Mike Colbrese: Still a Dick

You know, you'd think that after completely blowing the Archbishop Murphy situation (to review: their whole season, including a playoff berth, was forfeited because a JV player's physical had expired; the mistake wasn't caught because the head coach/AD had died of cancer days before the season began) that the WIAA brass would wise up and make some tough decisions.

But when you're the only game in town, you don't have to learn from your mistakes. That's why this column from the Aberdeen Daily World is so troubling:

As Colbrese has noted in the past, member schools are the WIAA. And the Representative Assembly has rejected several attempts to modify its regulations on the topic.

“It’s an issue of trust and liability,” said Colbrese. “At this point, the membership hasn’t had the political will to fix it.”

Two amendments — interestingly, both proposed by the WIAA’s Executive Board — that could put clerical errors in a different category will be on the agenda at the Representative Assembly meeting scheduled for April 25.

The first, patterned after a similar rule in Massachusetts, would suspend the player for as many games as he or she actually competed with an expired physical. The team, however, would not be forced to forfeit those games.

Colbrese sees little chance this measure will be approved.

“I don’t think (members) are willing to draw the line there,” said the WIAA chief.

So take them there, Mike. As a union leader I feel more than a little qualified to speak on this point--if the membership isn't willing to do something that you feel is in the best interest of the group, you work your ass off to convince them. This "Hey, what can I do?" lack of leadership, combined with his laughably naive comments on booing, multiplied by his disembowling of the state B tournament, shows me that the state of prep sports in Washington is not all that it could be.

Read more here, if any.

Mike Colbrese: Dick.

The good Mr. Colbrese is the executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), the governing body for prep sports, debate, and the like here in Washington State.

Ferris High School in Spokane has a player by the name of DeAngelo Casto, a definite next-level prospect who helped them to win the 4A basketball championship last year. He transferred to Seattle, then came back, but was declared ineligible because of the WIAA regulations. He appealed, lost, appealed to a higher level, and was reinstated on December 18th because his lawyer got him declared homeless.

Where this story turns ridiculous, though, is the quote from Colbrese that appeared in the December 18th edition of the Spokesman-Review:

“The most I can say is that he demonstrated a hardship that was unique to him,” Colbrese said.

.........

Nevertheless, Colbrese didn’t even consider the McKinney-Vento argument. In his eyes, Casto’s hardship was enough to approve the appeal, Colbrese said.

“We felt that there was enough of a unique situation here,” he said.

Awww. Contrast that even-handed, level-headed approach with the Mike Colbrese who tossed out Archbishop Murphy’s entire football season and kicked them out of the playoffs because a second-string player had a physical that was more than a year old. A mistake that wasn’t caught at the school because the head coach/athletic director had died of cancer at the beginning of the season; Sound Politics has more.

Double standard? Piss-poor judgment? Both?

Read more here, if any.