Hardly any change usually receives a stamp of approval from those affected no matter how beneficial, and that is especially true in sports, where tradition often conquers all.
Bainbridge High School underwent such changes upon entering the 2024-25 academic year, officially reclassified from a 3A to a smaller 2A school, all but solidifying its long-debated membership in the 2A Olympic League.
While some saw hopes to rejoin the 3A Metro League vanish, athletic staff and fall sports coaches are eager to make the best of a clearer path to postseason action and to compete against teams they might meet in state tournaments.
“I believe the move to 2A will be great for our school and community,” Bainbridge athletic director Luke Ande said. “By the numbers, we are a 2A school, so that’s the classification we will be playing in.”
Bainbridge has spent the past few years becoming acquainted with 2A-level competition since the COVID pandemic led the Spartans to play Kitsap Peninsula teams and as far northwest as Port Angeles in early 2021.
The Metro League’s presence on the other side of the Puget Sound created travel concerns, but when the Spartans turned to the Olympic League, it took a vote of school principals overruling the original decision made by athletic directors to allow just a one-year membership in the league.
Ande said the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association’s 2A designation made it clear Bainbridge would not return to the Metro, even if some locals wanted to face that tougher competition. “Multiple different scenarios were discussed, but the best option for Bainbridge was to play in the classification our numbers put us in and be a member of the Olympic league,” he said.
Coaches overseeing programs that were previously hindered in quests for postseason play let loose a collective sigh of relief.
Football coach Dan Schoonmaker’s team ended its regular season Oct. 27 last year, but found itself playing another game just four days later in a play-in contest against Bonney Lake. That’s because it qualified in a 2A league, but was trying to make the 3A playoffs.
Schoonmaker has since remained outspoken about the risk of student-athlete injury in such a case, even saying last year he would rather have a coin flip than take that risk. But outside of playoffs, he said the 2A change would be minimal as they have 3A and 2A competition on the schedule.
Volleyball coach Holly Rohrbacher likes the change and said the playoff situation was always confusing and frustrating. “We would have a strong league and just go to the playoffs, and there were 3A teams. You weren’t encountering and playing that competition year round, and now here we are competing against the teams that are vying for the same championship,” she said.
The reclassification may be having an unintended consequence for smaller sports such as tennis. Bainbridge coach Mary McCombs had also been frustrated with playoffs for her programs. She said, “For three years, I could take one singles and one doubles team. That’s it. I had boys and girls who never lost a match that just didn’t get to play.”
The reclassification has created a more equitable path for her varsity athletes. But she said the smaller size of the league’s schools could take away valuable experience from the younger athletes in programs like hers.
“We had 37 kids try out, and most of the schools in the league don’t (even) have a JV team,” she said. “JV gets pushed aside as a result because they don’t get a real match, and they have to wait for varsity to be done. It just bugs me.”
