Classification Changes - 1B FB League Outlook

[Grey Panther]

As football people we forget about cross country. I was told yesterday that school with 4 competes in cross country

[GridironBeez]

Ok, word just in that Tri-Cities Prep WILL play their 2B League schedule for 2010.

Also got confirmation that they WILL allow T-O-R to stay together and now "opt-up" together to play 2B football.

Any word on Columbia and Inchelium doing the ferry ride combo?

Still waiting on the Odessa and Harrington and Sprague situation also...

Pomeroy also decided to stay at 1B at NOT opt-up, that is official.

Liberty Christian WILL play down at 1B ineligible status for 2010.

[hoopaholic]

I never understood the "penalizing" of schools who play 8 man football due to safety, numbers and other factors by not allowing them to play 2B in the rest of the sports....thus why I strongly suggest

8 man football classification allowing a school to then decide to play 1b or 2b in rest of sports;

How do you define 8 man classification: any school who has had less than 24 eligible students turn out for football in the last enrollment cycle. You than place the limitation that the school will not allow any more than 24 to suit up in the current cycle


SO....if during the last enrollment count year a school had less than 24 kids turning out for football they could play 1b football, but the rest of the sports could opt up to 2B sports.

24 is the magic numbe rin my book as it allows for several ineligibles, injuries and you could still field a team. You start to go over that number and you can easily handle 11 man football.

always give and takes and yes there will be some schools who "force" kids not to turn out because it will put them over the number, but that is a local ethical, integrity issue that will not go away no matter what the rule is.

[Compass Rose]

What Hoop said. TCPrep is going to have a very tough go next year, with sophomores and frosh on the O and D lines when facing teams like Asotin and DeSales.

That will not be pretty for the defending 1B champs. I have no doubt that Coach Whitsett will do everything in his power to secure the safety of his players. . .even at the expense of some potential on-field advantages. It is too bad that Prep, so very close to the 8-man cutoff, can't defend its title and is facing a very rough go next year. The gridiron program has heavy competition for bodies with the school's very successful (and here's a toast to it!!) Cross Country program. But that means fewer boys for football. . .and a safety issue comes up when you have 15 kids out for an 11 man program.

But, the system is what it is.

[wampus]

How many kids just doesn't always mean anything. Clark Fork (I think 1980) won the Idaho 11-man title with 13 kids. They had 4-5 collegiate athletes including future NFL tightend Ron Heller. One of the toughest 8-man teams this year was Lyle. Those were 10 kids with grit.

[GridironBeez]

Jan 9, 2010 2:47:26 GMT -5 wampus said:

How many kids just doesn't always mean anything. Clark Fork (I think 1980) won the Idaho 11-man title with 13 kids. They had 4-5 collegiate athletes including future NFL tightend Ron Heller. One of the toughest 8-man teams this year was Lyle. Those were 10 kids with grit.

True, very true in many ways...except...if in 1980 Clark Fork had two or three of those kids injured at the wrong time then they could have exposed two or three freshmen to the hands of big strong juniors and seniors on the other side of the ball and ultimately ended up losing even more players. Not to mention chances for a State title etc.

Many success stories out there with small rosters. But even more stories of small rosters limping through football seasons and putting players at severe risks. The fact that teams like Clark Fork, Lyle-Wishram, and even Tri-Cities Prep who had 16 suited up for title game (6 of them freshmen) survive seasons without losing a few key players at the wrong time and have success is great. But what about Garfield-Palouse starting 6-0 in 2008 in 2B and then forfeiting final regular season game for lack of players. They had guys injured and that ended that. Not everyone wins the "injury" battle and more times then not teams lose it.

This year there are only two teams that want to play 8-man football at the bottom of the 2B enrollment classification. Liberty Christian and Tri-Cities Prep. LC is going 8-man ineligible, while TCP is going to attempt to survive the SE 2B League schedule. I don't know the "right" answer but in regards to hoop's statement these two teams have fewer football players on their rosters than 45% of the 1B teams.

[SCSfan]

TCP fans not to worry. TCP has about 135 students in their high school and it is only going to draw more students with its high caliber academic and athletic programs. Plus the football program has a great coach who can continue to recruit players, especially in an area the size of the Tricities. And some of the 2B football programs are not any more competitive than the 1B programs. It really no longer makes sense for TCP to play down against B8 football schools that typically have only 50 to 60 students. TCP has outgrown B8 football and it is going to have a lot of success at the next level. It will be fun to watch TCP compete.

[tcpjags]

Jan 11, 2010 14:22:53 GMT -5 SCSfan said:

TCP fans not to worry. TCP has about 135 students in their high school and it is only going to draw more students with its high caliber academic and athletic programs. Plus the football program has a great coach who can continue to recruit players, especially in an area the size of the Tricities. And some of the 2B football programs are not any more competitive than the 1B programs. It really no longer makes sense for TCP to play down against B8 football schools that typically have only 50 to 60 students. TCP has outgrown B8 football and it is going to have a lot of success at the next level. It will be fun to watch TCP compete.

That "success" will not come right away in my opinion. The sophomore - senior count next year will be somewhere between 79-88 students according to the data I have seen. Similar to Liberty Christian, they have a large senior class that is leaving in June. Both schools will be in that range next year, and subsequently have low football turnout numbers once again. The only athletic roster that seems healthy in regards to numbers participating at TCP is the Cross Country team that had about 30 out this year. For a school that is "growing" even basketball numbers are down this year in both girls and boys.

Liberty Christian is a K-12 school so they can forecast and be somewhat accurate in looking ahead. TCP is a 9-12 high school and gets 98% of their students from a few tiny Catholic K-8 schools in the area. TCP does a great job with the kids they do have, but the only recruiting going on is getting as many of the potential 8th graders as possible from the Catholic junior highs. The football title team roster this year was full of K-12 Catholic school kids. No transfers on the team and I can't think of any transfers playing any sports at Prep off the top of my head. If they are, then they sat out an athletic season first before doing so if they had prior participation at any other school in a 50 mile radius. I do know some students that have transferred to TCP that were athletes and surrendered their sport of choice because the transfer was nothing more than academically motivated. Sure, they would have loved to be able to participate, but not being able to play did not change their decision to transfer. My co-workers son actually was a three sport athlete at a 3A school and transferred to Prep and surrendered his athletics to do so, even though he had only competed at the freshman level. He had to sit out his entire sophomore season.

Until the Catholic K-8 schools grow, TCP will not grow except for getting a higher percentage of those 8th graders then they are currently getting. Even if they got them all, every 8th grade Catholic middle school kid in the Tri-Cities for four years straight, then it would still only put the sophomore-senior count at about 165-170. Still well below the 207 ceiling for the 2B schools.

No, I do not see TCP just taking off and all of the sudden growing at that kind of rate. The school may continue to grow some, but at a much slower pace then thought by outsiders. The dynamics are a lot different for this school than I think many people realize. Yes, we do have a great football coach, but even as good as he is, he will have to perform some miracles for Prep to be competitive with such low numbers turning out and able bodies to play the sport.