PORT TOWNSEND — A four-team Class 1A division within the Olympic League that involves Port Townsend and Chimacum is all but official.
“It’s basically done,” Port Townsend School District athletic director Scott Wilson said of the 1A division.
“It’s just a formality.”
Wilson added that the only thing needed is approval from the involved schools’ administrations, but those administrations have already expressed their support for the plan.
The 1A League will include Port Townsend, Chimacum, Klahowya and Coupeville.
Port Townsend and Chimacum will be leaving the Nisqually League and Coupeville is departing the Cascade Conference.
Klahowya currently is a member of the 2A Olympic League, but was dropped to Class 1A when the WIAA released its enrollment numbers for the upcoming two-year cycle.
Wilson, along with Chimacum athletic director Gary Coyan and Coupeville assistant principal and athletic director Lori Stolee, met with the athletic directors of the current Olympic League earlier this month to formally present the 1A division proposal that has been much discussed the last few months and in the works since August.
“We all came to the agreement that it’s the best thing for the kids,” Wilson said.
Competing in the Olympic League means considerably less travel for Chimacum and Port Townsend, who have had to travel to Seattle and Tacoma as members of the Nisqually League.
That means more class time for the athletes and less of a financial burden for the school.
It also means shorter distances for the athletes’ families and the student body to travel to support the teams.
“It’s all-around good for everybody,” Wilson said.
The Olympic League’s 2A schools are Sequim, Port Angeles, Bremerton, Olympic, North Kitsap, Kingston and North Mason
Port Angeles athletic director Dwayne Johnson echoed Wilson’s sentiments in regard to the 2A schools’ support of adding a 1A division to the Olympic League.
“It’s good for kids,” he said.
Next year, the 1A Olympic League schools will play each other twice in football, once at home and another time on the road.
They will fill their remaining three games with nonleague games. One of those games, in Week 9 of the season, likely will be some sort of a crossover or postseason game.
Wilson said that Port Townsend is tentatively — and he stressed that it is tentative at this point — scheduled to play at Forks the first week of the football season, followed by a home game with Port Angeles in Week 2.
He also said Sequim and Chimacum are tentatively scheduled to play each other in the opening weeks of the 2014 football season.
Johnson confirmed that Port Angeles is trying to schedule a game against Port Townsend, but he worries about the Roughriders opening the season with four consecutive road games.
In other team sports such as basketball, the 1A division will play each other three times for a total of nine league games, and fill the remaining 11 games with nonleague teams.
Wilson said he would like for as many of those games to be against the Olympic League’s 2A teams.
As part of its agreement to join the Olympic League, Coupeville asked that it not be required to play the league’s 2A teams.
Wilson said the scheduling likely will “funky and weird” the first year or two, but the league will work together to figure it out.
“The best thing about the Olympic League is we are all willing to work to make it work,” Wilson said.
One thing that still needs to be worked out is the path to the postseason for the 1A division.
Wilson said four teams will meet this week with the Nisqually League and the West Central District to come to some sort of an agreement.
Defections of Port Townsend, Chimacum, Eatonville and other have left the Nisqually League with only four or five teams, so there is a possibility of a head-to-head matchup between the best 1A Olympic and Nisqually League teams to determine postseason berths.
Wilson said there have been discussions of the 1A Olympic schools and Nisqually League schools combining for a football-only league, but he said that isn’t his preference.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
