Shorecrest, Shorewood teams to play in revamped WesCo 3A South

Shorecrest and Shorewood sports teams will continue to play in the WesCo 3A South division next year, with the division revamped from recent years.

The division will drop in size from seven teams to six, with Glacier Peak leaving the 3A division to move to the WesCo 4A, and Snohomish, which dropped from the 4A classification to 3A, joining the WesCo 3A North, expanding the North Division from six teams to seven.

That leaves Edmonds-Woodway, Lynnwood, Meadowdale, Mountlake Terrace, Shorecrest and Shorewood in the new WesCo 3A South. The WesCo 3A North will have Arlington, Everett, Marysville Getchell, Marysville-Pilchuck, Oak Harbor, Snohomish and Stanwood.

The WesCo 4A will have Cascade, Glacier Peak, Jackson, Kamiak, Lake Stevens, Mariner, Monroe and Mount Vernon.

Mountlake Terrace plans to stay in the WesCo 3A South, despite dropping to the 2A classification, just as Shorecrest had played in the WesCo 3A South as a 2A school for the last two years, before returning to 3A for the next four school years.

Football 3A divisions will be different, with the two 3A schools from the Northwest Conference – Ferndale and Squalicum – joining WesCo. That will put all 14 Northwest District 3A football teams in one league. Ferndale and Squalicum will join Arlington, Marysville Getchell, Marysville-Pilchuck, Oak Harbor and Stanwood in the north.

Everett and Snohomish will join Edmonds-Woodway, Lynnwood, Meadowdale, Shorecrest and Shorewood in the south. Mountlake Terrace expects to stay in WesCo football as the league’s only 2A member.

WesCo 3A athletics directors agreed on division alignments two weeks ago.

Those directors have yet to establish which sports would compete in divisions and which would have combined divisions.

Now, teams in football, tennis, basketball, baseball, softball and track compete in divisions, while teams in soccer, volleyball and cross country have combined divisions.

Directors have yet to set methods of qualifying for district play. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has yet to set the allocations for qualifying for state play.

WesCo and other high school leagues around Washington have been realigning in the wake of reclassification of Washington high schools in January. The new classifications are for four years. In recent years, reclassification happened every two years.

Plans for the WesCo’s only 2A school, Mountlake Terrace, to play in a football league that would include all of the Northwest District’s 12 2A schools in one football league apparently have fallen through.