For the past few years I’ve been writing weekly previews on our Friday Night Sights football blog, where I do a little recap of the previous week’s games and look ahead to those being played Friday night. This last week I took a little side trip away from the norm and voiced an opinion that upon asking around seems to have some legs, and I wanted to share it.

Following the Ilwaco loss at Columbia of White Salmon two weeks ago it got me thinking again about something that has made me wonder for quite awhile now – Why the heck are teams located that far apart still in the same league?

Now before you start to give the answer of “it has to do with enrollment numbers, the size of the school,” hear me out for a second.

The Trico League is made up of eight teams, five of which are located between Longview and Vancouver on the I-5 corridor, and then there are those in the far flung places of Ilwaco, Stevenson and White Salmon. A bus ride from IHS to Stevenson is a total of 294 miles and at least six hours on the road, roundtrip. An away game at White Salmon, like the Fishermen recently had, is a whopping 342 miles and nearly eight hours on the road! Following their game they didn’t get back to town until after 2:30 am.

The other 1A league in District IV is the Evergreen League, made up of mostly teams from around Grays Harbor county and once again, a few along the I-5 corridor. And then there’s Forks. Forks! That vampire-loving northern Washington town that is still a five hour roundtrip for an Evergreen team like Montesano.

Granted there was some team shifting last year as a few teams moved up and down after reassessing enrollment numbers, but none of that made Ilwaco’s travel schedule any easier.

Now put this into contrast with the league Naselle plays in, the 2B Pacific League. All of their foes are in Pacific or south Grays Harbor counties, save for NW Christian, located in Lacey – 200 miles roundtrip and four hours on the road total. A two hour bus ride is not unreasonable, but when you start adding more and more hours to that it gets a little ridiculous, not only for the athletes, but for transportation costs.

So the question I have is simple, why can’t Ilwaco be placed into something along the lines of a restructured Evergreen League (with Forks moving to a northern Washington league and Rainier into the Trico), that way their longest drive would be around two hours. Or better yet, let’s take this a step closer to home. I know that IHS’ enrollment is still just a tick too high to be placed in the 2B Pacific League (probably not for too much longer though), but wouldn’t it make sense if they were? They are the only high school in the county that isn’t. Between the teams in Pacific, Grays Harbor and Wahkiakum counties, you can’t tell me they couldn’t reshuffle the deck and come up with leagues that are feasible athletically, economically and in the way of travel time.

These leagues need to be reassessed with travel time and distance in mind, because it can’t be any better for the likes of Stevenson or White Salmon who have to come here, right? And especially after a blowout?