STATE FOOTBALL JUST might go the way of the beauty contest.
If some members of the Washington State Football Coaches Association have their way, how teams are seeded into the state playoffs could be altered by next fall.
The current system of a 32-team preliminary playoff deciding the first-round layout of each 16-team state bracket would be scrapped.
It would be replaced by a committee of retired coaches and athletic directors, who would seed teams into the tournament after the preliminary playoffs end.
Sounds sort of like the BCS without the computers doesn’t it?
“All of us realize there is not a perfect plan,” Lakes coach Dave Miller told the Tacoma News Tribune.
“We’re trying to get closer, to improve what we have.”
Indeed, for many of the perennial powers like Lakes, Bellevue, Skyline and Tumwater, a shift to such a format would be a huge improvement.
The way the current system works, each preliminary playoff game is slotted for certain district seeds into state.
Surviving teams are then placed into a predetermined bracket based upon those seeds, with higher-seeded teams hosting lower-seeded teams.
This can sometimes lead to unsavory first-round matchups like last year’s Class 2A game between No. 1 Lynden and No. 3 Tumwater.
Port Angeles also suffered the brunt of that last fall when Interlake of Bellevue was granted the 2A West Central District’s No. 1 seed to state after it upset SPSL champion Clover Park in the preliminary round.
That meant the Riders — 9-1 at the time after winning the WCD’s fifth seed in its playoff — had to travel to Bellevue to take on a 3-8 team at its own place.
With a committee seeding out the 16-team bracket based upon popular perception, there’s almost no way that would have happened
Here’s the problem
The downside: Dominant rural programs like Sequim might suffer because they are relative unknowns on the state scene.
The Wolves have rarely climbed higher than fifth or sixth in any state polls during Erik Wiker’s seven-year tenure, even while winning six league titles and reaching state five times.
Who’s to say they wouldn’t be pigeon-holed as a have-not?
If such were the case, it would be difficult for them to shed such a perception since they’d be forced to take on premier programs in the first round year after year.
“[The committee] will probably know about the Lyndens and stuff like that,” Wiker said.
“But the league champs of [the Olympic League]? They are probably not going to know anything about us. There’s only so much football they are going to watch and know.”
Thus, in order to make an impression, teams like Sequim would be forced to run up the score.
“I’ve never wanted to do that,” Wiker said. “But I know that if it were to come down to some kind of rankings . . . they are probably going to at least compare scores, which means kicking somebody’s butt will matter, which probably wouldn’t be good.”
Mike Colbrese, WIAA executive director, told the News Tribune he expects to meet with representatives from the coaches association by April.
We’ll stay tuned to see what happens.
Hoops tourney
Speaking of state tournaments, the WIAA is asking fans for their opinion of the new basketball format adopted this winter via an on-line survey.
Those who wish to provide their opinion to the WIAA can do so by visiting wiaa.com and taking the survey by Monday.
No doubt, there will be a few who disapprove.
For more than two decades the state had a 16-team double elimination tournaments at sites in Yakima, Spokane, Tacoma and Seattle.
This year, the WIAA switched to a regional format that pared the field down to eight before heading to the big stages of the Tacoma Dome, Yakima SunDome and Veteran’s Memorial Arena.
Thus, half of the teams got a true state experience since regionals were held at high school venues.
That was the main complaint of the new format’s critics, including Port Angeles girls basketball coach Mike Knowles.
“This wasn’t a state tournament feeling at all,” Knowles said after his team was eliminated from regionals in late February with a 57-47 loss to Tumwater at Mount Tahoma.
“Playing on high school floors, getting the same officials two games in a row . . . that would never happen at a state tournament.
“The WIAA, they are not about kids. They can say all they want, but they are not about kids. You can quote me on that.
“They’re not about kids, they are about money.”
Quiet exits
Without much fanfare, two of the most successful prep coaches on the North Olympic Peninsula stepped away from their posts a couple of weeks ago.
Chimacum baseball coach Loren Bishop and softball coach Bobby Cossell guided their respective Cowboys teams to seven state tournaments, six Nisqually League championships and five state trophies combined.
Unfortunately, life got in the way of the their desire to keep on coaching.
With Bishop’s constructions business on shaky ground — Loren and Bobby worked together in the Tri-Area — they had to go looking for other jobs.
The ones they got ended up being on the other side of the bridges; not nearly close enough to allow them the time needed to run state-level programs.
“It was tough,” said Bishop, whose sophomore-dominated squad fell to Cashmere 5-4 in the 1A state baseball championship game last spring.
“You don’t walk away from a team that took second in state and pretty much has the whole team back.”
Indeed, the 52-year-old Chimacum native had a chance to do something no other coach on the Peninsula has ever done — guide to two teams to a state title.
His Cowboys won one back in 2007 thanks in part to the golden arm of current Seattle University pitcher Arlo Evasick.
With just about every starter returning from last year’s team, including ace left-hander Landon Cray, the Cowboys look primed to make another run at a title this season.
If that happens, the Cowboys will do it without the coach who took them to four state tournaments and compiled a 111-37 record since 2004.
“That was definitely not my plan to do it quite the way I did it,” said Bishop, whose assistant Jim Dunn takes over the program as head coach.
“It was one of those things that I knew if I took this job on that I might have to do. If I can’t be here full time, there’s no way I can be fair to the kids.”
It was much the same story for Cossell, whose team didn’t lose a single Nisqually League game in his three-year tenure and made state each season.
His new job away from town meant he couldn’t dedicate nearly as much time to the program as he had in the past.
The sudden death of his wife, Jodi, in February further contributed to his decision to walk away.
“I was actually looking forward to this year,” said Cossell, whose daughter, Mallori, plays center field for the Cowboys.
“It was kind of a big turnover year, and we were going to start over pretty young again. It was going to be fun to take a group of sophomores to seniors again.”
That’s exactly what Cossell (59-16) did during his three seasons leading the Cowboys softball program.
The sophomore group he inherited in the spring of 2008 eventually blossomed into a team that placed third in 1A with a 20-4 record as seniors in 2010.
Now, just like Bishop, he will hand the reins over to his former assistant, Mike Miller.
“I wouldn’t change it for anything,” Cossell said of his coaching experience. “I created some relationships with kids that will last for a while.
“We had fun, and we were relatively successful, so it was great.”
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Matt Schubert is the outdoors and sports columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column regularly appears on Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.