The numbers don’t lie.
The numbers tell the story.
Last week, talks between District 3 and District 4 broke down, meaning there won’t be a 4A bi-district tournament or meet in any sport in the 2014-15 school year.
Instead, the 4A Greater St. Helens League, which comprises all of the 4A teams in District 4, will send two of its seven teams directly to the state tournaments.
To understand why this happened, you have to look at the numbers.
Over the past several years, the 4A Greater St. Helens League had a postseason partnership with District 3 that could potentially increase the opportunities for local teams to advance to state. It also had the possibility of decreasing the number of 4A GSHL teams that went to state.
It’s a bit of a gamble.
District 4 was taking the guaranteed berths to state allocated to the district by the WIAA and throwing them into a pool with District 3’s allocations.
And over the past four years, that gamble hasn’t really paid off for District 4.
If District 4 had not taken part in the 4A bi-district tournaments and just taken its allotment of state berths from the WIAA, District 4 would have sent 42 teams to state in the seven team sports affected by this decision — boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball and volleyball.
Instead, through the bi-district tournament, District 4 sent 33 teams to state over the past four years in those sports.
Over the past four years, the 4A GSHL received three berths to the bi-district tournaments in all sports. This number was arrived at by looking at the total number of teams in the 4A GSHL — then six — and comparing it proportionally to all of the teams in Districts 3 and 4 combined.
By doing this, the 4A GSHL should have received 3.2 berths to the 16-team bi-district tournament. This number was rounded down to three, as you can’t send one-fifth of a team to the bi-district.
But when reclassification added one more team to the 4A GSHL this school year, it changed that proportion. Now, the 4A GSHL should receive, proportionally, 3.6 berths to the bi-district tournament.
The 4A GSHL officials wanted to continue the bi-district arrangement with District 3, but argued that the league should receive one additional berth to the bi-district tournament every two years.
The 4A GSHL proposed receiving four berths this year and three next year, which seemed fair.
Another idea that was floated would have required the 4A GSHL’s No. 4 team to play a pigtail game to enter the bi-district tournament both years, essentially giving the 4A GSHL 3.5 berths. Also seemed fair.
But in the end, District 3 offered the same three berths it had offered when the 4A GSHL was a six-team league. Not fair.
Or is it?
District 4 was saying because the 4A GSHL increased in size, the number of berths it received to the bi-district should increase.
But District 4’s growth by one did not affect the number of state berths it received from the WIAA. So District 3 argued: Why should it give up one of its berths to the bi-district when District 4 wasn’t adding to the total number state berths to two districts would receive jointly?
District 4 appealed to the WIAA. While the WIAA does have a rule that allows districts that receive one berth to state to partner with a neighboring district, that rule did not apply to District 4 this year as it was receiving two berths to state.
Next year, that number falls back to one for District 4.
District 4 didn’t want to continue the partnership with District 3 this year, if District 3 was not going to treat District 4 as an equal partner.
And even though the arrangement had resulted in District 3 teams claiming an additional nine berths to state over the past four years, District 3 wasn’t willing to budge from its position, particularly if the WIAA wasn’t in a position to compel it to do so.
So that means no bi-district this year for 4A GSHL teams. And it’s not terrible news for District 4.
Over the past four years of bi-district play, the 4A GSHL never advanced all three teams to state that it sent to the bi-district tournament. In 2012-13, the 4A GSHL sent two teams to state in five of the seven aforementioned team sports. In 2013-14, it sent two teams to state in four sports; 2011-12, it did so in two sports; and in 2010-11, it did so in no sports.
This year, the 4A GSHL will send two teams to state in all seven sports.
Plus with no bi-district tournament, 4A GSHL teams, and their fans, won’t have to make all those trips north to the Tacoma area.
And one GSHL team in each sport will be guaranteed a top seed into the state bracket, something that was not guaranteed in most bi-district formats.
There were other benefits to the bi-district events that will be missed.
Coaches liked that extra level of postseason play against good teams that helped get 4A GSHL teams better prepared for state.
So those opportunities are gone.
But they could be back next year.
