Is SPSL in eclipse, or only in hibernation?
DOUG PACEY; The News Tribune
Last updated: November 29th, 2007 01:20 AM (PST)
For the fifth straight season, the former bully on the block is nowhere to be found in the Class 4A football state finals at the Tacoma Dome.
It’s been five years since the SPSL’s Kentwood conquered all, winning back-to-back titles in 2001 and 2002.
For some leagues, that might be acceptable, even embraced. But not the SPSL, which tallied an unprecedented 13 finalists in 16 seasons, ending with Kentwood’s 2002 crown.
“Year in and year out, I think the SPSL is one of the most competitive in the state,” former Curtis coach Bob Lucey said. “We’re just going through a downturn.”
The SPSL’s stranglehold on the 4A finals has moved north to the KingCo and WesCo.
Those leagues have sent more teams – four each – to the semifinals in the past three seasons than any other 4A conference, emerging as title contenders after both went more than a decade without a state champion.
In that same span, Puyallup’s trip to the semifinals in 2005 is the SPSL’s only final four appearance.
“It’s cyclical,” said Bothell High coach Tom Bainter, whose KingCo team is in the finals for the second year in a row. “For a while there, the SPSL was in the semifinals and finals every year. It’s just a cycle we’re going through.”
Lucey knows about that. He twice won back-to-back titles with the Vikings, experiencing a four-season drought, if it can be called that, in between.
“Sometimes teams just get on a roll,” he said.
Lucey points out that KingCo enjoyed a run in the 1980s and early 1990s, sending seven teams to the finals in an 11-year span that ended with an Inglemoor loss in 1993. Bellevue began it with a championship in 1983. Juanita followed with back-to-back crowns the next two seasons before falling a touchdown shy of winning a third straight in 1986. The Rebels lost to Gonzaga Prep of Spokane, which had its own impressive run of four title games during a six-year stretch in the 1980s.
Eastern Washington was well represented in the finals that decade, with teams playing for the championship six times.
“Gonzaga Prep was almost unbeatable back then,” Lucey said.
But even the Bullpups have fallen on hard times, at least for them. Since losing the title to Puyallup in 1987, Gonzaga Prep has been to the semifinals three times and lost each time.
KingCo couldn’t crack the finals for a decade after Inglemoor went in 1993. But in 2003, Ballard ignited a KingCo streak of sending a team to the finals in five consecutive seasons, including Bothell’s back-to-back trips. The Cougars will face finals newbie Lewis and Clark at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.
Last season, Bothell lost the title game to Oak Harbor of the WesCo, which had gone longer without a championship (15 years) than the SPSL ever has. WesCo has sent four teams to the semifinals in the past three seasons, which matches KingCo for the most in that span.
“Cascade and Snohomish were the big schools in the WesCo,” Lucey said. “Those were the ones that were competitive every year.”
Today, WesCo is more than just Cascade and Snohomish, two schools that combined for 14 of the league’s first 16 trips to the semifinals. Three different schools have reached the semifinals in the past three years, with Edmonds-Woodway advancing in back-to-back seasons.
What’s the reason for the power shift?
One factor, Lucey says, is that the SPSL has lacked the glut of big-time college football recruits it enjoyed in the past. He recalls when future NFL players Damon Huard and Chad Eaton terrorized South Sound opponents.
“I remember back in 1989 or 1990 we had 13 (NCAA) Division I or Big Sky players in the SPSL,” he said. “That year, the SPSL was scary.”
It won’t be long, Lucey predicts, before the SPSL finds its way back to the Tacoma Dome with regularity.
“It goes in a cycle,” he assured.
The SPSL will rise again.
Doug Pacey: 253-597-8271
blogs.thenewstribune.com/preps
Friday, tacoma dome
1B: Odessa (12-0) vs. Almira/Coulee-Hartline (12-1), 4 p.m.
3A: O’Dea (13-0) vs. Skyline (13-0), 7:30 p.m.*
Saturday, tacoma dome
2A: Burlington-Edison (12-1) vs. Prosser (13-0), 10 a.m.
1A: Royal (13-1) vs. Connell (12-0), 1 p.m.
2B: DeSales (12-0) vs. Toutle Lake (11-2), 4 p.m.
4A: Bothell (13-0) vs. Lewis and Clark (10-2), 7:30 p.m.*
*Televised live on Fox Sports Northwest
Preps.thenewstribune.com
Visit our new high school sports Web site for the latest news on this weekend’s finals at the Tacoma Dome. For more information from our beat reporters, visit blogs.thenewstribune.com/preps
Originally published: November 29th, 2007 01:20 AM (PST)