Yesterday, the WIAA released the proposed amendments for this spring. Notably, there is no amendment that seeks to add lacrosse as a sanctioned sport.

You can read all of the amendments on the link, but one of the big ones this year is creation of a 10-day dead period after the spring state tournament and prior to the start of the football season. Each school would designate the 10-day period and during that time athletes and coaches would not be allowed to use school equipment or facilities, including the weight room or exercise facility, and coaches would not have any contact with athletes on or off school campus.

Another proposed amendment would add football helmets and should pads to the school uniforms rule, which means that gear could only be worn/used during WIAA season or during Washington State Coaches Association feeder or state contests. The rule also would make it a violation to use football helmets or shoulder pads during the summer, unless used during a WSCA event or state contest.

The rational behind the amendment, which was proposed by Everett, Cascade, Marysville Getchell and Marysville Pilchuck high schools, would decrease the number of hits a student can take during the season, which would hopefully prevent concussions.

There are 16 amendments in all, which will be discussed and voted on by the WIAA representative assembly, usually later in the spring.

The Washington wrestling rankings have been updated after almost a week of no matches, thanks to the snow storm last week.

In the 3A team rankings, Mercer Island is ranked No. 6, while KingCo opponent Bellevue was ranked No. 15.

Individually, freshman Luke Wilson was ranked No. 11 in the 106 weight class, while Jake Pruchno is ranked No. 8 in the 113 class.

Blake Johnson holds the top spot in the 160 class, with Nick Chandler at No. 10 in the 170 class. Phil Frazier also is in the No. 1 spot in the 182 class.

I just realized looking at the make-up schedule for winter sports that very rapidly the post season is sneaking up on me.

Next weekend marks the beginning of the postseason push, with the various KingCo tournaments. Here’s a quick look at where teams stand.

Boys basketball

The Islanders (as of Tuesday, Jan. 24) are in fourth place in KingCo, tied in league with Lake Washington.

Because of the snow last week the team missed several very important games against the other top teams in the league.

The standings are (again as of Tuesday, Jan. 24)

1. Bellevue 7-1 (12-2)

2. Sammamish 7-1 (11-3)

3. Lake Washington 6-2 (10-4)

4. Mercer Island 6-2 (11-4)

5. Mount Si 3-5 (4-10)

6. Liberty 2-6 (7-7)

The top six teams make the KingCo tournament which begins on Monday, Feb. 6 (pushed back because of the snow schedule).

The Islanders will face each of the teams ahead of it in the final week before KingCo, which will decide seeding into the tournament.

Between now and then the Islanders will play Sammamish on Saturday, Jan. 28 at 7:30 p.m. at Sammamish; Interlake on Monday, Jan. 20 at 6:15 p.m. then at Lake Washington on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. and against Bellevue on Friday, Feb. 3 at 8 p.m.

The KingCo tournament is held at higher seed schools for the first round and then at Bellevue College beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 7.

I’ll update brackets and seeding as it become clear.

Girls basketball

For the first time in several years the Mercer Island girls are on the edge of not making the post season.

As of Tuesday, Jan. 24 the team is tied for sixth place with Interlake. The top six teams move into the KingCo tournament.

The Islanders are 2-6, as is Interlake, but the Saints are 6-8 overall, while Mercer Island is 2-11. The two teams will face off on Monday, Jan. 20 at Interlake starting at 6:15 p.m.

Before the end of the regular season the team will face the league’s No. 1 Juanita on Friday, Jan. 27, Sammamish, the last place team on Saturday, Jan. 28, then Interlake, followed by Interlake again on Wednesday, Feb. 1 and Bellevue on Friday, Feb. 3.

Wrestling

The KingCo wrestling tournament begins on Friday, Feb. 3 and continues on Saturday, Feb. 4 at Liberty High School.

The following weekend the team will head to Skyline for the Regional meet.

The Islanders are hoping to win their third straight KingCo title.

Gymnastics

The Mercer Island gymnastics final home meet, which was supposed to be held last Thursday, is still waiting to be rescheduled. It was going to be senior night.

The team will begin the postseason with the KingCo meet at Roosevelt High School on Feb. 4 at 8 a.m.

Swimming

The Mercer Island boys have continued their success this season in the pool. They begin the push for state on Saturday, Feb. 4 with the KingCo finals at Mary Wayte Pool. The district meet will be held the weekend after that.

As the season continues and things clear up on seedings, locations, dates and times I’ll update this.

WEDNESDAY, JANAURY 25

Starting Thursday Jan. 26, there become changes in the game schedule, due to rescheduling snowed-out Varsity events for all Winter Sports.  Sub-Varsity Basketball will have games bumped off dates and I will work to try to reschedule those games, extending into the week of Mon 2/6-Fri 2/10.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association released the final classifications data today, after the WIAA executive board meet earlier this week to finalize the numbers.

The classifications will remain in place until the 2014 school year. Schools with 513 to 1085 students were in the 2A classifications, while schools with between 1086 and 1303 were grouped as 3A. All schools with more than 1304 students will compete in 4A.

Mercer Island easily remains in 3A with 1,114.75 students. The decimal points come from the FTE (full time equivalent) counting, so schools can accurately reflect running start and part time students.

Juanita High School was the second to smallest 3A school with 1096.27 students. Only Shorecrest was smaller with 1096.16 students.

Lake Washington will compete for the next two school years as 2A with 1064.91 students. The school dropped from 4A to 3A in the previously reclassification.

Interlake, which previously had competed in the 2A classification moved up to 3A, while Sammamish moved down to 2A with 902.95 students.

Skykomish High School is listed as the smallest high school in the state with 10 students, competing in the 1B classification. South Kitsap was the largest with 2,447.63 students.

The Washington high school lacrosse schedules for both boys and girls team have been released.

It’s the 34th season in the state for teams, and this year welcomes 10 new boys and girls teams to the leagues.

The spring season begins March 9 and ends with the boys state title game on May. 26.

The Mercer Island boys will begin their season as defending state champs against Bainbridge on March 10, a Saturday, in the annual Island Wars.

The Mercer Island girls will get underway on Monday, March 12 with a home game against Overlake.

I’ve had some questions about what happens to games and contests when the weather gets bad and sports start getting cancelled. The basic rule of thumb is that if there is no school, there are no sports. Practices may be held, but depends on the coach. Unlike college games (like the University of Washington men’s basketball game tonight, which is still scheduled to be played), high schools usually don’t play if there is no school.

Games are typically rescheduled once schools are back in session and schedules can be sorted out as to who can play where and when. Currently there have been 12 sports games that have been cancelled for Mercer Island (through Thursday, but Friday’s could very well be cancelled as well).

It gets a little trickier for teams when the cancellations affect multiple schools and multiple teams. Since there has been no school for most of the KingCo schools, meaning no games for winter sports since Tuesday, that means a lot of make up games to schedule and figure out in the next several weeks, along with trying to play the regularly scheduled games.

Once those games begin to be rescheduled I will update with locations and times.