Girls Hoops Team Playing In One Conference, Post-Season In Another Gets Left Out

February 15, 2012 /
PTLeader.com, Patrick J. Sullivan

http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?SectionID=16&SubSectionID=16&ArticleID=30917

The complicated arrangement that has Port Townsend a member of one league but a post-season competitor in another league reared its ugly head again last week.

For more than a week, Port Townsend High School coaches, players, fans and the school’s athletic director figured if a certain scenario played out, PT would get a 1A playoff spot.

But when that scenario came through, Nisqually League and then West Central District 3 officials ruled that PTHS was ineligible.

“It is just painful, and the way that it went down makes it difficult on the kids,” said PTHS varsity girls’ coach Randy Maag. “It would have been less painful to lose a loser-out game on a last-second shot.”

Part of the story is over: PTHS did not qualify for the girls’ basketball playoffs. PT’s appeals were denied. The season is over for the team’s six seniors.

But now, attention is focused on what PTHS officials can do to clarify the post-season agreement because the same problem that hit girls’ basketball could happen this spring to soccer, baseball or softball. Also, the existing rules would be even more harsh on Port Townsend’s playoff chances in the 2012-13 season.

“I have told the Nisqually League that I would like to rewrite the playoff agreement between PT and Nisqually for the next two years,” said Patrick Kane, PTHS assistant principal and athletic director.

League alignment

PTHS is a 1A school playing in the 2A/3A Olympic League. The West Central District 3’s other 1A teams are in the Nisqually League. How a PT team finishes against the Olympic’s 2A schools decides a 1A playoff spot.

“In the past, we had to finish above one 2A team to get in the playoffs and then it was changed to two 2A teams,” Maag said. “It’s now three 2A teams just to get a pig-tail game.” (Prior to the start of the 2011-12 season, Kane had insisted on having the eligibility scenarios in writing based on questions from last season.)

This season, the PTHS girls finished 5-9 against 2A Olympic League teams, and 0-2 against the Olympic’s sole 3A team (Bremerton). PT happened to be 4-0 against 1A Nisqually League teams in non-league play.

PT’s success against Olympic League 2A schools was 2-0 vs. North Mason, 2-0 vs. Sequim and 1-1 vs. Olympic High, but 0-2 against Klahowya. Ultimately, the two losses against Klahowya (46-37 in the season-opener last Dec. 2 and 39-31 on Jan. 6) doomed PT.

Not actually tied?

PT and Klahowya finished with the same overall league record (5-11) and the Olympic League declared PT a fifth-place finisher. The morning of Feb. 8, Kane and Maag thought Townsend would be playing at Vashon Island on Feb. 9.

The Nisqually position changed because Life Christian Academy lost Feb. 7 to Charles Wright (not expected), and lost (as expected) Feb. 8 in a game against Cascade Christian. Those two Life Christian Academy losses put Vashon in third place and the academy in fourth.

Wednesday, a Nisqually official contacted Kane about how Life Christian’s upset loss to Charles Wright and likely loss that night to Cascade Christian changed PT’s playoff scenario.

The Nisqually League questioned whether Port Townsend was indeed eligible for playoff entry.

Maag learned just before practice Feb. 8 that a problem had arisen with PT’s playoff status, and that Kane was working on it. Later that afternoon, Kane came to practice and talked with Maag about having to appeal at a meeting Thursday, and that PT could be playing Friday instead of Thursday.

But the West Central District 3 meeting Feb. 9 did not turn out in PT’s favor.

“The [Nisqually League] president stated that since we didn’t split our games with Klahowya, win/loss, we didn’t get the right to the pig-tail game,” Kane said. “The clause about a tie is vague and that is why I made the appeal.”

An appeal committee met following the Feb. 9 meeting of West Central District 3 athletic directors and confirmed the ruling. Kane then contacted the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, which declined to become involved (a decision some PTHS fans contend is contrary to WIAA bylaws).

Coach Maag said it is a classic example of how PTHS teams do not get a fair shake when it comes to post-season play because of league affiliation.

“I guess for all those that thought this Olympic League vs. Nisqually League was just about getting beat up by bigger schools, maybe now they will understand what the coaches here are really talking about, which is an equal opportunity for the post season in a way that is fair to our kids,” said coach Maag.

“We’re the odd duck, so to speak,” Maag added. “The Nisqually League is all about protecting its teams.

Tie breaker scenario
Kane said the information paper “Port Townsend Entry to Post-Season” does not specify how being tied for fifth place matters.

“We had looked at the tie scenario and we didn’t read it the way the Nisqually League read it,” Maag said. “You can say that typically you break ties by head-to-head and that is standard practice, but it is also standard practice to have your playoff tiebreaker scenario in writing. The Olympic League has one for their 2A schools.”

The head of the Olympic League athletic directors backed PT: Tied for fifth was as good as alone in fifth place.

By Nisqually League standards, PTHS received a fair ruling.

“The Nisqually League guidelines for PTHS in case of a tie in league standings state that if they had a split outcome with their tied opponent, they would get the higher league standing,” said Mike Cornachione, Chimacum High School athletic director. He was not at the Feb. 9 meeting in which PT’s case was discussed, but has seen the rules. “In this case, [Port Townsend] lost twice to the other fifth-place team. So, in terms of post-season play, they finished sixth. The same guidelines are used in the Nisqually League. For example, if [Chimacum boys] would have finished fifth and tied with Vashon, [Vashon] would have gotten the fifth seed outright with no coin flip because they beat us twice.”

The Nisqually League athletic directors prior to this season had also decided that a coin flip would be used to break a tie, if needed, with a playoff berth at stake. “The only case where an extra game would be played is when a playoff bye was at stake,” Cornachione noted.

No relief next season

There is no relief in sight. PT Superintendent Gene Laes has signed PTHS up for another two-year stint in the Olympic League. Some coaches, parents and student-athletes questioned that decision last month, and again at the Feb. 13 school board meeting.

Next year, reclassification make’s PT’s chance for a 1A playoff spot even tougher because Bremerton drops from 3A to 2A. This season, if Bremerton had been 2A, PTHS would have finished tied for sixth and out of the 1A playoff opportunity, according to the existing Nisqually League rules.

Maag said he does plan on returning as PTHS varsity coach next season, and hopes the school’s play-in qualifications can be adjusted to account for Bremerton (which becomes one of the state’s largest 2A teams by enrollment).


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