The WIAA doesn't like District 1..............they have too many Gold Footballs up this way. Seriously how does NT and now Interlake get home field advantage????..............WHAT A JOKE THE WIAA HAS BECOME and who the hell ordained them as GOD of HS Sports in the first place back in the day? It is a non-profit BUISNESS with a CEO Colbrese who makes up near a $180K from what I have been told.
Some one lay down for us on how something like this can happen. How do two #2 seeds meet in round one? Shound not it be a typical tournament template of #1 vs #4 and #2 vs a #3?? Am I out to lunch here?
From the Yak Vegas Republic.......about the Green Coats Club......
Many athletic directors and coaches say the new format was pushed through over their objections after, they say, WIAA officials publicly intimated for months that no major changes were coming in the near future.
"I’ve heard that, and those people are just looking for some kind of conspiracy that doesn’t exist," Colbrese said, adding that as recently as last February WIAA staffers themselves didn’t believe the change would happen this quickly.
"I’ve been pushing for years to push for this but the board wasn’t ready," he said. "And lo and behold, the board said we need to make a change."
The change has raised a lot of hackles, particularly among smaller-school administrators.
"What frustrates me is I think somebody has gotten the wrong perception of the WIAA," Toutle Lake (Class 2B) athletic director Eric Swanson said. "My understanding is the WIAA works for schools, and it’s supposed to be a bottom-up type of deal. To me, it’s become a top-down, where it’s the WIAA making decisions. It’s not the schools having a voice.
"It’s for the WIAA. That’s exactly what it is."
Based on the WIAA’s tax forms ? which are readily available online because of its nonprofit status ? the association annually receives roughly $1.1 million in membership fees from its nearly 400 member high schools (and about the same number of middle and junior high schools). The rest of its $4.2 million budget is generated by athletic championships and special events.
The WIAA annually spends about $3 million on program expenses and pays about $1.2 million annually in salaries and benefits. The highest-paid employee is Colbrese, who made $178,579 in 2008-09 after 6.5 percent increases in back-to-back years, according to the latest available WIAA tax records.
Colbrese’s salary isn’t out of line with others heading similar associations, especially considering his lengthy tenure. The average 2008-09 salary for his job in the 10 states closest to Washington’s population was $168,504.
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Of the 121 coaches, athletic directors, principals and superintendents polled by the Herald-Republic ? representing schools in all classifications and all districts ? 56 said they would have preferred the formats to go unchanged; 31 favored the new format; and 26 wanted the large-classification schools to go to the new format while letting the small schools keep their traditional four-day, 16-team tournaments. Eight said they’d take a wait-and-see attitude.
Of 23 coaches polled, only one liked the change. That’s not surprising; the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association issued a statement "in strong disagreement" with the changes. Association president Nalin Sood believes the new format penalizes the smaller classifications for large schools’ failure to generate fan excitement about their teams.
"I don’t like it one bit," said Sood, who is a boys basketball coach at Mountlake Terrace, one of the largest schools in the 3A classification. "What they should have done is change it for the big schools and not for the small schools. And (my) rationale is, you guys put yourself into this situation ? and by you guys, I mean ourselves, the 3A and 4A schools. That’s on us."
The boys basketball coach and athletic director at one of those small schools, Class 1A Onalaska’s Dennis Bower, said the new format gives his players less of a chance to reach final-eight play in Yakima, an experience he said they would remember for a lifetime.
"From a selfish standpoint, (the new format) limits the opportunity for us to get to state ? also, specifically of getting to Yakima," Bower said. "I think Yakima does the best job ? well, I know they do ? of hosting and putting on state tournaments. I grew up in Spokane, and the (Spokane) Coliseum and the B’s were by far the best tournament. But Yakima has surpassed them, just by how the community of Yakima ? the hotels, the businesses, the restaurants, and the people at the dome ? how they take care of teams.
"I know for a fact that Yakima has really worked with the WIAA, in terms of lease agreements and the concessions and everything else, to help the WIAA be more profitable with the tournaments. Losing another weekend (of state basketball) will adversely affect Yakima.
"And I feel bad for that."
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