Rochester isn’t the only local school impacted by the latest WIAA reclassification cycle.
After just four years down in 1B, the Mossyrock Vikings are headed back up to the C2BL, their longtime home prior to this past cycle.
Mossyrock baseball coach Darren Kolb noted that the Vikings had been 2B “forever,” and he describes the jump back up as a “return to normal.”
“I think it’ll help a lot,” Kolb said. “It’ll be different, but it’s less travel time … I think we’ll compete.”
Due to the proximity of many 2B schools, many Mossyrock teams have continued playing 2B competition in non-league action over the past four years.
This past school year, nearly every sport played games against 2B teams, including the softball team, which played 11 games against C2BL opponents. The Vikings went 5-6 in those 11 games.
The volleyball team, led by coach Alex Nelson, played Adna and Toutle Lake three times, and while they lost all three of those matchups, both of those teams went on to make deep runs at the state tournament.
The volleyball team also has a larger sample size of competing regardless of classification. The Vikings earned a top-three finish in a whopping seven straight state tournaments, including a few prior to the previous reclassification that bumped them down to 1B.
“As long as kids don’t move, Mossyrock will compete pretty well,” Kolb said.
The biggest change will come to football, where the Vikings will make the jump back to the 11-man game.
“We’re excited for the challenge,” football coach Eric Ollikainen said. “It’s a different game. First downs and touchdowns are gonna be harder to come by, but hopefully playing defense will be a little bit easier.”
While the football team hasn’t had the opportunity to play against 2B schools the past few years, the familiarity with many teams in the C2BL remains, as Ollikainen was on the staff during the last years of Mossyrock’s previous 2B stint.
“We’re familiar with the schools even though we haven’t played these teams,” Ollikainen said. “They’ve got rivalries from youth football and other things, so it’s familiar territory.”
The Vikings will join Toutle Lake, Morton-White Pass, and Onalaska in a C2BL division, and it’s the latter that has some excited the most. Onalaska and Mossyrock will once again be able to resume it’s rivalry for the Old Helmet, a game which hasn’t taken place since 2018.
That game is set for Week 3, Sep. 20, at Onalaska, and Ollikainen, Kolb, and Onalaska coach Mazen Saade added that they are all excited to reignite the rivalry.
