Granite Falls High School lost its appeal with the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association to drop from the 2A classification to 1A for the next four-year cycle.
The Tigers were the final team to qualify for 2A, finishing .12 students ahead of Connell based on the average enrollment for grades 9-11 as reported to the Office of Public Instruction for the months of January, February, March, April, May, October and November of 2015.
Connell (461.13 students) was the first school to fall into the 1A classification with an enrollment just under 2A Granite Falls (461.25).
“(The WIAA is) holding the line,” Granite Falls athletic director Joey Johnson said. “They have a percentage they go with and they held that line.”
Johnson said Granite Falls’ case showed that enrollment had been declining at the school and that officials expect that trend to continue.
“We’re .12 of a student away (from the 1A cutoff),” Johnson said. “We see our enrollment declining, it has been declining and will continue to decline for the next three years.”
Johnson, who said he was encouraged by other teams in the Cascade Conference to appeal, added the Tigers will continue to look into their options for the upcoming football season. There is a 2A league comprised of Cascade Conference and Northwest Conference teams that the Tigers can join, but Granite Falls would be the smallest high school in a league packed with some of the most powerful 2A football programs in the state.
Johnson said there’s a possibility the Tigers may look into being independent of a league “for a couple years and build the program up.”
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