Whitmore selected to serve on WIAA Executive Board

Lind-Ritzville Athletic Director Greg Whitmore has been selected to serve on the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Executive Board.

Effective Aug. 1, Whitmore began his three-year term with the board, and he looks forward to representing small schools and the east side of the state.

The WIAA Executive Board is comprised of a 13-member panel, with one representative from each of the nine districts, three regional representatives and one at-large representative.

The WIAA’s purpose is to plan, supervise and administer interscholastic activities for member schools, and the executive board is crucial in maintaining the organization’s principle.

Specifically, Whitmore represents District 7 and said he relies on the other board members to inform him about their districts.

Together the board members direct management funds and the business of the association; serve as an appeal body for leagues and districts; rule on protests and requests for waivers in the WIAA handbook; decide on disciplinary action for rules violated, and manage all aspects of the state competitions.

Whitmore said he was motivated to join the Executive Board to provide the knowledge and experience he has gained over 23 years of teaching and coaching, and from having three children who were heavily involved in athletics.

“At a time when I have no more kids in the house, I could have just kind of taken it easy and just tended to athletics here at Lind-Ritzville,” Whitmore explained.

“However, I feel so strongly in the benefits that extra-curricular activities can provide for kids that I wanted to become more active in the decision-making process at the district and state level.”

Whitmore said another motivating factor for joining the board is based around the negativity occasionally surrounding the association. He explained sometimes the WIAA carries a negative connotation with it, but he thinks it stems from a lack of understanding about the WIAA purpose and the association as a whole.

While in his role on the executive board, Whitmore hopes to help inform people about WIAA and insure balance of representation between large and small schools.

He understands from past experiences, both as a parent and a coach, that changes within the association can be an emotional issue for districts and fans.

Two of the changes that come to mind immediately for Whitmore are the dividing of the B classification and altering the state basketball tournament format.

The change in the state basketball tournament format is occasionally regarded to as being detrimental to the State B Tournament, Whitmore said, but the change from a 16-team format over four days to an eight-team tournament over three days was a necessary change.

Basically, Whitmore explained, the WIAA was spending large amounts of money to rent venues for six state tournaments. The increasing amount of money spent on renting the facilities combined with the decreasing attendance made it financially irresponsible to continue in that format, Whitmore said. The change allowed the WIAA to move from 24 tournament days down to nine.

Whitmore said the B classification change, regarding the separating of the classification into 1B and 2B, was actually brought up by several of the smaller B schools who felt they did not have the opportunity to compete at state as the larger schools had an advantage.

Whitmore pointed out the executive board did not change the classification, which is why Whitmore is hoping to educate more people about the WIAA so misconceptions of the association can be minimized.

Classifications are always a hot topic, Whitmore said, and a committee has been formed to examine all of the classifications.

Whitmore said the main reason the classification topic comes up often is because any changes effect formation of leagues, travel distance of schools, allocations and formats of tournaments, as well as multiple other factors that change scheduling for districts.

Overall, Whitmore is looking forward to the upcoming three-year term on the Executive Board.

“I am excited to represent small schools as well as schools from the east side of the state. Sometimes I fear our voices aren’t heard as well because we are outnumbered,” Whitmore said.

“I look forward to having a bigger role in the decision-making process at the state level.”

For more information about the WIAA, visit http://wiaa.com. For questions or more information about Whitmore’s involvement with the association, contact him via email at [email protected].