The WIAA has released their athletic classifications for the next two years, and it's looking like Medical Lake will remain in the 2A ranks. Colville and Riverside are both dropping down to 1A; coming into the AA classification from AAA will be some traditional powers like East Valley of Spokane, West Valley of Yakima, Port Angeles, and North Thurston. You can see the newest breakdowns here.
At the October school board meeting Russ Brown, former principal at MLHS and a current field rep with the WIAA, talked about how the WIAA organizes the leagues around the state. The goal is to have a balanced number of teams in each of the 6 classifications (2B, 1B, 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A), meaning that you'd expect about 64 schools per division. That's their idea of balance--an equal number of teams.
The practical impact on 2A, where we are, is pretty profound. The smallest 2A schoo, Mount Baker, has 515 kids. We're running at 527 for counting purposes. The largest 2A school is Interlake HS of Bellevue at 1,085 students, a spread of 560 kids from top to bottom. You could combine Medical Lake with Mount Baker and you'd still only have the 7th largest school in 2A.
It gets even worse when you compare it to 3A--there the smallest school is 1,086 students while the largest is 1,303, a difference of only 217 students!
How does this happen? If you look at that chart I linked to above you can see many schools choosing to "opt-up" to a larger classification. Gonzaga Prep is a prime example; their enrollment would put them solidly in the 2A bracket otherwise, but they choose to compete at a 4A level in order to keep their historic rivalries with the other Spokane high schools. Every time a school opts to go up, the lowest school in that bracket is kicked down to the classification below so that the WIAA can keep their numbers balanced.
22 schools opted up into the 3A ranks. That pushes 22 "small" 3A schools down, into the 2A classification, and that's where the imbalance is born.
The Cheney Free Press has more here and here.
--Ryan--
The Official Homepage of the Medical Lake Education Association
