The Prep Blog

The Prep Blog

Covering high school sports in Tacoma, Pierce County and the South Sound

Feb.
3rd

(UPDATED) Basketball: League-by-league look at conference championship races


Bellarmine Prep's Isaiah Flynn (blue uniform) and Olympia's Dominick Francks chase a loose ball during a game at Olympia in January. The Lions and Bear are also going after the Narrows League 4A title. (Tony Overman, staff photographer)

UPDATE (10 p.m. Saturday): Plenty of teams won league titles this weekend. On Friday, I posted a breakdown on various scenarios. Now that games on Friday and Saturday have concluded, here’s where we stand:

BOYS BASKETBALL

NARROWS 4A
Bellarmine Prep and Olympia are tied with 10-1 records and league. The teams have split their two-game series. If they remain tied at the end of the regular season, they’ll share the league title, but play a tiebreaker on Feb. 10 at Foss HS to determine to seeding to the district tournament.
Update: Bellarmine Prep and Olympia are still tied, nothing has changed.

SPSL NORTH
So many scenarios exist. Just know that it will come down to Kent-Meridian, Kentwood and Mount Rainier.
Update: If Kentwood beats last-place Auburn Riverside on Monday, the Conks win the league title.

SPSL SOUTH
If Federal Way beats Beamer and Bethel on Friday and Saturday, the Eagles will be league champs. If Federal Way stumbles in either game, Beamer and Curtis could rise to the top of the league.
Update: Curtis won its third straight league title, and fourth in five seasons.
Read more »

Feb.
2nd

State Basketball: Locations of regional games

I’ve been focusing on football recruiting for most of the past few weeks, so this might be old news to many of you, but it’s new to me.

You can find the locations of the boys and girls basketball regional games here.

Remember, the state hoops tournaments took on a new format last year. The first-round games are played at regional sites across the state, while the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals are in one location — 4A, 3A at the Tacoma Dome; 2A, 1A at the Yakima SunDome; and 2B, 1B at Spokane Arena.

A major complaint about the

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Feb.
2nd

WIAA: Rep Assembly amendments revealed

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association released the 2012 Rep Assembly amendments today.

Click here to view the amendments.

Only one of the 16 amendments piqued my interest. Amendment No. 1 deals with how schools are classified. Here’s how it reads:

DEMONSTRATION OF DECLINING ENROLLMENT – Schools in the 2B, 1A and 2A
classifications able to demonstrate (via the P223) that enrollment in their school district
for the next two-year classification cycle is below the cutoff point determined by the
classification process for both years will have the option to participate in the lower
classification. Movement by a school will not force another school into a higher
classification to replace the school with declining enrollment. Utilizing this procedure
would override 4.2.0 for the two classifications affected.

NOTE: All subsequent subsections of Article 4 would be renumbered.

Issues:
1. The current classification system does not address declining enrollment.

2. The current classification system counts two graduating classes that never participate
during the following two-year cycle.
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Feb.
2nd

Update on Senate Bill 6383 and the WIAA

Last week I wrote this story on Senate Bill 6383.

The bill seeks “to impose penalties for rules violations upon coaches, school district administrators, school administrators, and students, as appropriate, to punish the offending party or parties.”

It also aims to make punishment proportional to the committed offense so that student athletes don’t suffer from violations committed by adults.

Here’s video of the public hearing on the bill. Sen. Don Benton and WIAA executive director Mike Colbrese testified — so did a citizen, but he spoke on a totally unrelated matter — on Thursday Jan. 26.

Read more »

Feb.
2nd

Boys Basketball: AP state poll

Class 4A
1. Davis (8) 15-2 80
2. Bellarmine Prep 14-2 69
3. Skyline 16-3 61
4. Central Valley 13-3 58
5. Garfield 12-5 38
6. Union 13-4 36
7. Snohomish 14-4 29
8. Olympia 12-3 28
9. Redmond 13-5 19
10. Curtis 14-5 6
Others receiving votes — Gonzaga Prep 5, Jackson 5, Kentwood 4, Roosevelt 1, Kent-Meridian 1.
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Feb.
2nd

Girls Basketball: AP state poll

Class 4A
1. Central Valley (7) 15-1 78
2. Mount Rainier (1) 18-0 73
3. Stanwood 16-1 62
4. Lake Stevens 16-1 48
5. Woodinville 15-2 45
6. (tie) Jackson 15-2 39
(tie) Skyview 15-2 39
8. Emerald Ridge 15-1 24
9. Auburn Riverside 15-1 20
10. Gonzaga Prep (Spokane) 12-4 10
Others receiving votes — Chiawana 4, Kentwood 1.
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Feb.
1st

No drama at Lakes High on signing day

For a third day in a row, football jerseys were laid out on tables on stage at Lakes High’s performing arts center.

This time, there was no media horde and no suspense over what school an All-American football recruit would pick. Just five football teammates and volleyball player Anitaka Knight getting the spotlight after they each signed letters of intent on Wednesday.

“Not many schools can equal this,” said USC-bound offensive tackle Zach Banner. “We had two All-Americans, two guys going to D-2 schools another going to Idaho, and that’s not all. There will be other guys that sign and other guys that walk-on.”

Banner said he had no second-thoughts since orally committing to USC on Monday.

“I’m happy,” he said, “we’ve got a top-10 recruiting class and we’ll be competing for national championships every year for the next four years.”
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Feb.
1st

Washington High’s Tuivaiave signs with WSU (exhale)

For a while, Jacob Tuivaiave wasn’t sure if he’d sign a letter of intent to play at Washington State University.

After WSU hired Mike Leach, the new coach’s staff re-evaluated the 19 players that had orally committed to the Cougars. For various reasons, nine were told they no longer had offers to WSU.

“After I heard coach Leach was coming, I was kind of nervous if he’d drop me like those nine guys,” Tuivaiave said. “Once I heard from him, it was a great feeling.”

On Wednesday, the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Washington High standout signed with the Cougars. Tuivaiave took his official visit to WSU last week and left impressed and excited.

“My impression of coach Leach was great,” he said. “He’s a great guy. His vision for WSU is very clear. I like how he came in and changed everything around.”

Tuivaiave played linebacker for the Patriots, earning SPSL 2A Defensive Player of the Year honors, but he expects to play defensive end or possibly outside linebacker.
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