Don’t get me wrong: Reclassifying prep teams is, in general, a good thing. But THIS isn’t going to work.

A couple of weeks ago, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) reshuffled the deck of state high school sports classifications. Basically, they told the big kids to go play with the other big kids, the mid-sized kids to play with the other mid-sized kids and so on.

The South Kitsap Wolves and Walla Walla Blue Devils (4A schools) of the state match up with each other in the playoffs while the smaller Wellpinit Redskins and Cascade Christian Cougars play each other in the 1B ranks.

As noted in my story in the Sequim Gazette (“State juggles prep classifications,” page B-1, Dec. 23), the reshuffling is based upon percentages, i.e. the top 17 percent of the biggest schools (about 65 schools or so) are ranked 4A, then the next 17 percent are 3A, and so on.

But so many schools “opting up” to play in biggest classifications, the 2A ranks (Sequim’s) has a HUGE discrepancy between the smallest school (Mt. Baker, about 515 students) and the biggest school (Interlake, about 1,085 students).

For Sequim, it’s a two-edged sword. Everyone in the Olympic League is either already a 2A school or drops down, meaning Sequim will fight for playoff spots with the likes of Olympic, North Kitsap and the dreaded Port Angeles Roughriders.

Those three schools are among the new 2A classification’s biggest. Olympic boasts 1,079 students, the second-biggest 2A school; Port Angeles is at 1,066 students, fourth biggest; and North Kitsap is at 1,044 students, seventh biggest. Sequim is at 771 students, 35th out of the 65 schools in the 2A ranks.

It’s a double-edged sword for Sequim. The Good: more playoff spots for the district, giving Sequim a better chance to make state tourneys. The Bad: more tough teams to get past for those playoff spots, and three of them are in Sequim’s own league.

In some sports, bigger schools have a much bigger advantage. Schools like Olympic have a bigger pool to draw from for sports like track and cross country, while stats show bigger schools have an unsurpassed advantage in sports like football.

This isn’t a problem in the other classifications, by the way: Schools at the top and bottom of 1A, 3A and 4A classes are at most 300 students in difference, a far cry from the 2A’s nearly 600-student difference.

How will schools like Mt. Baker compete with a school more than twice its size, like North Kitsap, Port Angeles and Olympic?

There’s talk among coaches and athletic directors that state officials may tweak some of these things. I wonder how …

Possible solutions:

• Go back to the strict student population number borders. Anything above 1500 is 4A, 1100-1499 is 3A, 700-1099 is 2A, 400-699 is 1A, etc., allowing for opt-ups of one class size. The move would mean a few schools would be bounced back to 3A or 4A and would mean one classification would be larger than another. Maybe 75 teams in the 4A ranks and 50 in the 2A ranks are okay, so long as it’s fair in terms of student population.

• Disallow opt-ups, an “option” that has turned the whole percentage-based classification system on its end. True, it won’t be any fun to see Archbishop Murphy destroy all the other little 1A schools. Maybe we make an entire classification just for prep schools that go out and recruit players. We can call it the ‘”Steven Gray Plays Here” League. That way, scouts won’t have to waste their time looking at tape of all these other schools from Nowhere, Washington. That leads me to my favorite idea:

• Create a new classification. Split the 2A ranks in the middle. Schools with 530-800 students stay 2A, schools from 800 to 1100 or so are 3A, current 3A schools are 4A and 4A schools are 5A. Let the new “2A” schools steal a bit from 1A to keep the classification group with a decent number and the same for the new “3A” schools.

Or, let it go. And be ready for a lot of Sequim sports to suffer once again in a league that has ridiculously larger schools, prompting the Wolves to eventually seek out a league with schools of similar size (i.e. the Nisqually League).

Ah, just what I was looking for. Another series of ling bus rides to Orting.

Happy New Year, everyone.