After much shuffling and debate, the West Central District has nailed down two Class 3A leagues for the upcoming 2016-2020 cycle.
The leagues are based loosely on geography, with one league comprised mostly of Pierce County schools, and the second league made up of Thurston and Mason County and several Kitsap Peninsula schools.
"It wasn't 100 percent win-win but it was probably the best solution we could have hoped for going in," said Yelm School District Athletic Director Rich Yelenich. "I think it meets the needs of a lot of our schools."
The Pierce County League will be Bethel, Bonney Lake, Lakes, Lincoln, Mount Tahoma, Spanaway Lake, Stadium, and Wilson. A second league, of which the name is to be determined, will be Capital, Central Kitsap, Gig Harbor, North Thurston, Peninsula, Shelton, Timberline, and Yelm.
The WCD already had two Class 3A Leagues, the Narrows 3A and South Puget Sound League 3A. However, reclassification left the leagues lopsided, with seven schools in Narrows and nine in SPSL.
Previous attempts at a solution proved futile. Three weeks ago, the four Tacoma Public Schools, along with Central Kitsap, Capital, and Shelton applied to the SPSL 3A, but were denied admission.
Then Capital was approved to join District 4's Greater St. Helen's League, but the Capital community backlashed against longer travel times. Capital backed out of the GSHL deal this morning, as reported by The Longview Daily News.
Sumner School District Athletic Director Tim Thomsen said the leagues decided to start from scratch, rather than fiddle with the old structures.
"We almost had to do that kick the old ones out the door and start something new to get where we wanted to get," said Thomsen, who serves on the WCD executive board.
The 16 Class 3A WCD schools met in a three-hour meeting Tuesday morning to decide what next year's leagues would look like.
The committee looked at seven proposals, ranging from one league with four divisions to two separate leagues. After two initial voting rounds, the committee narrowed their choices to either two separate leagues, or one league with two divisions.
The two-league proposal won out 24 votes to 2 votes. Schools and school districts each received one vote.
Thomsen said the two-league solution was better to keep travel costs under control and to create better competition in a district tournament.
"It helped with the integrity of the West Central District tournaments to have two leagues," Thomsen said.
The new leagues complete the demise of the Narrows League, which has existed since 1980. A wave of reclassifications threatened the league back in January. The Narrows 4A fell apart after four schools dropped to Class 3A and the remaining three schools joined the SPSL 4A. The remaining Narrows 3A schools are split between the two new leagues.
The Pierce County league name is being revived after a longtime hiatus. It was originally comprised of schools that eventually joined the SPSL. The second league will meet next Tuesday to decide on a name.
One other item on the agenda will be deciding the process for new schools applying to join the league. Without the SPSL 3A, there isn't a natural league for a Class 4A or 2A SPSL school to join should they become a Class 3A school during the next classification cycle.
"We've got to come up with something where it's not as confusing, time-consuming, or crazy as it has been," said Yelenich.
