The schedules for the Oak Harbor and Coupeville high school football teams will have a different look this fall, and both include a bump in degree of difficulty.
The Wildcats and Wolves began practice Wednesday in preparation for their season openers the first weekend of September.
All other fall sports start practices Monday.
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association conducted enrollment counts last school year, which reshuffled the classifications for the next four years. Oak Harbor remained 3A but other Western Conference schools were affected by the new count.
Snohomish will drop from 4A to 3A, while the other Snohomish high school, Glacier Peak, moves up from 3A to 4A. Shorecrest jumped from 2A to 3A, and Mountlake Terrace fell from 3A to 2A.
Coupeville’s Olympic League 1A division saw no changes; however, the conference decided to hook up with the Nisqually League in football only.
North gets better
The Wesco 3A North is setting up to be one of the state’s toughest divisions.
Like the Olympic League, the Wesco North will see a football-only change.
Ferndale and Squalicum, the Northwest Conference’s only 3A teams, will compete in the Wesco North for football.
Ferndale is one of the Washington’s strongest programs, reaching the state playoffs in 15 of the past 20 years. It played in three state titles games during that span, winning in 2005.
Squalicum, which struggled in football for most of its existence, is coming off the best two seasons in school history, qualifying for the state tournament in 2014 and 2015. Last fall it won 11 straight games before falling in the state quarterfinals.
The Storm return five players who received all-league honors, including the conference’s Most Valuable Player, Ben Peterson, who was first-team on both offense (receiver) and defense (back).
He caught 33 passes for 784 yards (a 23.8-yard average per catch) from returning quarterback Garrett Sorenson. Peterson also kicked 45 extra points and four field goals.
With Ferndale and Squalicum joining the Wesco North in football, Everett will slide over to the Wesco South to balance the number of schools in each division. That translates to “in with the good, out with the bad.” The Seagulls have won only three conference games in the past four seasons.
The division includes holdovers Marysville-Pilchuck, a perennial power, and surging Arlington, last year’s North champion, as well as Marysville Getchell and Stanwood.
Oak Harbor hosts Mariner in a non-league game in the season opener at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2.
Leagues combine
The Olympic League 1A division and the Nisqually League each have only four schools that field football teams. To avoid having to play each conference school twice in a season or to schedule six non-league games, the two leagues decided to join forces in football.
In the past, the teams in the two leagues often met in non-conference and crossover games to fill out their schedules. Since the Olympic and Nisqually leagues are the only 1A conferences in District 3, they were also paired up in the early rounds of the playoffs.
This led to some awkward scheduling, including teams playing the same school in back-to-back weeks (last regular season crossover game, first playoff game) the past two years.
The combining eliminates the scheduling problems, but it will ratchet up the competitive level for Coupeville, coming off a one-win season.
The Nisqually League includes Cascade Christian, Bellevue Christian, Charles Wright Academy and Vashon Island.
Cascade Christian is a 1A powerhouse, winners of the past eight Nisqually League titles. Since 2002, the Cougars won two state titles (2010, 2014), finished second in the state three times and third four times.
Vashon Island returns all-state running back Bryce Hoisington, who set a state single-game record of 573 rushing yards and nine touchdowns against Coupeville last year.
Coupeville, under new coach Jon Atkins, opens with a non-league game, entertaining South Whidbey at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3.
Others sports
The other teams begin turnouts Monday in hopes of improving on last season’s performances.
Leading the way is the Coupeville tennis squad which is out to defend its Olympic League title after going 4-0 in conference and 5-3 overall last fall.
The Wolves were second in soccer (4-2, 6-7-3) and advanced to the playoffs in 2015.
Coupeville placed third in the Olympic League in volleyball (3-3, 5-10) a year ago before dropping a playoff match.
The Wildcat girls cross country team placed second in the Wesco North and the boys were third, and the tennis team wound up fourth (4-6, 6-7)
The Wesco 3A isn’t divided into divisions for volleyball and soccer.
The Oak Harbor volleyball team put together a strong district tournament last year, taking fourth after finishing fifth out of 13 teams in the conference (7-5, 9-9).
The soccer team was 13th (0-11-1, 3-11-2).
In swimming, no formal standings were kept, but Oak Harbor won all four of its meets with North schools and took third at district.
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Coupeville’s Ryan Labrador and James Vidoni work on blocking at practice Thursday.
