A new look for CWAC football

The Central Washington Athletic Conference League has a new look for football in 2017.

The 10 teams have been divided into a northern and southern half. Ellensburg, Othello, Quincy, Ephrata and East Valley are in the north. Prosser, Toppenish, Wapato, Grandview and Selah are in the south.

“The whole idea was to split up the Big Four (Ellensburg, Prosser, Othello and Selah),” said Othello football coach Roger Hoell. “If you look at it, the north is closest to I-90 except for East Valley, but to balance the league out, Prosser and Selah were on one side and Ellensburg and Othello on the other.”

The motivation behind the change was to allow more non-league games so the stronger teams could prepare for the state play-offs by scheduling tougher opponents and the weaker teams could build their programs by finding non-league match-ups that would allow them to win more games and build from success.

“It was not just the Big Four pushing the idea,” Hoell said. “Everybody in the league had input into the idea. We want to see other programs have success so their programs will start to blossom. Their numbers have been going down and this will allow them to find teams they can be with competitive with that are located closer to them.”

Although travel time and costs could be reduced, that was not the major motivation behind the change.

With five teams in each division, every team plays only four league games. This allows teams the opportunity to schedule four non-league games in an eight game season. However, the CWAC teams had a problem in finding other teams to fill those non-league spots.

“We tried to find teams from around the state so we are not playing each other,” Hoell said. “The other teams put out information indicating they were looking for games but we never heard jack from the teams on the west side. They did not answer our requests.”

The Huskies added a game at Royal to their non-league schedule, but had to fill two spots with league opponents Toppenish and Prosser. Othello’s schedule has the Huskies traveling to Connell, Royal, Quincy and East Valley. The team hosts Prosser, Ephrata, Ellensburg and Toppenish. Connell, Royal, Prosser and Toppenish are all non-league games.

Other league teams followed suit. It looks live every team scheduled two games against opponents outside the CWAC, and then included two games against league members that are counted as non-league games. Wapato added Cle Elum and Kiona Benton, but included Ephrata and Quincy. Toppenish added Davis and Naches Valley, but also scheduled East Valley and Quincy. Ellensburg has non-conference games against Royal and Connell, but added CWAC opponents Selah and Prosser as non-league games.

The CWAC league has an undeserved reputation as a tough football league. It is very top heavy-the top three teams are good, the middle two or three teams are decent, the bottom teams are very weak.

Here is the football record of league members back to 2006 with winning percentage.

1. Ellensburg: 116-21. 85 percent win record. Undefeated in league last three years.

2. Prosser: 109-19. 85 percent win record.

3. Othello: 90-36. 71 percent win record

4. Selah: 64-53. 55 percent win record

5. East Valley: 54-52. 52 percent win record

6. Ephrata: 44-69. 39 percent win record

7. Toppenish: 38-71. 36 percent win record

8. Quincy: 38-74. 34 percent win record

9. Grandview: 29-82. 24 percent win record.

10. Wapato: 14-96. 13 percent win record.

There really is no “Big Four.” Ellensburg and Prosser are clearly the big two. Remember, losses include the state play-off ‘s and not just the league defeats.

Othello’s 71 percent record is decent-good enough for a C- grade. However, 7-3 on the average year in the CWAC means you lose to Ellensburg and Prosser and one other team during an average year. The inability to find teams to fill the non-league schedule pretty much eliminated the possible gains of the league split. Perhaps in future years with more time to establish ties to other programs, the CWAC can meet their objectives.

“We think it will help the weaker teams to build and we think it will help the stronger teams to be more competitive in the play-offs,” Hoell said.