D1/2/3 tri-district entrants set

[FilmDoesn'tLie]

Twitter reported the result for play-in game for Tri-district D3#4. Home team won this one.
Port Townsend (Olympic) 44
Seattle Christian (Nisqually#4) 33
Port Townsend will play Blaine Tuesday. Winner will face Mt. Baker Thursday and winner of that Game will face Cascade Christian on Saturday for a regional slot.
Also on Thursday, UPrep will face Eatonville with the winner taking on Kings for a regional slot on Saturday.
The higher seeded winner of those two Saturday games goes into regionals as D1/2/3 #4 (top game #4 if same).

Seattle Academy will face Lynden Christian on Thursday, with the loser getting D1/2/3 3rd seed at regionals. Winner faces Cedar Park Christian (Bothell) on Saturday for the Tri District championship.

 

[rodfatherxc]

Would love to see SAAS and Cedar Park earn their way to State by playing a tournament game that counts. Just because they win their league means they go to state automatically. League champions may get favorable seeds in the district tournament but automatic bids to state are wrong.

This post was edited on 2/10 1:15 AM by rodfatherxc

 

[basketballbuff]

Agree with rodfather on the comment about teams who win leagues automatically get berths to regions. It's not like the're coming out of leagues like LC playing competitive games every night. And it's interesting that Cedar Park jumped down to the Nisqually league in a yr they were loaded and got out of the league with Seattle Academy, (I may stand corrected on this but I think this is where they came from.), when only one of them would be that automatic bid. Now both got it. The one thing that may come back to bite them is now Seattle Christian has a 9 day break before their next game and Cedar Park has 11. That may not be a recipe for success especially when you're into the playoff time of season. Both of the above will then play only one game in over 2 weeks going into regionals and only 2 in almost 3 weeks going into state. Guess that's ok if you have some bodies that need to get healed up. A district playoff betwen EC and the Nisqually league would put this issue to rest.

 

[Bill Bored]

The reason district 2 gets in automatically is because the AD's and district heads from D2 threaten to leave the tri district agreement unless they get an automatic bid to state in all or most sports. This all started with BCS years ago. I believe that D3 gets the automatic bid this year and D1 will get it next year. It alternates but D2 will continue to get it every year. D2 tried to push D1 out before this year and wanted a bi-district with D3. Not sure if D3 desired that. The tri district agreement does have some positives in certain sports. It creates a bigger tournament with lots of schools. The "reasoning" behind it is to cut down on travel costs. Well that really doesn't prove to be true. If D1 had their own tourney, think of all the money saved on fuel alone. Some sports require over night stays for early morning contests.

 

[Warrant3]

For those who would like to see the Tri-District format changed, you don't have to look any farther than your own backyard. Harlan Kredit is President of the Executive Board of the WIAA. Pick up the phone and give him a call.

 

[basketballbuff]

I think any time schools can save money by combining tournies is a great idea and the concept of a tri-district has it's merits. Its just odd that a league with 6 schools in it and not even a very competitive one gets that automatic berth. At least when you look at Nisqually, they have 5 or 6 teams that have consistently produced competitive teams year in and out of a 9 team league. If D2 was threatening to pull out as pointed out, where would they go??????? Wouldn't think there'd be many options there. And I do understand that the ECL has lost some good teams in the past to the Nisqually but wouldn't that make even more logical to rethink the formatting? Calling Kredit certainly makes sense but you would think WIAA could figure this out on their own.

 

[FilmDoesn'tLie]

basketballbuff: I agree with you on byes and automatic bids for what it is worth. However, it is hard problem to make a fair, shallow bracket that yields 5 seeded teams as output on which multiple teams will agree. Should they add another regionals round with shorter district brackets?

It is actually not that interesting for Cedar Park Christian and Bellevue Christian to "jump down" to the Nisqually league out of the Emerald City league. So if you meant to imply in your earlier post that there is some connection of a CPC league change in order to get a bye to avoid earning a regional slot through tri-districts or battling SA for it, would be just plain silly. There are other factors besides boys basketball at play. Mainly both schools wanted to be in single league for all sports with football programs. Both schools wanted a higher level of play night in night out across all sports to better prepare their team for tri-district and state play. I'm sure both schools probably would have much preferred to join the Cascade league and go north. Both schools have a lot higher travel cost across all sports as a result of moving out of ECL. The Eagles became loaded through a lot of hard work, competing for slots, teamwork, and making each other better, much which occurred after plans to swap leagues were envisioned.

Will the hiatus for Cedar Park Christian and Seattle Academy slow them down in tri-district games at the end of the week? I think most everyone here will agree the biggest obstacle they will face next weekend will actually be the Lyncs and/or each other.

 

[basketballbuff]

Kudos, I stand corrected. I'm just a southerner without a lot of insight to the ins and outs of what goes on up north and the decisions. I was commenting from a point of view with limited info and some was simply speculating, which does go on in the postings. But with the abandoning of the ECL league by some high profile teams and having a league of 6 have an automatic bid berth does seem quite odd by any standards. And my hats off to CPC and their successful season. That does come from a lot of hard work, dedication by the players, and parents. It will be interesting to see how the Big 3 from the Tri District fare against one another. I'd like to see both SA and CPC play against LC but will probably be limited to a Sat afternoon in the north only. That's not to say SA cannot get by LC but my monies on LC. Hopefully all the teams to make it to the East side in March will represent us on the West side well. On another note, is most of the speculation that the two teams from the north to come south will be Cascade C and Kings?

 

[basketballbuff]

On another line of thought completely, lets get back to our old 16 team tourney for the B's and A's and let the 2/3/4's play their limited state. They were the ones all the money was being lost on anyhow with the lack of following and the cost of the Dome. The only real cost to the small schools would be an extra overnight but the way regionals are, transportation to and from sites probably come close to offsetting that. Now that would be a real, positive change and would get all the best teams at state. Once again I'm speculating.

 

[Bill Bored]

I didn't suggest I wanted it changed Warrent. Just gave the reason D2 gets an automatic bid. I like the bigger tri district tourneys but when ever the WIAA, districts or leagues give the reason for a big change (i.e. the new state format) as a cost savings I just can't buy it. It probably saves the WIAA money but not the schools or parents. If a school has to travel to Yakima for regionals and back again for state doesn't save anything. Its like when the NWC decided to reduce the number of JV basketball games to save costs. I guess a half full bus uses less fuel than a full bus? I'm not an expert on fuel but that doesn't make a bit of sense. Its not a cost savings when schools from Whatcom have to travel to Seattle and farther for spring sports tri district events. But I have been told thats the reason. Not complaining, just can't under stand the logic or lack thereof.

 

[Warrant3]

I thought your post was informative Bill. I think there are some legitimate points being made. There vare plenty of folks who do want change.
This post was edited on 2/10 12:37 PM by Warrant3

 

[congrats4u]

The WIAA has no jurisdiction or involvement in district tournaments - they are only involved in the regional and state games

 

[Warrant3]

While it may be true that the WIAA does not generally get involved in District Tournaments, they certainly do have "jurisdiction" over those Tournaments.

 

[cougar88]

District 1's Champion also gets an automatic berth to state like district 2 and 3 = all 3 districts get an automatic team to state (their district champ). The only difference between the districts is that all the teams from distict 2 play in the same league. Sam e thing with district 3. So the league champ IS the district champ. In district 1 their are so many different leagues (3 I believe, maybe 4) that the league champs then have to play each other to determine the district champ. It's fair.