THE GREAT ENGLISH author Douglas Adams said it best.
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”
Indeed, many of us swing and miss when it comes to deadlines, some more than others (just ask my editor).
Go ahead and throw the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) into that group as well.
A messy reclassification cycle has overwhelmed high school administrators throughout the state, forcing the WIAA to push back the release of its second set of reclassification numbers past Dec. 15.
With several schools still scrambling to make a decision on whether or not to opt up to a higher classification, and many “bubble” schools waiting in the wings to see how those decisions affect them, it simply wasn’t possible to meet the deadline.
So the WIAA won’t have anything concrete to release until Friday at the earliest, according to executive assistant Jim Meyerhoff.
That means Port Angeles, North Kitsap, Olympic and Bremerton will have to wait a few more days to learn their fates.
All four Olympic League schools are on the Class 2A/3A bubble, with the last two teetering on the brink (Port Angeles and North Kitsap appear safe bets for 2A).
“We’re pretty much at the mercy of what everybody else decides to do,” Olympic athletic director Nate Andrews said. “I’ve heard we’re right there on the line.
“It could take one school [to push Olympic into one classification or another] . . . so it really depends.”
The schools’ hopes of dropping down to 2A took a hit Monday, according to the Tacoma News-Tribune.
That’s when the WIAA’s Executive Board voted to adjust the number of schools assigned to 3A and 2A.
The largest 17 percent of the state’s schools will be placed in 4A, with the next 34 percent going into 3A and 2A.
Under the original plan, both classifications were supposed to take 17 percent apiece as well (66 schools), with cutoffs adjusted after the opt up period.
The only problem with that: For every school that opts up from 2A to 3A (like the 11 Metro schools), a bigger one at the bottom of 3A is pushed down a peg in classification.
Thus, the disparity between the largest and smallest schools in 2A becomes bigger each time another school opts up, which is something the WIAA wants to avoid.
Exactly how the WIAA will divide up that 34 percent now, however, nobody knows.
The WIAA will release a list of the “final” 2010-12 classifications on Jan. 4, although schools will have one last opportunity to opt up after that.
Basically, this stuff is extremely confusing and takes several months to hash out. We’ll keep you posted.
More tidbits
• Port Townsend (1A) is leaning heavily toward maintaining its current league alignments, according to vice principal Patrick Kane.
That means the Redskins will compete in a hybrid 1A Nisqually League for football and the multi-classification Olympic League for everything else.
The association with both leagues has worked out pretty well for Port Townsend the last two years, financially and competitively, so the decision comes as no surprise.
• Even if Olympic and Bremerton remain 3A schools, both will likely stay in the Olympic League, according to several sources.
• The Olympic League’s athletic directors are set to meet today in Poulsbo to discuss the future of the league.
There appears to be a strong commitment from all nine schools to remain part of the league.
A proposal has already been discussed to have the eight 2A and 3A schools play each other in football, regardless of classification.
That could very well be a topic of discussion at the meeting.
Given that at least six of the schools will be 2A (Klahowya, North Mason, Sequim, Kingston, Port Angeles and North Kitsap), it would appear to be a logical move.
So long Bill
The voice of Roughrider football turned in his microphone this November.
Bill Tiderman has seen, and announced, countless Rider football games at Civic Field the past 35 years. Yet he called it quits at the end of this fall’s 0-10 campaign.
Tiderman’s job used to be much more difficult when he first started in the mid ’70s.
Prior to Civic Field renovations, he called games from the sidelines, walking up and down the field with a microphone attached to a 100-foot long cord.
After the new public address system was put in place, he announced games from the relative comfort of the press box, often doing all of the spotting and yardage calls on his own.
(Trust me, that is much more difficult than it sounds. I’ve heard many an announcer screw up entire games, even with the help of a spotter. It is an art.)
Tiderman has also coached wrestling, basketball, fastpitch softball and track (with a specialty in the pole vault) during his time in Port Angeles.
Take a quick scan of the team photos posted outside the Rider gym, and you’ll come across his perfectly parted hair and big blue eyes more than once.
The Port Angeles School Board honored Tiderman for his long-time service during its meeting last night.
He currently teaches sixth grade at Franklin Elementary and says that he will provide backup support during home football games. But he’s hopeful someone will step in to fill his shoes.
Obviously, that will be no easy task.
A little more football
Coaches always say you’ve got to beat the best to be the best.
That couldn’t be more true with the two Peninsula football teams that advanced in the state playoffs this fall: Neah Bay and Sequim.
That’s because both were eliminated by teams that reached the championship game.
Obviously, that was the case with the Red Devils, who fell just one game short of reaching the state final themselves, losing to PCL rival Lummi in the 1B semis. (Side note: Am I the only one who finds it odd that Lummi’s Jim Sandusky was named the PCL-North coach of the year despite losing to Tony McCaulley’s Red Devils twice during the regular season?)
Sequim lost in the 2A quarterfinals to Lynden, which went on to win the whole shebang two weeks later after beating West Valley (Spokane) 16-6 in the final.
That’s the second time a Lynden Lions team eliminated the Wolves on the way to a 2A state title, the other coming in 2006.
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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.