A plan to combine teams from the Cascade and Northwest conferences into football-only leagues next fall has been voted down by the principals of the schools from the Cascade Conference.
The Cascade Conference includes Archbishop Murphy, Cedarcrest, Cedar Park Christian-Bothell, Granite Falls, King’s, Lakewood, Sultan and South Whidbey high schools.
The principals voted Wednesday not to combine with the Northwest Conference to form 2A and 1A football-only leagues.
The plan to combine the 3A teams from Wesco and the Northwest Conference is still moving forward, Everett School District athletic director Robert Polk said.
Last week, several of the athletic directors who put the realignment plan together said they thought the proposal had enough support to pass.
“Part of the process that happens is if there’s going to be a change like that, it needs to be voted on and agreed upon by the principals of the Cascade Conference,” Sultan athletic director Scott Sifferman said. “(They) voted 5-3 to leave the conference as is. … I was surprised.”
A new wrinkle arose this week involving Granite Falls.
Granite Falls was the last school to qualify for the 2A classification when the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association released its final enrollment averages earlier this year, edging out Connell, the first team in the 1A classification, 461.25 students to 461.13.
Granite Falls appealed to the WIAA to drop to 1A, citing declining enrollment, a trend they said is expected to continue over the next few years.
On Monday, the WIAA denied the appeal.
Granite Falls officials were not in favor of joining perennially strong football programs such as Lynden, Sedro-Woolley and Archbishop Murphy in the proposed 2A league.
“We were directed by the school board and members of the community. They really believed that our kids were not prepared for it and it was not good for our program,” Granite Falls athletic director Joey Johnson said. “We had to make a decision there and we would have. We would have supported whatever the Cascade Conference wanted to do. But we felt the position our football program was in — we couldn’t do that. Our numbers have been in decline.”
Johnson said the Granite Falls football team would not have joined the league had it been approved, and instead would have looked into playing an independent schedule.
“They (the principals) wanted to preserve the Cascade Conference schedule,” Johnson said. “Second, they wanted to help Granite Falls out. We, at that point, would have gone independent because we didn’t feel for the safety of our kids we could have done that. So they wanted to make sure that they helped us out.”
The proposal also called for Sifferman’s Turks to join a 1A league with Cedar Park Christian-Bothell, King’s, Lynden Christian, Meridian, Mount Baker, Nooksack Valley and South Whidbey.
The plan for the 3A league remains in place. Squalicum and Ferndale will join Arlington, Marysville Getchell, Marysville Pilchuck, Oak Harbor and Stanwood in the Wesco 3A North. The Wesco 3A South — for football — will be comprised of Everett, Edmonds-Woodway, Lynnwood, Meadowdale, Shorecrest, Shorewood and Snohomish.
Mountlake Terrace, which drops to 2A next season, may also join the Wesco 3A South. Like Shorecrest the past two years, the Hawks would be a 2A team playing in a 3A league.
Mountlake Terrace’s other options are to play only the 2A teams in the Cascade Conference or play in the Northwest Conference.
“I believe the preference for Terrace is to come into the 3A South,” Polk said. “… I would be highly surprised if we were to say they can’t join us. They obviously will. They’re still a member of our league.”
While Sifferman expressed some surprise at the vote, Johnson was not shocked by the outcome.
“No, not really. I thought probably it would be close,” he said. “But it was a good conversation. It was a good dialogue. It wouldn’t have surprised me if it had been 4-4, and then what would we have done?”
Sifferman and Johnson spoke favorably of the conversations, agreeing everyone had a chance to express their opinions.
“I appreciate the professionalism within our conference,” Sifferman said. “I don’t believe there’s any animosity. We had opportunities for everyone to speak on the pros and cons, whatever those may be. After a meaningful discussion, the principles of the schools voted.
“I know that a lot of people put a lot of time thinking outside the box and seeing what they could do to solve some of the problems. I feel bad that this became the barrier that kept it from going and I’d like to think there might be another time to revisit.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
