Tight finishes not quite a football first

Q: Here's my hunch: The six state-championship football games last Friday and Saturday at the Tacoma Dome was the most closely contested collection of games since the all-at-one-site championships began in 1976? Am I right?

A: Not quite, but you're close.

If you add up the scores, the average winning margin was 7.8 points, matching the 1994 average point difference. The only years with closer differences were 1987 (six points) and 1978 (6.4).

Can't remember the marquee matchups those years? In 1987, Puyallup, coached by Mike Huard, beat Gonzaga Prep 27-21 in what now would be 4A and Tumwater under Sid Otton beat West Valley of Yakima 21-14.

In 1978, Snohomish under Dick Armstrong beat Ingraham 14-8 and Peninsula under Larry Lunke beat Pullman 35-34 in the best high-school game I've ever seen.

Last weekend's games included only the second overtime game in state-championship history in any classification — Bellevue's 21-14 win over Kennedy in 3A. The only game of the six that was decided by more than one touchdown was B-11 Asotin's 28-10 victory over LaSalle.

St. John-Endicott's 12-6 victory over Lummi was the lowest scoring 8-man title game ever. In many years, 12-6 is a low-scoring quarter in eight-man football.

Q: Have you heard about the mess in an Oakland suburb where complaints by parents led to a committee picking the girls basketball team? I've also heard that an ombudsman attends every practice this season. True?

A: True. It's quite a story. And in what many consider poetic justice, the committee didn't choose any of the daughters of the howling parents for this year's team.

The school is Castro Valley High School. The group of unhappy parents, who started screaming last year for the head of coach Nancy Nibarger, includes a Superior Court judge. The group had a San Francisco lawyer as its spokesman.

The committee that made the cuts included someone from a list submitted by unhappy parents, two longtime basketball "experts" considered neutral, embattled coach Nibarger and her two new assistants. A vice-principal told The San Francisco Chronicle the cuts were "consensus-based."

The school board, which had to listen to parents' complaints at a 12-hour meeting in August, appointed a former high-school principal to serve as "ombudsman" and attend every practice this season.

Among the complaints against Nibarger, who played at Kansas State and has been a college assistant, was that she kicked the team out of the gym early at a bad practice last year.

A member of the 2004 team who supports Nibarger told The Chronicle that one of the problems is offseason select-team coaches over-praising marginal players to keep team dues flowing. The result is that the player and her parents develop inflated opinions of her ability.

Q: How many former players or former assistant coaches of Archbishop Murphy coach Terry Ennis are head football coaches and assistants in the state?

A: This season, there were seven head coaches and at least 10 assistants with direct ties to Ennis. The all-time list of head coaches with an Ennis connection is 22 and most of them have hung up their whistles.

This year's head coaches: Jake Huizinga, Cascade (former assistant); John Schultz, Centralia (former assistant); Dennis Dahl, Orcas Island (former assistant); Dick Abrams, Stanwood (former assistant); Eric Dinwiddie, Granite Falls (former player); Tom Tri, Lake Stevens (former player) and Mike Miller, Newport (former player).

Ennis has coached in the state for 35 years at Murphy, Cascade, Renton, Bellarmine Prep and Stanwood. He has won three state titles and is No. 2 on the all-time victory list with a record of 285-87. In 1999, he was named Seattle Times' prep football coach of the 20th Century.

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