New classifications, new leagues — just about everything is different

This won’t be the high school football season you’re used to.

Gone is the Spaghetti Bowl rivalry game between Olympia and Capital, which had been played annually for the past 39 years. Gone are trips north on Interstate 5 to meet Tacoma schools on Friday nights. Gone are split-classification leagues.

Welcome to the 2016 football season. Practices begin Wednesday, and next to nothing is the same. All 15 high schools in the greater Olympia area have either joined a new or reformed league, or have seen schools shift in and out of leagues they’re already in.

Some are happy. Some less so.

Following the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s most recent reclassification cycle in January — which will last four years this time instead of two — the 35-year-old Narrows League was wiped out, leaving six schools temporarily homeless.

Five of those schools — Capital, North Thurston, Shelton, Timberline and Yelm — joined together to form the bulk of a new eight-team 3A league that debuts this season, the South Sound Conference.

Olympia, the lone 4A school left in the area, moves into the 4A South Puget Sound League.

“It seems like the last 10-15 years — maybe longer — everyone has talked about trying to get local leagues back,” Olympia coach Bill Beattie said. “It’s so close to being a local league, but we’re not in it.”

Projected enrollment figures allowed Timberline and Yelm to drop to 3A. Olympia barely missed the cut and is now the fifth-smallest 4A school in the state (not including opt-ups). It is projected to have about 668 fewer students than South Kitsap — its league rival and the largest school in the state.

Olympia was lumped in with South Kitsap and Bellarmine Prep — the only other two remaining 4A Narrows schools — to join, arguably, what will be the most competitive 4A league in the state. With some of the largest schools — Puyallup and Rogers are also in the top 10 in enrollment figures.

“Our guys will be ready to compete,” Beattie said. “The Narrows League was a competitive league, and once we got to the playoffs, it was really competitive. We understand what we have to do.”

Lack of familiarity is the bigger obstacle. During Beattie’s 21 seasons at Olympia, it has never played four of its new league mates — Emerald Ridge, Graham-Kapowsin, Puyallup and Sumner. It’s seen Curtis and Rogers once.

“That’s going to be the big growing curve for us,” he said. “We haven’t played very many of these teams. It’s going to be a battle week to week.”

The 3A SSC will have that learning curve, too, but will also revisit longstanding rivalries. The North Thurston-Timberline rivalry game will count for something again. And Capital remains in the mix after nearly joining Vancouver-area teams in the 3A Greater St. Helens League.

“You get to establish a lot of those rivalries that maybe didn’t exist when playing kids in Tacoma that our kids didn’t know,” North Thurston coach William Garrow said. “Here, they play Little League baseball against kids from Shelton.”

Three bridge schools — Central Kitsap, Gig Harbor and Peninsula — round out the league. One of the eight schools (Gig Harbor) made the playoffs last season, and many narrowly missed, which should cultivate even competition.

“Top to bottom, yes,” Garrow said. “I don’t know that anyone is heads and tails above everyone else. With a new league, you don’t know where teams are going to shake out. Especially when teams haven’t played in a couple years.”

River Ridge hasn’t moved but is now part of the 2A SPSL 16-team super league, and still the only school in its league in Thurston County. It could be eligible to join the 3A SSC by the next reclassification cycle — if not before —if enrollment numbers continue to climb.

Rainier moved from the 2B Pacific to the 2B Central, but the two leagues are merged during football season and split into three divisions. Rainier is in the Mountain division, along with Napavine, which lost in the 2B state championship game last year.

The 1A Evergreen Conference is significantly smaller — five teams now — but Elma and Tenino haven’t moved. The 2A EvCo regains two teams — Aberdeen and Rochester — which have been members of the split 2A/1A EvCo for the last two years.

“It’s good to get those guys back,” W.F. West coach Bob Wollan said.

Aberdeen and Rochester’s readmission to the 2A league brings its number up to six — Black Hills, Centralia, Tumwater and W.F. West are all staying put.

“There’s something special about playing league games where there’s familiarity between the kids, coaches and community,” Wollan said. “… Some pretty good rivalries are made. Or started again.”

This story was originally published August 16, 2016 at 7:25 PM with the headline "New classifications, new leagues — just about everything is different."