The divisions of 4A KingCo will look different for the next two school years beginning in the fall of 2012, when Eastlake and Redmond will move to the Crown and Ballard, Garfield and Roosevelt will swap sides to the Crest, joining Issaquah, Skyline and Newport.
A committee of KingCo Athletic Directors charged with implementing changes in the divisions based on the coinciding WIAA classification recount decided the moves would offer the highest level of competitive equity and preserve as many traditional rivalries as possible within the divisions, according to Eastlake AD Brent Kawaguchi.
“It’s been thrown out there a lot,” Kawaguchi said. “But we needed to know right away because of football, because those games are at a premium.”
Newport Athletic Director Gill James said a premium was placed on transportation costs and preserving traditional rivalries within the school districts. Competitive equity was another factor taken into consideration, but brought along complications in projecting the future of any given team at a particular school.
“The challenge is, a team can be down one year and up the next,” James said.
There is already a preliminary plan in place to pair the Lake Washington School District schools (Redmond and Eastlake) with Ballard, Roosevelt and Garfield when the next WIAA reclassification count comes up before the 2014-15 school year begins.
When Lake Washington dropped to 3A for the current two-year WIAA cycle, Garfield shifted divisions to create the current alignment. While the Bulldogs’ move was not initially part of a larger plan to create a two-year rotating cycle by the KingCo ADs, that is exactly what will happen.
“It makes sense,” James said of the two year rotating cycle of divisions within the conference. “In an eight year window, everyone will have had everyone in their division.”
The changes in the 4A divisions come along with some shifts in classifications for 2A and 4A schools, as Lake Washington and Sammamish will both drop to 2A and Interlake will move back to 3A beginning with the 2012-13 school year.
