2017 High School Football

[Sykotyk]

Interesting note for those about playoff structures.

 

Iowa and Minnesota BOTH play all of their semifinals and finals at one predetermined location in each state.

 

For Minnesota, it's U.S. Bank Stadium. Before it's demolition, both the semifinals and finals were held at the Metrodome. During TCF Bank's reign as title game location, the semifinals were held elsewhere.

 

In Iowa, the semifinals and finals are held at UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls right near Waterloo. They've been held there for decades now.

 

For Iowa, that's 12 semifinals and 6 finals. For Minnesota, that's 14 semifinals and 7 finals. The fourteen finals are over three days. 4 on a Thursday, and 5 each on Friday and Saturday.

 

It's interesting that the midwest has a magnetism to domed stadiums. North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, and Indiana all play in domes. Missouri did until moving to Springfield. Kansas and Nebraska lack facilities, same as Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado, and Wyoming. Montana's game are just held at the higher seed's home field.

 

Really, though, for games in November, if your state has a dome, that's where the games will be played. Even the 11,000-seat Dakota Dome. It's better than hosting games outdoors in South Dakota in November.

[Still MIGHTY]

In California, there are 10 CIF sections: Southern, San Diego, Los Angeles, Central, Central Coast, Oakland, San Francisco, Sac-Joaquin, Northern, North Coast.

 

My section, the CIF-Southern Section, is the largest in both number of schools with 585 schools and land area covering about 1/3 of the the state and nearly half its population. It covers the counties of Orange, Los Angeles (including all private schools in the LAUSD section area), Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Mono, Inyo and a bit of Kern. The thing is a monster.

 

In football, the section is divided into 13 divisions. Until recently, the divisions were sort of geographic, sort of by school size, sort of public/private, sort of by team quality. It's something that was always tinkered with trying to get the right teams in the right place based on all those things. At one point, they went from numbered divisions (1,2,3, etc) to naming them (Pac-5, East Valley, Southwest Valley, etc.), but the names were dumb and didn't mean really mean anything to anybody (it happened while I was in school, and we all assumed it was to make us not feel bad as a Division 9 team playing Division 2 teams or whatever). Teams from along the ocean were playing in the East Valley division, for example, but all that division really was was the small schools division.

 

Anyway, that all changed two years ago when the CIF-SS instituted a new point-based system to improve competitive equity. They reinstated the 13 numbered divisions and placed teams based on a formula of wins, playoff wins, championships, strength of schedule, among others. Has it worked? Yes and no. Some divisions are extremely competitive, others have anomalies where teams started in a lower division than they should've, cruised to a title last season, and are in a proper division this season.

 

Because of the existing league and playoff structures, some teams have been royally screwed. In the past, 5/6 team leagues had three automatic playoff qualifying spots and because those leagues were assigned to specific playoff divisions, the teams would just be seeded accordingly. Now the competitive equity has thrown all the teams into the wind.  You might have a league champion who wins the league every single season and because of that they're in Division 2, then the 2nd and 3rd place team may be in like Division 7 or Division 13.

 

Well here's the thing, the top two divisions each have only 18 teams, and each division has 16 playoff spots. So if you're lucky enough to be in those top two divisions, congrats, unless you crap the bed, you're at least making the playoffs. But that 2nd or 3rd place team that gets thrown into the lower division mix, well, Division 7 has 23 schools (not too bad) but Division 13 has 84 schools. And when you get to playoff seeding, league champs are put into the bracket first, 2nd place after (if there's room), 3rd place (if there's still room) and even wild cards (usually just in the top few divisions). Last season and maybe even this season again, we had teams ranked in the top 10 of their respective divisions polls all season, but ended up in 3rd place in their league because they might have a Division 2 league champ and maybe a Division 4 second place team, but couldn't make the playoffs in a lower division, because they got squeezed out.

 

Anyways, to the nuts and bolts.

• 13 playoff divisions in the CIF-SS
  • 16 playoff teams per division
• All championship games except Division 1 are played at the higher-seeded school or site selected by the school
  • Division 1 title game is played at Angel Stadium
• All 52 Section Division champions (26 north, 26 south) are then slotted into 13 respective divisions (based on the competitive equity mentioned earlier) into state regional games (aka, state semifinals, north and south)
• There are 13 state championship divisions
  • Open Division (THE State Championship. Any team can be selected. Although, in the North its always De La Salle of Concord.)
  • Divisions 1-6, with AA and A designations.
  • Open Division, Divisions 1AA, 1A, 2AA, 2A compete at Sacramento State. All other divisions are at home sites.

Also, State Championships in California were only reinstated relatively recently. State championships were "awarded" between 1915 - 1917, then actually competed for from 1919-1927, when they were discontinued due to concerns of the length of the season and financial issues and scheduling, etc. Before their revival, California was the only state without a state title game. State championships were revived in 2006 as State Bowl Games where committees selected a SoCal team and a NorCal team for 3 divisions, which expanded to 5 divisions in 2008. In 2012, the regional games were added, and in 2015, it was expanded so that all 52 different section division champions will compete in the regional games to advance to the state title.

 

Funnily enough as the first championship games were stopped after length of season concerns, we still have that concern now with all the expansion. If a team goes all the way to the state title game, with a 10 game regular season, 4 game section playoff, 2 game state playoff, that's 16 games for a high school team competing from the last weekend in August to the middle of December. Even the best college teams will play 15 at the most (assuming conference title game and two playoff games), and they have a month+ break between the final two. Many high school teams are lucky if they can even schedule a bye week now (many schools opting to start in "Week 0" to get a bye week before league play). It's just a lot.

 

Anyways, thanks for indulging in my soliloquy on California high school football. There's a lot to it lol.

[Seadragon76]

I've already explained Washington and Oregon, so allow me to go into Iowa.

 

There's six classes. 4A and 8 Man have eight districts in them so the playoff system works easily: Top two in each district moves on. In 4A, the districts are easily to figure out with the western schools in Districts 1-4 (Sioux City, Council Bluffs and the entire Des Moines area) while the eastern half are in Districts 5-8. 6 teams in each district, BTW

 

The pattern changes in 8 Man. Districts 1, 2, 7 and 8 are in the western half while Districts 3, 4, 5 and 6 are in the eastern half. That pattern is what you'll see in the other four classes. Once again, two teams move on to the playoffs from here. Each district have seven teams with the exception of Districts 5 and 7, which has eight teams (There's a District 9 as well, but that's more or less the equivalent to a school playing and Independent schedule).

 

3A, 2A, 1A and A each have seven districts with the same pattern as 8 Man. Playoff wise, the top teams move on with the two best third place teams earning wild cards.

[4_tattoos]

Well damn. Suddenly Maryland seems lame. Semifinal games are hosted by the higher seeded team. Sometimes though certain schools utilize alternate locations as their home field for playoffs games. I recall during my high school days the Community College of Baltimore County hosting playoff games (despite the school never having a football program in my lifetime). And IIRC Patterson High in Baltimore has utilized Morgan State as a home playoff venue in the past.

[Sykotyk]

 

7 hours ago, Still MIGHTY said:

In California, there are 10 CIF sections: Southern, San Diego, Los Angeles, Central, Central Coast, Oakland, San Francisco, Sac-Joaquin, Northern, North Coast.

 

My section, the CIF-Southern Section, is the largest in both number of schools with 585 schools and land area covering about 1/3 of the the state and nearly half its population. It covers the counties of Orange, Los Angeles (including all private schools in the LAUSD section area), Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Mono, Inyo and a bit of Kern. The thing is a monster.

 

In football, the section is divided into 13 divisions. Until recently, the divisions were sort of geographic, sort of by school size, sort of public/private, sort of by team quality. It's something that was always tinkered with trying to get the right teams in the right place based on all those things. At one point, they went from numbered divisions (1,2,3, etc) to naming them (Pac-5, East Valley, Southwest Valley, etc.), but the names were dumb and didn't mean really mean anything to anybody (it happened while I was in school, and we all assumed it was to make us not feel bad as a Division 9 team playing Division 2 teams or whatever). Teams from along the ocean were playing in the East Valley division, for example, but all that division really was was the small schools division.

 

Anyway, that all changed two years ago when the CIF-SS instituted a new point-based system to improve competitive equity. They reinstated the 13 numbered divisions and placed teams based on a formula of wins, playoff wins, championships, strength of schedule, among others. Has it worked? Yes and no. Some divisions are extremely competitive, others have anomalies where teams started in a lower division than they should've, cruised to a title last season, and are in a proper division this season.

 

Because of the existing league and playoff structures, some teams have been royally screwed. In the past, 5/6 team leagues had three automatic playoff qualifying spots and because those leagues were assigned to specific playoff divisions, the teams would just be seeded accordingly. Now the competitive equity has thrown all the teams into the wind.  You might have a league champion who wins the league every single season and because of that they're in Division 2, then the 2nd and 3rd place team may be in like Division 7 or Division 13.

 

Well here's the thing, the top two divisions each have only 18 teams, and each division has 16 playoff spots. So if you're lucky enough to be in those top two divisions, congrats, unless you crap the bed, you're at least making the playoffs. But that 2nd or 3rd place team that gets thrown into the lower division mix, well, Division 7 has 23 schools (not too bad) but Division 13 has 84 schools. And when you get to playoff seeding, league champs are put into the bracket first, 2nd place after (if there's room), 3rd place (if there's still room) and even wild cards (usually just in the top few divisions). Last season and maybe even this season again, we had teams ranked in the top 10 of their respective divisions polls all season, but ended up in 3rd place in their league because they might have a Division 2 league champ and maybe a Division 4 second place team, but couldn't make the playoffs in a lower division, because they got squeezed out.

 

Anyways, to the nuts and bolts.

• 13 playoff divisions in the CIF-SS
  • 16 playoff teams per division
• All championship games except Division 1 are played at the higher-seeded school or site selected by the school
  • Division 1 title game is played at Angel Stadium
• All 52 Section Division champions (26 north, 26 south) are then slotted into 13 respective divisions (based on the competitive equity mentioned earlier) into state regional games (aka, state semifinals, north and south)
• There are 13 state championship divisions
  • Open Division (THE State Championship. Any team can be selected. Although, in the North its always De La Salle of Concord.)
  • Divisions 1-6, with AA and A designations.
  • Open Division, Divisions 1AA, 1A, 2AA, 2A compete at Sacramento State. All other divisions are at home sites.

Also, State Championships in California were only reinstated relatively recently. State championships were "awarded" between 1915 - 1917, then actually competed for from 1919-1927, when they were discontinued due to concerns of the length of the season and financial issues and scheduling, etc. Before their revival, California was the only state without a state title game. State championships were revived in 2006 as State Bowl Games where committees selected a SoCal team and a NorCal team for 3 divisions, which expanded to 5 divisions in 2008. In 2012, the regional games were added, and in 2015, it was expanded so that all 52 different section division champions will compete in the regional games to advance to the state title.

 

Funnily enough as the first championship games were stopped after length of season concerns, we still have that concern now with all the expansion. If a team goes all the way to the state title game, with a 10 game regular season, 4 game section playoff, 2 game state playoff, that's 16 games for a high school team competing from the last weekend in August to the middle of December. Even the best college teams will play 15 at the most (assuming conference title game and two playoff games), and they have a month+ break between the final two. Many high school teams are lucky if they can even schedule a bye week now (many schools opting to start in "Week 0" to get a bye week before league play). It's just a lot.

 

Anyways, thanks for indulging in my soliloquy on California high school football. There's a lot to it lol.

 

Yeah. I've kept tabs on California's structure. As for 16 games, that's a regular occurrence in Pennsylvania as well. Though they moved from 4 to 6 classifications, which shortened the season by one week. However, if every game is played and teams elect to play 1 scrimmage and max number of regular season games, they could play sixteen games.

 

 

5 hours ago, Seadragon76 said:

I've already explained Washington and Oregon, so allow me to go into Iowa.

 

There's six classes. 4A and 8 Man have eight districts in them so the playoff system works easily: Top two in each district moves on. In 4A, the districts are easily to figure out with the western schools in Districts 1-4 (Sioux City, Council Bluffs and the entire Des Moines area) while the eastern half are in Districts 5-8. 6 teams in each district, BTW

 

The pattern changes in 8 Man. Districts 1, 2, 7 and 8 are in the western half while Districts 3, 4, 5 and 6 are in the eastern half. That pattern is what you'll see in the other four classes. Once again, two teams move on to the playoffs from here. Each district have seven teams with the exception of Districts 5 and 7, which has eight teams (There's a District 9 as well, but that's more or less the equivalent to a school playing and Independent schedule).

 

3A, 2A, 1A and A each have seven districts with the same pattern as 8 Man. Playoff wise, the top teams move on with the two best third place teams earning wild cards.

 

 

One question I am just begging for an answer. Why does Iowa have both a 1A and A classification?

[Sykotyk]

Okay, here's the details of the Pennsylvania format. The new format.

 

First, the PIAA has twelve mostly geographic Districts. Years ago, it was 10. The Philadelphia City League and Philadelphia Catholic League weren't PIAA members. At some point, District 3 was split in two, and created District 11. Then, when the Philadelphia City League joined, it created the new District 12. When the Catholic League joined, they became part of District 12. Though the City League and Catholic League operate independently of each other.

 

 

Each district operates a certain sense of autonomy not really seen much outside of New York or California. The PIAA as a whole oversees very little of the season structure of their sports. The Districts handle it. The only thing PIAA handles is eligibility and classifications.

 

So, you get Districts are greatly different sizes. The WPIAL has over 120 teams and covers all of southwest Pennsylvania. That's almost 1/4th the state. Despite hosting their championship games at Heinz FIeld, the six Pittsburgh City League teams are not WPIAL members. Also, though the Districts tend to have rather explicit geographic boundaries, the WPIAL's tend to be more like tentacles reaching into other districts. Currently, Indiana and Altoona are both District 7 despite being geographically outside their limits. Over the years, many WPIAL teams have moved away. Butler County's Slippery Rock and Lawrence County's Wilmington both left for District 10, which they border. Also, Farrell, located well within District 10 territory and archrivals with Sharon, were District 7 members for years. And now want to return to District 7 but without the permission of District 10 to release them, are stuck. Same goes for McDowell in suburban Erie. They're a huge 6A class school who for several years played the regular season in District 7. However, would be forced to head north for the playoffs, despite only one other large school in the area. They wanted to move permanently to WPIAL in all sports, but again District 10 stopped that.

 

 

So, you have District 7 with over 120 teams, and District 8 (Pittsburgh City League) with 6 teams. District 10 has about 40 teams in the northwest corner. Then, out west you have District 9 in northwest-central, and District 6 east of Pittsburgh. And a small District 5 covering three counties in rural/central Pennsylvania. 1/3/11 surround Philadelphia out to Harrisburg and Allentown areas, and District 2 in the northeast corner. District 4 is northeast-central.

 

And as mentioned, each District has their own rules. FOR EVERYTHING. The PIAA sets what weekend a district must crown their district champion. The WPIAL, who played all four titles at Heinz Field on the same day, didn't want to move one of their classes to a different weekend. So, opted to move up all four classes. Then, because they moved their season up, got permission to move their first game of the season up a week and start earlier than the rest of the state. Then the rest of the state got permission to start a week earlier.

 

WPIAL has 3 rounds of playoffs now for the top four classes, and 4 for the bottom two. The top 3 classes have their championship game at Heinz Field, whle the bottom two play at Robert Morris University in Moon. The playoffs are generally neutral site with all games on Friday. The first round games are played at the higher seed.

 

Meanwhile, District 10 plays ALL playoff games at neutral sites. District 6 goes with the higher seed. District 9 plays top seed hosts first round, neutral site after that. Because of scheduling, the PIAA announced that under the six-class setup, teams could either play 9 games and 2 scrimmages, or 10 games and 1 scrimmage. So, week 1 can be confusing. District 10 voted as a whole for all teams to play in Week 1.

 

Then, come playoff time last year, screwed up the entire schedule. First, 1A, 3A, and 5A had to play during Week 10, which meant teams were only playing one scrimmage and 9 regular season games. 2A, 4A, and 6A were scheduled for a tenth game. 2A had 13 teams, while 4A had 2 teams last year, and 6A had only 1 team. However, many 2A schools had games scheduled with 3A or 5A schools. If they made the playoffs (which most did), that cancelled the 2A's final game of the season. 4A's championship game hasn't been played now for two season because the 2nd place team has simply opted out of the playoffs. That team being Warren not wanting to go up against Cathedral Prep.

 

 

The rest of 4A had elected to play up to 5A during the past cycle just to avoid Cathedral Prep. The good news is Prep is probably heading up to 5A next season, and the rest of 4A will stay put. And, with the consolidation of Strong Vincent, East, and Central Tech in Erie into "Erie High School", there's finally a second 6A team for McDowell to play. In years past, Cathedral Prep had played up to 4A (under 4 classes), to play alongside McDowell. Under 6 classes, they've instead stayed at 4A and won the state championship easily and are shoe-ins to at least return to the title game.

 

Back to the playoff structure. 5A has 7 teams, and essentially all seven make the playoffs. 3A has 9 teams, and 8 of 9 make the playoffs. in 2A, there's 13 and 8 make the playoffs. And in 1A now, there's 5 teams and all 5 make the playoffs. What is confusing, is 1A has to play a quarterfinal round during Week 10, and the other 3 teams cancelled their scheduled games to get the week off. Farrell was set to play an Ohio school who wasn't exactly thrilled to lose a game. Farrell's argument was that Cochranton (their semifinal opponent) was off and they didn't want to play while their opponent rested.

 

Unlike WPIAL, who only play on Fridays for the playoffs (barring field availability in the first round if two schools share: such as Keystone Oaks and Bishop Canevin), District 10 plays on Thursday, Friday, and twice on Saturday. Games are held at stadiums featuring turf. Which is becoming more commonplace. Erie, McDowell, Prep, Corry, Warren, Meadville, General McLane, Edinboro University, Slippery Rock University, Greenville, Hickory, Grove City, Wilmington, Franklin or Oil City.

 

Primarily, it's a cost-cutting decision. Fewer district officials and crews to open stadiums if they can share venues over the weekend. Many times you'll have a 1pm/7pm or 2pm/8pm doubleheader at one stadium.

 

Various teams may get a bye in the playoffs due to weird bracketing. Cathedral Prep won't play the D10 title game, and then gets a bye the next week. They'll go almost 20 days without playing a game.

[Seadragon76]

44 minutes ago, Sykotyk said:

One question I am just begging for an answer. Why does Iowa have both a 1A and A classification?

 

Class A itself was formed in 1981, nine years after the formations of the original four classes. Class A is the smallest level but school are allowed the option to do either 8 Man or 11 Man football.

[Sykotyk]

17 hours ago, Seadragon76 said:

 

Class A itself was formed in 1981, nine years after the formations of the original four classes. Class A is the smallest level but school are allowed the option to do either 8 Man or 11 Man football.

 

But, why not call it B, or relabel the other four as 5A-2A. It just seems so weird to me.

 

In PA, it was generally uncouth to say "3A", instead it was always written out as "AAA". At least until 6 classifications. Where AAAAAA would be tough to distinguish immediatley from, say, AAAAA. At a glance, at least.

 

So, in Iowa you have, technically, AAAA, AAA, AA, A, and .... a?

 

Just a weird thing I always noticed about Iowa.

 

Side note: it's always funny that the use of multiple As for a designation was because B, C, D, etc was seen as 'diminutive' so even the smallest classifications got an "A" designation and the bigger ones were just 'more As'. Funny, then, that one of the biggest states you'd THINK would be against the mental stigma of labeling someone a B, C, or even a D... New York, actually uses AA, A, B, C, and D for their classes.

[Seadragon76]

24 minutes ago, Sykotyk said:

 

But, why not call it B, or relabel the other four as 5A-2A. It just seems so weird to me.

 

In PA, it was generally uncouth to say "3A", instead it was always written out as "AAA". At least until 6 classifications. Where AAAAAA would be tough to distinguish immediatley from, say, AAAAA. At a glance, at least.

 

So, in Iowa you have, technically, AAAA, AAA, AA, A, and .... a?

 

Just a weird thing I always noticed about Iowa.

 

Side note: it's always funny that the use of multiple As for a designation was because B, C, D, etc was seen as 'diminutive' so even the smallest classifications got an "A" designation and the bigger ones were just 'more As'. Funny, then, that one of the biggest states you'd THINK would be against the mental stigma of labeling someone a B, C, or even a D... New York, actually uses AA, A, B, C, and D for their classes.

 

This is the only sport where this is in effect. The other sports have 4 classes. The girls in Iowa have a 5A class, but only in certain sports (Basketball, Softball and Volleyball).

[4_tattoos]

Georgia HS game on ESPN2 right now. Dalton vs Harrison.

 

SN: I don't like Harrison's uniforms. Navy blue helmets, Kelly green jerseys & Kelly green pants. Yuck!

[4_tattoos]

Don Bosco Prep vs Bergen Catholic (both from New Jersey) on ESPN2 right now.

[Seadragon76]

Iowa begins their playoffs this week. Yet again, Denison missed out... what a shocker. But, other schools in the area did get in. The bigger news is that starting season, the classes will be different. 4A will shrink from 48 to 42 schools. This means the other classes will expand.

 

In Washington, this is the final week of the regular season. Next week is the District round of playoffs. As I said before, each league in a district is allotted so many slots in the district round. Winning there gets you a spot in the main bracket.

 

It's also the final week of the season in Oregon. In the 3A Lewis and Clark League (Where Rainier and Clatskanie play in), there's only two spots for the playoffs. The Tigers stunned the Columbians last week in the rivalry game to take the league's #1 seed and a home playoff game. It also forced Rainier into a possible must win game against Portland Christian. I say 'possible' because heading into this week, they're 11th in the rankings. That puts them in a good position to earn the at-large bid or, should they win, be one of the two non-conference home teams in next week's first round.

[Still MIGHTY]

Got to see national No. 1 Mater Dei (Santa Ana, CA) in person for the second time tonight.

 

Truly, an absolute machine. Honestly, they looked bored in a 51-21 dismantling of Orange Lutheran (No. 7 in the county, No. 16 in the state). The only reason OLu even got 21 points was taking chances, going on fourth downs, throwing either super short quick outs to get the drive moving or deep jump balls to score and taking advantage of the only weakness Mater Dei has shown this season, penalties. Otherwise, OLu was 1 for 12 on third downs and at -35 yards rushing until both teams subbed in their back-ups late.

 

Their QB JT Daniels is a force. His third of five TD passes was probably the most impressive play I've seen a high school QB make. Pressure coming hard, pocket closing, he just stepped up in the pocket, threw a laser to the back of the endzone where through like 3 layers of players he saw his top receiving option Amon-Ra St. Brown streaking across, threw it well before he was there and with the zip and placement that no one except Amon-Ra could react to it. He's only a junior, but he's easily the best QB I've seen in my 12 years of being involved in Orange County football. If he keeps his committment, watch out for USC in 2-3 years. All their back-up QBs should be shaking in their boots right now.

 

It helps having an option like he does in Amon-Ra St. Brown. Freakish talent. Makes at least one jaw-dropping play in every game.

 

Basically, as long as they stay locked in, Mater Dei is your national champion.

[4_tattoos]

My alma mater falls to 1-8. Season finale next week. Fingers crossed for 2-8

[PrimalCookie]

Florida's playoffs work by having regional tournaments of 1A through 4A (south through central FL) being grouped together, and 5A through 8A (north FL and panhandle) being grouped together. These have the winners of each class match up, with the higher ranked team getting home field. The winners of those two games play in the regional championship. Finally, the winners of THOSE go to the Citrus Bowl for the state championship.

 

My school is 4-4 right now, which is actually above average for us. Go Wolves, even if we have horrendous uniforms (black helmets, purple jerseys, black pants, mid-2000s piping EVERYWHERE)!

[dfwabel]

33 minutes ago, Magic Dynasty said:

Florida's playoffs work by having regional tournaments of 1A through 4A (south through central FL) being grouped together, and 5A through 8A (north FL and panhandle) being grouped together. These have the winners of each class match up, with the higher ranked team getting home field. The winners of those two games play in the regional championship. Finally, the winners of THOSE go to the Citrus Bowl for the state championship.

 

My school is 4-4 right now, which is actually above average for us. Go Wolves, even if we have horrendous uniforms (black helmets, purple jerseys, black pants, mid-2000s piping EVERYWHERE)!

This is the first year of Class 1A-4A being w/o districts and an introduction of a point system, similar to Nebraska.

https://floridahsfootball.com/2016/11/21/fhsaa-officially-sets-points-points-system-2017-2018/

[Seadragon76]

Now that everything is set, it's time go through it all.

 

Washington

 

A key thing to note: All games are winner to state, loser goes home

 

3A: Kelso came back at the last second to defeat Hudson's Bay last week to finish 2nd in the GSHL. This gives them a 'home' game against Mercer Island. They lost in a tiebreaker... BTW, home is in quotation marks because it's at a neutral site. Specifically, Vancouver's McKenzie Stadium. It's a bigger stadium, so more seats and therefore more money.

 

2A: Woodland finished in three way tie for 2nd place in the GSHL. Since no normal tiebreaker could settle it, they settled it on the field. The Beavers went 1-1 and ends up with the 3rd seed and a trip up north to play the 2nd place team from the Evergreen League, W.F. West.

 

1A: Castle Rock started slow, but recovered well enough to finish in 2nd place in the Trico League. This gives them a date with the 2nd place team from the Evergreen League, Hoquiam.

 

2B: District 4 has a crap ton of spots... 6, to be exact. In fact, it's home to 75% of the state bracket's upper half. Locally, there's five teams involved. Kalama, the number one team in this class for the entire state, hosts Onalaska. Whakiakum, the division's runner up team, hosts Rainier (To avoid confusion, this school usually has "Wash." next to the name around here). Toledo, third place in the league, heads to Illwaco (A rematch of an earlier game this season won by the Indians) and Toutle Lake, who got the last playoff spot, heads north to face Pe Ell/Willapa Valley.

 

1B: For winning their weak league, Naselle gets a bye week. They await the winner of the game between Crescent and Neah Bay next weekend.

 

Oregon

 

Both Clatskanie and Rainier earned the two playoff spots from the league. The Tigers, by winning the league, earned a home game. The 7th seeded Tigers host Vale (the 10th seed) on Saturday afternoon. Rainier earned the 11th seed and hit the road to face the 6th seed La Pine on Friday night.

[MJWalker45]

OHIO - Not the complete field, just the teams I'm most familiar with.

- Playoffs start tonight. Each division has four regions with 8 teams in each region making the playoffs. No bye weeks. First week the home team is at home, afterwards all games are neutral sites. 

Division I - Region 1 -

#8 Massillon Perry at Cleveland St. Ignatius. St. Ignatius pretty much owned the state of Ohio in the late 80's to early 90's. They're expected to win it all.

#7 Canton McKinley at #2 Lakewood St. Edward's. St. Ed's is the current state champ. They'll be expected to meet St. Ignatius in the regional final.

Division II - Region 7 

#2 Massillon Washington vs Youngstown Boardman. Massillon went from missing the playoffs to #2 in the space of 4 weeks. Boardman is a pretty tough start to the playoffs too.

Division III - Region 11

#6 New Philadelphia at #3 Columbus Bishop Hartley. Phila probably won't get past Bishop Hartley who've been state finalists the last 3 years. 

Division IV - Region 13 

#1 Steubenville vs Salem. Steubenville has a win over Massillon under it's belt. They just dropped down to Division IV this year after playing in divison II or II for years. They're expected to simply roll through the playoffs.

Division IV - Region 15

#2 St. Clairsville vs #7 Philo. #3 Indian Vallly vs #6 Meadowbrook. Number 2 and 3 in the region are expected to progress further than number 1 seed Licking Valley.

 

State Finals return to Canton this year as well.

 

TEXAS - Starts next week

[4_tattoos]

This is the final week of the regular season for Maryland. I'll post the playoff matchups and results as they come.

[Discrim]

Wisconsin's regular season ended a couple weeks ago...Case missed the playoffs, finishing 4-5, largely because we the bed in conference, as usual.  Last game was the business end of a beatdown from Kenosha Bradford (Melvin Gordon's alma mater...crazy how good they are nowadays, when I was in school they were about as incompetent as we were).

 

Anyway, we've reached the semifinals...and here is each division's final four (all neutral sites).

 

Division 1

Appleton North vs. Kimberly @ Titan Stadium - Oshkosh

Sun Prairie vs. Muskego @ Arrowhead

Kimberly and Sun Prairie make pretty frequent trips to Camp Randall...though I won't lie, part of me wants former conference foe Muskego to pull off the upset.

 

Division 2

Green Bay Southwest vs. Waunakee @ Menasha

Waukesha West vs Brookfield Central @ Oconomowoc

no real insight on either matchup from my end, but Waukesha West always seems to produce some top notch teams.

 

Division 3

Rice Lake vs. GB Notre Dame @ D.C. Everest - Schofield

New Berlin Eisenhower vs. Whitefish Bay @ Kettle Moraine

 

Division 4

St. Croix Central vs. Freedom @ Merrill

Lodi vs. Martin Luther @ Waukesha North

 

Division 5

Grantsburg vs. Amherst @ Stanley-Boyd

Lake Country Lutheran vs. Cedar Grove-Belgium @ West Bend

 

Division 6

Regis vs. Iola-Scandinavia @ Goerke Park - Stevens Point

Markesan vs. St. Mary’s Springs @ Slinger

 

Division 7

Abbotsford vs. Bangor @ Chippewa Falls

Black Hawk vs. Fall River @ Middleton

 

And lastly, what will be the final 8-man Jamboree was held last Saturday in Schofield...they're split in two groups, North and South...so without further ado...

N4* Siren 52, S4 Abundant Life/St. Ambrose 0

S3 Sevastopol 36, N3 Wausaukee 20

S2 Oakfield 50, N2 Northwood/Solon Springs 33

S1 Newman Catholic 34, N1 Luck 32

 

Next year, the 8-man teams will take part in their first true state championship, via an 8-team tournament.  Not sure whether they'd televise it or not.

 

*Technically Siren finished fifth, but, the two teams that finished ahead of them were ineligible for the jamboree due to too-high average enrollment in the last three years.