Shorecrest, Shorewood will start Fall play in new Wesco 3A South division

By Evan Smith

Sports teams from Shorecrest and Shorewood will play in a new Western Conference 3A South division starting in the new school year.

Shorecrest and Shorewood will join Glacier Peak, Meadowdale and Mountlake Terrace in the Wesco 3A South, as the Wesco 3A splits into two divisions with the expansion from nine teams to 10.

As we reported in January, Marysville-Pilchuck and Stanwood will drop from the 4A to the 3A classification, and Lynnwood will move from 3A to 4A.

• Marysville-Pilchuck and Stanwood will join Marysville Getchell, Everett and Oak Harbor in the Wesco 3A North.
• Lynnwood will join Edmonds-Woodway, Cascade, Jackson, Kamiak and Mariner in the Wesco 4A South.
• Arlington, Lake Stevens, Monroe, Mount Vernon and Snohomish will be in the Wesco 4A North
• Mount Vernon will move from the Northwest Conference because State reclassification has moved it from 3A to 4A.

The 11 Wesco 4A teams will make up the entire Northwest District 4A lineup, with the District 3A made up of the 10 Wesco teams plus Ferndale of the Northwest Conference, the only 3A team in the NWC along with nine 2A schools and three 1A schools. For the past two years, the NWC has had three 3A schools, but Ferndale stands alone now that Mount Vernon has moved to the 4A classification and Sedro-Woolley has dropped to 2A.

Don Dalziel, who directs sports programs for the Shoreline School District, said Thursday that Ferndale didn’t want to leave the NWC for the Wesco 3A and that Wesco schools didn’t want to travel to Ferndale.

While 4A Mount Vernon would be two classifications away from most NWC schools, 3A Ferndale can fit more easily into the NWC.

Dalziel said that sports administrators from Ferndale and the 10 Wesco 3A schools will decide how Ferndale can qualify for District and State play.

Shorecrest, Shorewood, Everett, Glacier Peak, Lynnwood, Meadowdale, Mountlake Terrace and Oak Harbor have played in a single Wesco 3A division since 2009, with Marysville Getchell joining them for 2010-11.

With nine teams, each team in sport with a limit of 16 contests, like soccer, tennis or volleyball, could play each other team twice. With 10 teams, that wouldn’t be possible without the split into two divisions.

Football

Starting next year, each football team will play each of the other four teams in its division, with the ninth week devoted to games between the two No. 1 teams, the two No, 2 teams etc. Results of those cross-division games will determine seeding to district and quad-district playoffs. Each team will have four open dates for non-league games, allowing school like Glacier Peak, Everett, Meadowdale, Mountlake Terrace, Oak Harbor and Stanwood to play natural rivals.

Softball, basketball, soccer, tennis

Each team in softball, boys’ and girls’ basketball, boys’ and girls' soccer and boys’ and girls’ tennis will play 13 Wesco 3A games, two each against the other four teams in its division and one against the five teams in the other division.

Volleyball

Volleyball teams will play each of the other four teams in their divisions twice,

League records in basketball, soccer, softball and volleyball will determine seeding into the Northwest District tournaments in each sport.

Wrestling

Wrestling will keep a similar schedule to the current schedule, with a Northwest District tournament leading to a regional tournament.

Track

Track teams will stay with a regular season like the current one, with division meets leading to a Northwest District meet. 

League officials have yet to determine formats for baseball, cross country, golf and swimming.

Gymnastics

Gymnastics teams will continue with an independent schedule because the two Shoreline schools and the three Bellingham schools are the only Northwest District schools with gymnastics teams.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association reclassifies schools every two years based on enrollment in the fall. The schools are then classified according to percentages, with the largest 17 percent of state high schools placed in 4A, the next 17 percent in 3A, then 17 percent in 2A, 17 percent in 1A, 16 percent in 2B and 16 percent in 1B.