Mercy! Archbishop Murphy deserved some, got none

Q: What's your opinion of Archbishop Murphy being thrown out of the 2A state football playoffs because a player's physical had expired?

A: I'm steamed. I'm mad at the WIAA executive board. I'm also mad at the Cascade Conference and Northwest District, whose "no-mercy" ruling forced Murphy to appeal to the executive board.

An appeal to a Superior Court commissioner also failed.

At the league level, Murphy claims it never even got a chance to explain its case and that the vote wasn't taken by conference call but by the league president making individual phone calls to member schools. Sure sounds like a real friendly league.

In case you missed it, here's what happened: Undefeated Archbishop Murphy was booted from the round-of-16 playoffs last Friday because a player had been playing with an expired physical. The physical expired on Sept. 8. As a result, Murphy had to forfeit eight of its 10 victories, including its preliminary playoff win over Bellingham.

Why do I think Murphy deserves special consideration? BECAUSE COACH TERRY ENNIS WAS DYING! He died on Sept. 12.

Ennis, this newspaper's choice for coach of the 20th century, was just trying to summon the energy to coach in his final days, which included a final Sept. 8 victory.

Ennis was the co-athletic director and this is the kind of detail he always handled.

Archbishop Murphy self-reported the lapsed physical when it was discovered while paperwork was being processed for winter sports. I wonder how many schools would have chosen just to keep this matter secret and kept playing.

Officials from Archbishop Murphy, a Catholic school near Mill Creek, argued that the school should be granted leniency because of "extenuating circumstances." If a coach's death isn't an "extenuating circumstance," what is?

Hey, Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, ever hear the word "compassion?"

Yes, other folks, including Murphy staffers and the player and his family, dropped the ball in this situation. But I guarantee you that if detail-minded Ennis hadn't been dying, this wouldn't have slipped past everyone.

The WIAA is always worried about setting a bad precedent and opening the door to other appeals. But this case is so narrow — dying coach commits clerical oversight in week of death. The only people who could cite the Murphy-Ennis case and hope to win would be schools with dying coaches. That's a pretty small group.

And it's not like the kid with the lapsed physical had never taken and passed a physical in high school. He took one last year. He was healthy. Murphy didn't find this player on the street and hand him a football uniform.

The WIAA executive board is an elected group of 13 educators from around the state. Vent your anger at them, not at WIAA employees who have to be their apologists.

It makes you wonder what the grumpy old folks on the WIAA executive board would do if they had a chance? Foreclose homes and farms? Or make disabled kids turn in their crutches if they signed a form on the wrong line?

Q: Mead won the 4A volleyball title for an unprecedented fifth straight time. What makes Mead so good?

A: The coach. Judy Kight is an acolyte of one of the best coaches in state history — Linda Sheridan, who won a combined total of seven volleyball and basketball titles at Shadle Park of Spokane.

Kight, 46, played for Sheridan and later was one of her assistants. Kight also has been instrumental in building the club volleyball program in Spokane that pumps fundamentally solid players into the town's high schools, with a lot of them showing up at Mead.

"Linda influenced me a lot," Kight told The Spokesman-Review of Spokane in 2005. "She got me to thinking about coaching and how great it could be."

Spokane sportswriter Vince Grippi notes that Kight has won six state volleyball titles, including the current streak of five, with three main groups of players.

"She's won with small, quick teams and with big strong teams," he told me. "It's kind of like [John] Wooden at UCLA."

Have a question about high-school sports? Craig Smith will find the answer every Tuesday in The Times. Ask your question in one of the following ways: Voice mail (206-464-8279), snail mail (Craig Smith, Seattle Times Sports, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111) or e-mail csmith@seattletimes.com