Adeline Maynes is the point of the spear for an 8-0 Wolf softball squad. (Jackie Saia photo)
The WIAA has entered the chat.
Wednesday marked the first time the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has released Rating Percentage Index (RPI) numbers for spring sports.
And as soon as they did, Coupeville High School made a nice splash, with its undefeated softball squad landing #7 in the 2B rankings.
Meanwhile, the Wolf baseball squad shows up at #19 (out of 47 schools), with the WIAA crediting Steve Hilborn’s team with being 5-2, even though they’re really 6-2.
That’s not an error, but a quirk, as Coupeville’s season-opening victory against 3A Oak Harbor technically came against the Wildcats JV and the RPI rankings don’t count varsity teams beating JV teams, regardless of classification.
Aaron Lucero’s softball sluggers have no quirks on their own schedule, as they beat Oak Harbor’s varsity and sit at 8-0 as Spring Break unfolds.
The Smash Sisters have won six of those eight by 10+ runs and are one of just two 2B softball teams to still have a spotless record, joining #3 Liberty (Spangle), which is 11-0.
And actually, now there is a second quirk, as when the RPI rankings were first revealed Wednesday, Colfax was also undefeated and ranked #4 as shown in this photo.
Then the Bulldogs fell 8-4 to 2A Pullman in an early afternoon game, and slid from #4 to #8, while Adna, River View, Toutle Lake, and Coupeville all jumped a spot.
In the end, how important is RPI? Depends on who you ask.
The rankings are “one tool utilized by the seeding committees to determine first round bracket pairings into the state tournaments.”
So, there’s that, though first you have to punch your ticket to the dance for it to really matter.
Until then, it’s all about bragging rights.
So, yeah, it’s kinda a big deal for the easily hyped-up such as myself.
