Hoquiam’s and Montesano’s boys and girls basketball teams will open District IV competition Thursday by playing in co-ed doubleheaders.
The losers in the boys games will stay alive in a double-elimination tournament. In the girls tournament, Thursday’s losers will be eliminated.
Before parents of female athletes speed-dial their attorneys, this is not a gender discrimination issue. It is instead dictated by a change in the state’s regional allotment.
As in the past, Southwest Washington’s District IV will receive three regional berths in Class 1A boys basketball. But, due to a complex formula based on schools participating in a given sport, only two such slots are available for Southwest Washington 1A girls.
The district boys 1A tourney will thus continue as an eight-team double-elimination affair.
The girls 1A tourney, however, will feature only a six-team field, with the first round designated as loser-out. The winners will join Elma and La Center — the top-seeded teams in their respective leagues — in a double-elimination bracket that will determine the two regional qualifiers.
This tournament also contains a concluding twist that would be controversial if there were any viable alternatives.
The girls championship game on Feb. 14 will not end the tourney. The loser of that game must face the survivor of a loser-out game the same night three nights later in a winner-to-regionals, loser-out contest.
On the rare occasions this format has been employed, I’ve long believed the losing title-game participant is at an emotional disadvantage. Veteran South Bend girls coach Gary Wilson has reason to agree.
In 2004, a South Bend team led by Whitney Marte and Tori Lynn beat Morton in overtime to advance to its first district 2B title appearance in 21 years. But that year was also the only time since 1978 that only two district teams advanced to state.
After falling to then-perennial district power Mossyrock in the championship game, the Indians were obliged to return to Aberdeen’s Sam Benn Gym the following night for a rematch with Morton in a winner-to-state contest.
After building a halftime lead, South Bend ran out of steam in the second half and wound up dropping a 52-45 decision.
Fourteen years later, Wilson is still feeling the pain.
“Thank you for bringing up the saddest moment in my coaching career,” Wilson wrote in an email. “That loss in the winner-to-state game has left a mark on all involved players and coaches.
“I will never forget talking with (former longtime South Bend coach) Don Koplitz about the two berths-to-state bracket and his comment was he would much rather be coaching a team coming off a win then the one coming off a loss,” Wilson continued. “It was emotionally draining for us, especially for us playing a team for the second time in the tournament.”
Unfortunately, there is no other equitable format. Staging a straight single-elimination tourney through the championship game won’t work, since the losing team in one semifinal might well be stronger than the winner of the other semi.
The best remedy is to increase the number of Class 1A schools in District IV from the current 11 (five in the Evergreen 1A League; six in the Trico League). That isn’t likely to happen anytime soon.
Tiebreaker
In the second Elma-Montesano girls basketball game on Jan. 25, Monte’s Haylee Perkinson appeared to have been fouled on a last-second shot. No whistle was forthcoming.
Since Elma led 60-50 and Las Vegas doesn’t set point spreads on Washington high school games, the non-call appeared inconsequential. But it could have had a major impact on the league’s district playoff picture.
The Eagles and Bulldogs wound up tied for the Evergreen 1A League championship. Since they had split their league series and had each beaten third-place Hoquiam by at least 10 points (Monte’s 51-39 win over the Grizzlies counted the same as Elma’s 78-23 shellacking of the Grizzlies), the league’s top seed and coveted first-round district bye was determined by the point differential in the head-to-head meetings of the East County rivals.
The 10-point margin of victory gave Elma the nod over Monte, who had won the first meeting by eight.
Had Perkinson gotten the call and made both free throws, the top seed would have determined by a coin flip, according to Montesano athletic director and District IV co-administrator Tim Trimble.
That probably would have created a furor — particularly since there was sufficient time to stage a playoff game to determine district seeding.
To be honest, I’m not a fan of playoff games that serve only to determine postseason seeding. Those contests provide financial and entertainment value. But it is questionable whether the future postseason benefits they provide outweigh the potential physical and emotional risks.
Again, there is a historical precedent.
In 1983, reigning state AA champion Aberdeen and an enormously talented Hoquiam team tied for the Black Hills League boys basketball title and played off for seeding purposes on the Saturday prior to district.
Playing before a sellout crowd at Sam Benn Gym (this was one of the few games I’ve covered in which spectators were actually turned away at the door), the Bobcats came from behind for an exciting victory. But neither team had much left in their emotional tanks and were upset in their district openers. Hoquiam, which had the personnel to earn a state trophy, didn’t even survive district.
Elma’s and Montesano’s girls, meanwhile, could square off for a third time at district — possibly in a winner-to-state contest Feb. 17.
Although that game is currently scheduled for Kelso, Trimble insists it will be shifted to Hoquiam or Rochester if the two East County teams are involved.
