tekoa/Rosalia 87.1. Only two other 2B schools, Liberty Christian and Waterville, were smaller than TR in 2B.

One change anticipated in the NE league could be the addition of Chewelah, second smallest school in 1A ranks at 214.8.

The 1B division schools have the widest range of variation with the count going down to the smallest schools in the state. The largest school in the division is almost three times as large as the smallest. The division’s 64 schools range from 81.4 students at Neah Bay down to 27 at Oakesdale. Washington School for the Blind was listed with 26.

Garfield/Palouse topped the listing for county 1B schools with 60 students at the start of 2016. Others were St. John/Endicott 59.6 and Colton 38.2.

The WIAA also lists 15 schools with enrollment counts below the bracket cutoff for 1B with LaCrosse at 16.8, Washtucna at 8.3 and Kahlotus at 7.38.