Appeal denied: Tumwater crash-lands into 2A GSHL, merger with 2A EvCo is on
The 2A Evergreen Conference’s football merger with the 2A Greater St. Helens League will go through after an appeal from the 2A GSHL was denied by state district directors, The News Tribune has learned.
The update was first reported by Jordan Nailon of Blast Zone Media and was confirmed by The News Tribune. The News Tribune first reported the news of the approved merger between the two leagues last week.
Wondering how we got here? Let’s rewind.
Centralia, a member of the 2A EvCo, was granted permission to play a 1A schedule in the 1A Evergreen, leaving the 2A EvCo with just four member schools for the 2026 season: Tumwater, W.F. West, Black Hills and Aberdeen.
Aside from the comical optics of having a tiny four-team league, the larger issue for the 2A EvCo’s members is scheduling, forcing the remaining programs scrambling to find non-league games for over half of the season — a challenge when most teams around the state are getting into the league portion of their schedules by Week 3 or Week 4, and in some cases even earlier.
The 2A EvCo petitioned to join the 2A GSHL last December and was initially rejected. The 2A EvCo resides in the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s (WIAA) “District 4,” one of the six geographic districts in the state. Directors from District 4 reversed the decision last Tuesday, mandating the merger.
Then the 2A GSHL appealed the decision. In a statement obtained by The Columbian, 2A GSHL president Brynan Shipley, who is the athletic director at Ridgefield High School, explained why the league was going forward with the appeal.
“The GSHL’s eight-team football league is currently in a solid and stable position,” the statement said. “Our league has provided consistency, close travel distances, competitive balance and scheduling stability that has worked well for schools, coaches, communities and student athletes.
“Expanding to a 12-team league through a merger with EvCo would bring new challenges, including longer travel, more time away from class for subvarsity contests, potential shifts in competitive balance and careful coordination of schedules and postseason plans.”
The notable excerpt from the statement: “Potential shifts in competitive balance.”
Tumwater, a perennial state tournament contender in Class 2A, has played in the 2A state championship game each of the past three seasons, falling to Anacortes in 2023 and 2024 and losing to Archbishop Murphy last fall. Tumwater won the 2A title in 2019, beating the Emeka Egbuka-led Steilacoom Sentinels.
Made clear by the 2A GSHL’s initial rejection of the merger and the later appeal that was doomed from the start: the challenge of adding a program of Tumwater’s caliber wasn’t appealing to the 2A GSHL’s member schools. Winning a league championship now becomes exponentially tougher for the 2A GSHL’s member schools, as the league now runs through Tumwater.
The new 12-team league will consist of:
- Washougal
- Columbia River
- Ridgefield
- Mark Morris
- Woodland
- Hockinson
- Hudson’s Bay
- R.A. Long
- Tumwater
- W.F. West
- Black Hills
- Aberdeen
For Garrow and the other 2A EvCo schools, it solves the issue of having to schedule six non-league games.
“They were really, really, really hard to fill,” Garrow told The News Tribune last week. “It’s extremely difficult to find six non-league opponents. Most leagues in the state are eight or so teams, so they don’t have byes in Weeks 4, 5 and 6. Then the number of schools that do have byes, you have to convince them to play you.
“From a high school football perspective as a head coach over the next two years, I enjoy the fact that we’re gonna have league stability, we know we’re gonna have opponents.”
In an ideal world, Tumwater and Black Hills would compete in the same league as other Thurston County schools, but schools are placed in different classifications based on student enrollment numbers. WIAA district directors cannot mandate a Class 3A league accepts Class 2A schools. Timberline, North Thurston, Capital and River Ridge are Class 3A schools. Olympia High School is a Class 4A school.
The format of the newly-merged league has yet to be determined. As a 12-team league, not every team will be able to play each other during the regular season. Multiple formats are being considered: two six team divisions, as well as a “pod system” with three pods of four teams.
The league merger will remain in place through the 2027 season, before the WIAA’s next four-year reclassification cycle, which will begin in the 2028-29 school year.
This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 11:23 AM.
