It appears the Narrows 4A League will stay intact for at least another two years.
In a surprise turn of events involving student enrollment numbers at two South Sound schools, Yelm High School will jump up a classification and be part of the Narrows 4A, while North Thurston High School will move up and join the Narrows 3A, both schools’ athletic directors confirmed Thursday.
The latest development would make the Narrows 3A a seven-school league, beginning with the 2012-13 school year. Adding Yelm would give the Narrows 4A a seventh member and solidify that league’s once shaky status.
As reported, Bellarmine Prep, Central Kitsap, Gig Harbor, Olympia and South Kitsap applied for membership to the South Puget Sound League earlier this week. Those schools are now expected to withdraw their applications, Bellarmine Prep athletic director Ed Ploof said.
“We want to be together in the Narrows League,” Ploof said. “And there are two issues to consider – one, we like being with each other (as schools), competing with each other and then there is the tradition here. The other thing is we do not want to go to another league and say, ‘Take care of us.’ We don’t want to put that kind of pressure on schools we don’t have relationships with.”
Yelm was the catalyst in the late-week change of events.
Initially, it was thought the Tornados would remain a 3A school. But when a preliminary WIAA reclassification report released this week indicated that Yelm had left off 50 Running Start pupils in its original count, they were later added to the school’s total.
That bumped up Yelm to 1,319 students (in 10th-12th grades), and the 4A cutoff is 1,304 students. It marks the first time the Tornados will become members of the largest-school classification.
“With us being that close (to the cutoff), the district went back and looked at it the last couple of days,” Yelm athletic director Thad Nelson said. “We will be 4A next year. We are excited about that opportunity. And we realize the competition is going to get a little stronger.”
North Thurston made the same oversight on its Running Start students, said AD Dan Clark. The recount has the Rams at 1,104 students (10th-12th grades); the maximum to stay at 2A is 1,085 students.
Joining the Narrows 3A will mark North Thurston’s fifth league since 2006. It will finish out its 2A Evergreen Conference membership this school year.
“We’ve had a lot of changes,” Clark said. “We look like we’ve been in every league in the world in the last 20 years.”
So, starting next school year, the Narrows 4A will consist of Bellarmine Prep, Central Kitsap, Gig Harbor, Olympia, South Kitsap, Stadium and Yelm.
The Narrows 3A will be made up of Foss, Lincoln, Mount Tahoma, North Thurston, Shelton, Timberline and Wilson.
Ploof said at the next meeting of Narrows athletic directors, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, the schools will firm up their future alignment plans, as well as begin discussions about intraleague and 4A-3A crossover scheduling.
Steve Coons, the principal at Central Kitsap, is expected to contact SPSL officials in the coming days about formally withdrawing the applications to join that league.
In other news, earlier this week EvCo athletic directors unanimously voted to accept Capital, which will be leaving the Narrows 3A. The vote now goes for approval by the schools’ principals next week.
Todd Milles: 253-597-8442 Meg Wochnick: 360-754-5473
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