The 1A Olympic and Nisqually leagues decided to combine for football beginning in the fall of 2016, according to Coupeville High School Athletic Director Duane Baumann.

The conferences will remain split for all other sports.

The football marriage between the two District 3 leagues will solve several problems.

First, it eliminates the need to play conference schools twice during the regular season.

Both leagues have only four schools (the Nisqually League actually has five, but Seattle Christian does not compete in football), so it was necessary to play each league opponent twice to fill out the schedules.

By combining, it gives each school seven league games during the 10-week regular season.

The first three weeks will be left open for the schools to play non-conference games against traditional rivals.

Second, because of the proximity of the leagues, many of the schools already played each other in non-league games in the past.

Third, the leagues had an agreement for crossover games at the end of the season. This sometimes set up less than ideal situations. For example, one year Port Townsend and Charles Wright Academy played two weeks in a row.

Another positive is the elimination of some tie-breakers. By playing each school once, head-to-head results will determine postseason seeding. When schools played each other twice and split during the regular season, such as Chimacum and Coupeville last fall, then another game was needed to break the logjam.

And, finally, the combined league will make the district tournament unnecessary. The top two (or three, depending on the allocations) during the season will earn the state tournament berths. The two leagues will no longer have to meet to figure out who moves on.

This agreement will last two years, then revisited and evaluated, according to Baumann.

Coupeville head football coach Brett Smedley said, “We are excited about combining leagues with Nisqually. We are looking forward to playing some new competition.”

“I am stoked about the change, and the guys are already working hard to be ready for next season,” he added.

Football-playing schools in the Nisqually League are Puyallup’s Cascade Christian, Bellevue Christian, Charles Wright Academy and Vashon Island.

Cascade Christian has won two state championships and reached nine title games since 2001.

Coupeville, Chimacum, Port Townsend and Klahowya of Silverdale are the 1A Olympic League schools.