If some Cheney High School spring sports coaches are walking around with less than happy looks on their faces, it’s not necessarily because of weather conditions canceling games.
Because of the negative impact to scheduling caused by late-winter snowfall dominating February, including a long period of very cold weather that stretched into late March, Great Northern League athletic directors have elected to change part of their league schedule for baseball, soccer and softball. CHS athletics director Jeff Chandler said the conditions that led to the postponement of a number of non-league contests also led ADs to decide to change the number of games that count towards league standings.
Soccer typically plays four non-league contests while baseball and softball play eight, followed 12 league games among the five GNL schools, with each school playing others three times. Chandler said the ADs recognize the value coach’s place on those non-league contests, and knowing they would struggle to make those up, but hoping they could, changed the number of games that count in the league standings from 12 to eight to allow additional dates for makeup games from other leagues such as the Central Washington Athletic Conference.
For soccer, that means that the first round of play between Cheney, Clarkston, East Valley, Pullman and West Valley – with Cheney going 4-0 – will not count in the league standings. Baseball and softball will only count the first game of doubleheaders, Chandler said, adding that the reasoning for this was if further bad weather impacted play, at least league games would get in if the second game of a doubleheader were canceled.
Doubleheaders played on weekdays might end up with the second game being played near dusk, making for long road trips home. The other way around this would be to start games earlier, but that would lead to student-athletes missing more class time.
CHS softball head coach Gary Blake said while the weather impacted the Lady Blackhawks non-league schedule, other local schools were hit harder since they don’t travel too far for non-league play.
“We’re one of a few schools that go out and play our games (non-league) in the Columbia Basin,” Blake said. In the past, that has helped the Lady Blackhawks get in 3-4 more games come league play than other schools, but this year, Blake said the adverse weather impacted CWAC teams as badly as it did local schools.
Chandler drew on his experience as a head coach in Western Washington when categorizing the importance of non-league games.
“Those non-league games are great to evaluate talent and get some game experience for your back up players,” he said.
Cheney baseball coach Rob Beamer disputed the weather-related reasoning for the changes. The Blackhawks have managed to get a number of their games in, but had to move a critical doubleheader with West Valley from Cheney to the Millwood school where they lost game one but won game two.
“Weather hasn’t impacted a (league) game yet,” he said in an April 2 interview “We moved the doubleheader to West Valley because the (new) dirt wasn’t on our field yet.”
Counting only eight games instead of 12 could lead to situations where teams split their league games, creating tiebreaker situations. Chandler said the GNL has language for handling tiebreakers in this case, but is seeking additional input from coaches in order to offer a better solution.
Right now, tiebreakers are settled with a deck of cards. At the beginning of the season, ADs took turns cutting a deck of cards, with high cards holding the advantage over low cards.
It’s a big deal, especially where teams tie for first. The winner of the GNL regular season gets a free pass to the District 7 title game and possible high seed against CWAC playoff contenders.
“It’s an advantage to be the league champion, and it should be,” Chandler said.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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