R-C Sports Notebook: Surprise state tournament

Surprise! Guess what girls' soccer teams of the Northern 4A - Three of you will be advancing to the NIAA State Tournament in two weeks.

No, the real state tournament. Even if it entails a Southern 4A team that only had to play one other Southern 4A team this year. Seriously.

The news was a bit of a surprise to just about everyone in the Northern 4A, even though the issue was addressed at the NIAA Board of Control meeting last Summer.

The Clark County School District has chosen (in large part due to a Title IX lawsuit brought by the parent of a player last year) to continue to play girls' soccer in the winter for the time being, despite the NIAA well-documented desire to unify the sport at all levels in the fall.

What no one really counted on at the time, was that Faith Lutheran and Pahrump Valley, neither of whom are part of the Clark County district, was in the middle of making the move up to the 4A.

When the two schools began the process - one can only assume it takes a couple years or so - the promise was there that girls' soccer would be played in the fall, as it is at the 3A level where the two schools were coming from.

But when both schools finalized the jump to the 4A this year, there was no league to accomodate them.

So the solution the NIAA came up with was to allow the two schools to compete at the 3A level during the regular season and then play a one-game playoff into the state tournament, which will be at Damonte Ranch in two weeks.

The Northern 4A's top three teams will also advance to the state tournament.

There's been a little clammoring in the north, from coaches who weren't informed of the decision to parents who are upset at the prospect of basically playing the same tournament two weeks in a row.

But, and I'm talking directly to you Tiger fans, how many of you would've given anything for a redo after last year's loss in the Northern 4A title game against Reed?

Sure it's a weird setup, and the potential is there to win the regional title one week only to lose to the same team in the state championship the next week, but it's really the only option the NIAA had.

I mean, what were they supposed to tell Faith Lutheran and Pahrump? "Sorry guys, I know you moved your programs up to the 4A in good faith, thinking we'd have girls' soccer in the fall, but we don't, soooo .... tough luck."

The original plan was to have a full-on state tournament this year anyway, until litigation got in the way. So the prospect was going to be there, theorectically, that the Northern qualifiers could meet again a week after regionals (although by all accounts, the Southern 4A teams, Volume Winter, are at a whole different level than what we see up here due to the availabilty of year-round practice time).

So really, the NIAA has granted the Northern 4A a shot at a bonafide state championship (hey, that's what anyone who looks at the trophy 15 years from now will see) against two schools that have basically been playing at the 3A level all year.

Credit Faith Lutheran and Pahrump. They made their way up here in August to compete in the only tournament that drew most of the Northern 4A teams. They tried to get as many games against the type of competition they'd see up here during state as they could. After that, though, you really couldn't ask them to travel up here every week to complete their schedule. Right?

For this year, just look at it as a safety valve. A freak or untimely loss in the regional semis or finals can be atoned for. It's a second chance at life for at least two teams in two weeks.

Strange? Sure. Bad for everyone involved? Not a chance.

I'm planning to be at these games this week, so check online for updates (Cover It Live is the tool we use to post automatic updates during games and also allows for comments and questions from fans during the game, so be sure to check out our Web site if you can't make it to the games I will be posting from.):

Tuesday: Douglas vs. Fallon boys' soccer, 7 p.m. (Cover It Live)

Thursday: Douglas at Carson football, 7 p.m. (Cover It Live)

Saturday: Douglas girls' soccer vs. Spanish Springs at Damonte Ranch, 10 a.m. (Cover It Live)

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Celebrating Edd Roush, the only player ever ejected from a Major League Baseball game for sleeping in the outfield.

- The Associated Press reported last week that StubHub sent an e-mail offering tickets for New York Mets playoff games.

"Be there alongside your New York Mets as they chase baseball immortality," the e-mail said. "Go to StubHub, where you'll find a fantastic selection of tickets to every playoff game-so you experience the championship chase live and in person."

StubHub said e-mails were sent to fans promoting several teams not in the postseason.

"This was due to an e-mail glitch," spokeswoman Joellen Ferrer said in a statement. "We regret the error and apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused. Follow-up e-mails will be sent to every person that received the e-mail, notifying them of the error on our part. In no way does this affect any transactions that have taken place on StubHub."

The Mets finished 70-92 and were out playoff contention by mid-July. A Ferrer also said similar e-mails were sent to Cubs fans.