So what's everyone's thoughts on this change? How does this look for Wrestling on the Eastside? Why didn't the Westside do it too?
It’s a ways off with implementation not until 2024, but the SCAC and EWAC got news this week that their postseasons will be significantly changing in the future.
The WIAA’s Representative Assembly passed four of seven proposed amendments on Monday and one that got a green light is reducing the state’s number of districts from nine to six. With 53 voters from a pool of high school and middle school administrators, the amendment passed 40-13.
Only the state’s eastside will be affected by the redistricting, which will merge District 5 and 6 to form a new District 5 and merge District 7, 8 and 9 into a new District 6.
The 1A SCAC, however, with 10 schools in District 5, would join with the Caribou Trail’s five schools in District 6. An even bigger merger would come in 2B, where the EWAC’s 13 schools in District 5 would connect with Central Washington’s seven in District 6. The new District 5 would have schools and leagues representing five of the state’s six classifications while the new District 6 would have all six classifications. And that’s the point of it, mostly.
“There are some good features to this and the biggest one is having the state’s districts operate with more consistency and more similarity,” said District 6 director Dave Cullen, who’s been part of a committee that has worked on this amendment since 2016. “Of course, deciding on how district brackets are going to look, where games are located and the number of entries — there will be some extra work for sure. But there’s time to work all that out and good people doing it.”
While the postseason competition will certainly increase for the SCAC and EWAC, so will the number of state allocations. For example, if the SCAC and Caribou Trail were joined now for a district tournament, five baseball teams would qualify for state. For the EWAC and CWB, it would be six.
The redistricting change will start with the 2024-2025 school year, which will be the beginning of the next four-year classification cycle