A year ago, Skyview’s football team had its lengthy playoff streak snapped by finishing third in the 4A Greater St. Helens League.
The year before that, Battle Ground sat home for the postseason despite one of its best records in school history.
The door is open again for a third playoff-bound team in the 4A GSHL, thanks to Redmond High School.
Redmond’s decision to appeal its classification, and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association approval of the opt-up request, benefits the 4A GSHL by giving the league an extra playoff berth for football.
The three playoff berths goes into effect this season and for 2019, the final school year of the WIAA’s four-year reclassification cycle that ends in spring 2020, said Cale Piland, athletic director for Evergreen Public Schools.
When the WIAA increased its classification cycle from two years to four years in 2015-16, it said a school may appeal its classification after two years based on enrollment.
That’s what Redmond did, and the WIAA granted the request to rejoin Class 4A as part of the KingCo League in District 2.
That reshuffled the playoff-berth calculations just enough to give Southwest Washington’s District 4 an extra allocation, Piland said.
“The math worked out in our favor,” he said, “which is great to see.”
The five-school 4A GSHL — Battle Ground, Camas, Heritage, Skyview and Union — sent two teams to the Week 10 state preliminary round the past two years.
District 4 received one state allocation when the WIAA’s four-year classification cycle rolled out three years ago. After that, the district grouped with Districts 1, 2, 3 to receive a second Week 10 berth.
In 2016, Battle Ground went 7-2, its third-place finish in league kept the Tigers home.
Last season, Skyview (5-4) finished third, ending its 12-year postseason streak.
