For reasons to be explained later, I don’t — repeat, do not — support proposals that would establish separate classifications for public and private schools in Washington.
Except maybe in soccer.
The latter observation was made tongue in cheek. It is neither feasible nor equitable to set policies for one sport that aren’t in place for others.
Private schools in this state have enjoyed considerable success in several sports (most notably basketball in certain classifications) in recent years.
Nonetheless, it is my contention that if there is one sport in which a public-school team does not want to meet a private-school representative, it is soccer.
That belief was reinforced for Grays Harbor girls teams last week. Perennial power King’s of Shoreline trounced Elma, 7-1, in the opening round of the state 1A tournament. Reigning state 1A champion Overlake of Redmond eliminated Montesano, 2-0, in another first-round game contest that only the talents of Monte goalkeeper Haylee Perkinson and other Bulldog defenders prevented from being a blowout.
Nor were those isolated incidents, at least in the small-school ranks. In matchups with public schools, private-school 1A and 2B teams posted a 7-2 record in the first two rounds of state.
One of the casualties was Overlake, which followed its win at Montesano by losing to Cascade of Leavenworth in a state quarterfinal Saturday. Had Overlake prevailed, all four of the state 1A semifinalists would have hailed from private schools.
Montesano has fashioned a successful girls soccer program, qualifying for state in seven of the past eight years. But the Bulldogs are 1-10 all-time against private-school opponents in state competition.
My theory of private-school soccer dominance — admittedly unsupported by any concrete evidence — is that players on select age-group teams often gravitate toward staying together at the high-school level. The best way of doing that is to enroll at schools with established soccer programs that are unencumbered by geographical boundary restrictions.
When Seattle Academy beat Montesano in the 2015 playoffs, its best player lived not only south of Seattle but south of the Starfire Soccer Complex in Tukwila where the match was staged. Had the Bulldogs been in a generous mood, they could have given the player a lift to Starfire on the bus trip north.
That was reminiscent of an episode a couple of decades ago when O’Dea of Seattle was riding high in football. One of the Irish’s top players actually resided in Port Angeles and commuted by ferry to the Seattle school.
Fidel Sanchez, who coaches both Montesano’s girls and Hoquiam’s boys soccer teams, repeatedly has made an excellent point unrelated to enrollment issues.
Private-school soccer teams located in the Puget Sound area sharpen their competitive skills, Sanchez noted, by facing each other on a regular basis during the regular season. Aside from the Central 2B circuit, the quality of soccer in most Southwest Washington leagues is not exceptionally high compared to teams from outside the area.
Periodic attempts have been made in the past to establish separate state tournaments for public and private schools. Those have been shot down at the state level.
While I would support tightening geographic restrictions on private-school eligibility, separating the two classes of schools would be overkill for several reasons.
For starters, it’s hard to envision the logistics involved in increasing the number of state tournaments. Potential state sites, particularly in spring sports, are already taxed to the max.
Factoring in the various classifications, there are already six state champions per sport in Washington. Doubling that number would dilute the accomplishment.
Despite the complaints from certain factions, private schools have not monopolized state titles in most sports. Of the fall sports team champions already crowned this year, only King’s in 1A volleyball and Northwest Christian of Lacey in 2B boys cross country came from private schools. Even in girls soccer, the 2A state bracket was composed entirely of public schools.
From a philosophical standpoint, there’s something unseemly about penalizing a team for being too good. By that criteria, perenially powerful Southwest Washington teams would be banned from state softball competition.
There’s also the added satisfaction derived from taking down a private-school Goliath.
When Ocosta was building a strong girls cross country program a few years ago, I remember telling my-then colleague Rob Burns that it must be demoralizing for Wildcat coach Aaron Anderson and his athletes that their path to a state title would be blocked for the foreseeable future by Northwest Christian’s traditional juggernaut.
That conversation took place in 2014. Not noticeably demoralized, the Wildcat girls beat out Northwest Christian to win the state championship the following year.
