Runners pay penalty for coach’s bad timing
Q: What are your thoughts on Kalee Cipra, the standout Auburn Riverside cross-country runner, being denied a berth in the Class 3A state meet because she and a teammate were late to the start of the district race and didn’t qualify?
A: It’s unfortunate they were given wrong information by a well-meaning coach who has resigned, but I don’t have a problem with the decision that said, “Sorry, you’re not going to state.”
Everyone else got to the starting line on time. Allowing Cipra, who placed 23rd at the 3A state meet last year, and her teammate special consideration would just open the door to appeals in all sports.
After all, it wasn’t like they didn’t get to the course because of something beyond their control, like being stuck on the freeway behind a 40-car pileup. If that ever happens, let the kid run at state.
After the late start, Cipra and teammate were starting to pick off runners when an Auburn Riverside assistant suggested they quit and try to win an appeal. Bad advice.
This is not the case of a silly rule being enforced as it was in the fall of 2000, when Sam Lumsey, a previously homeless kid who attended Cleveland, was DQ’d from his ninth-place finish at state because he didn’t wear shorts with his one-piece running suit.
(My favorite petty-rule story was that in 1996 a female official at the state meet went so far as to inspect running bras to make sure all girls on a team had the same colored bra. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association stepped in and said it considered inspections were only necessary if the bras were a highly visible part of the uniform and if course officials might have trouble identifying athletes because of different colored bras.)
This Auburn Riverside incident will serve as a public service to warn coaches in all sports to confirm starting times. It reminds me of what I heard a high-school journalism teacher once say: “The first three letters of ASSUME tell you what you’ll look like if you don’t double-check things.”
Q: Lummi beat Crescent 118-72 last week in 8-man football. Is this the most points ever scored in a game in state history?
A: Yes. In fact, the Lummi total equals the national record of 118 by Almena Northern Valley of Kansas in 1985.
The 190 combined points is a state record. The previous high I can find was the 1976 state-championship game in which Napavine beat Prescott 74-60.
Lummi started its second string and coach Jim Sandusky mixed in starters as the game continued. His lineup tinkering prevented the 45-point “mercy rule” from taking effect.
“It was pretty exciting for both teams,” Sandusky said. “We had a lot of fun. They had a lot of fun. It was good.”
A Crescent fan I talked to agreed the game was enjoyable.
Lummi is a Native American team from the Lummi reservation near Bellingham. Crescent is the high school serving the Olympic Peninsula area around Joyce.
Sandusky built the field on which the Lummi program started. He built it for junior football in Ferndale, and Husky quarterback Jake Locker has played on it. Lummi has had its own field on campus for three seasons.
Sandusky starred as a receiver at Othello High School and later was an All-American at Walla Walla Community College, UNLV and San Diego State before a pro career that included being a Canadian Football League all-star with the B.C. Lions and Edmonton Eskimos. He was on the Seahawks’ roster in 1989 and 1990, but injuries kept him off the field.
Q: I noticed that in the 3A round-of-16 football pairings there are three games matching teams from the same leagues. I thought the WIAA avoided that.
A: That rule went out the window when Western Washington 3A leagues agreed to pool their round-of-16 berths and have a play-in round of 32.
The most local example is Newport facing fellow KingCo 3A member Bellevue. Underdog Newport advanced - “stole a berth,” as it is called - by upsetting Columbia River of Vancouver in the round of 32 last weekend.
Q: Are you aware that last week’s Chief Sealth-Franklin girls soccer game was special?
A: Yes. It is Exhibit A of intelligent scheduling.
If two teams ever were made for each other, they were 3A Sealth and 4A Franklin. The last win for Sealth we can find was in 1997. Nobody seems to know when Franklin last won, other than it wasn’t this decade. Franklin’s last goal is believed to have been scored in 2004.
Sealth won last week’s game 5-0.
Have a question about high-school sports? Craig Smith will find the answer every Tuesday in The Times. Ask your question in one of the following ways: Voice mail (206-464-8279), snail mail (Craig Smith, Seattle Times Sports, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111) or e-mail csmith@seattletimes.com