In August 2007, the School Board had to vote on whether or not four Seattle inner-city Schools — Garfield, Ballard, Roosevelt and Franklin — should stay in the KingCo conference or move down to the less-competitive Metro conference. At that point in time, the combined football record of the Seattle 4A school against their KingCo counterparts on the Eastside was 27 – 214.  We had literally lost almost 10 times as many games as we had won.  It seemed like a pretty obvious call. 

But the school district decided to take no action on the subject, citing uncertainty in projected enrollment numbers. Franklin moved down to 3A Metro last year, but only because their enrollment levels were too low for 4A.  The District decided to keep the inner-city schools in KingCo through the 2009 – 2010 year. League rules require a year’s notification before any cross-conference transfers, so Garfield couldn’t move until the next athletic cycle, which starts in fall of 2012. But it is entirely possible that they will pull us, Ballard and Roosevelt out of KingCo, and combine Metro into a 3A/4A conference. 

This would mean a couple of very significant changes. It would mean that some of our less-than-successful teams might start winning a few games. After all, Garfield’s football team did go undefeated against inner-city schools this past fall. Without having to run up against high schools with genetically mutated, trained-since-they-could-walk super-athletes, the city schools would definitely fare better. Only playing inner-city teams would also supposedly decrease travel costs and missed classroom time, although the School District has yet to release any data confirming this theory. 

On the other hand, the disparity in size between schools like Garfield (enrollment of 1600) and Rainier Beach (enrollment of 360) would probably create even more of an imbalance. And many say that competition between inner-city and suburban schools has helped break down cultural barriers. Being a part of KingCo also gives Garfield’s JV and C teams opponents to compete against, while some schools in Metro are struggling to field a Varsity. And the heightened competition from Eastside schools is a good thing in a lot of ways, providing the stronger Garfield teams with better opponents during the season, giving them increased chances in the postseason.

Either way, no decision will be made for at least a few months, but the question remains; in a conference of Jake Heaps and US National Team soccer players, do we belong?