PREP FOOTBALL PREVIEW: Storm's shift changes playoff outlook

What it means for the conference this season is that there will be eight Class 2A teams instead of seven competing for four postseason berths, and one fewer Class 3A team to help fill out the schedules.

“It’s a move we’re excited about,” Squalicum football coach Reed Richardson said. “It gives us a better opportunity to reach the post-season because we’ll be competing for four spots instead of two. That said there are still some real tough teams to play. It seems like Lynden and Burlington-Edison are always the teams to beat.”

Squalicum’s move shouldn’t send any major ripples through the conference, but there will be some subtle differences. Some of the Class 3A schools, like Ferndale, have had to find non-conference games to fill out there schedule.

Ferndale already had plans in place to play schools from the WesCo this season as it was, but when that conference moved to a three-division format in April, adding a Class 3A division, it changed some of the Golden Eagles’ plans.

“We’re playing some bigger schools than we have in the past and it’s going to be a challenge,” Ferndale coach Jamie Plenkovich said. “But I think it’s going to be good for us to have to play some different teams.”

For the Class 2A schools in the NWC, Squalicum’s move just means one more must-win game to secure a spot in the state playoffs.

“It will be different in the sense that the game against Squalicum counts now,” Lynden coach Curt Kramme said. “But in our minds that game counted last year, too. I don’t think it’s going to change anything that much.” Sehome coach Kevin Johnson feels the same way. The Mariners’ game with Squalicum has always been important regardless of what classification each school was playing in.

“I think it affects us a little less because we’ve always played them,” Johnson said. “The game means something now, because they are 2A, but it’s always meant something to us. What it will do though, is by adding an eighth team to that 2A group, it could mean a team will come out of there without a great record, but they’ll still be playing for something meaningful in week 10.”

The other major change in the conference comes at the Class 1A level. Lynden Christian, Meridian, and Nooksack Valley will continue to play each other twice this season, but unlike last season both games will factor into the standings for postseason play. All three schools also will play Friday Harbor twice in conference counters.

“I think all of the Class 1A schools would rather have it this way,” Nooksack Valley coach Robb Myhre said. “I think it’s a better way to do things.”

Reach Joe Sunnen at joe.sunnen@bellinghamherald.com or 756-2862

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