Hermiston School District representatives had their time in front of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association executive board at their regular meeting Sunday, and now will have to wait.
The WIAA board tabled any action about Hermiston potentially becoming the first school outside of Washington to join their association, Hermiston School District athletic director Larry Usher said.
Usher said that's really what they thought would happen, and that the WIAA board members want to do more research and see how other states handle this situation.
"They just want to sit down and talk about it some more," Usher said, who will also be at the OSAA classification and districting meeting Monday in Wilsonville.
The next WIAA executive board meeting is scheduled for March 18-19 at the WIAA offices in Renton, and they will revisit the issue then.
In the latest classification proposals from the OSAA, Hermiston has been considered to be in the largest classification whether it's 5A or 6A. In the six-class model, they are in the Mt. Hood Conference with Barlow, Centennial, Central Catholic, Clackamas, David Douglas, Oregon City, Reynolds and Gresham. Hermiston's current enrollment figure is 1,240, but is projected to be above the cutoff of 1,330 to make them in the state's largest classification for that plan.
In the five-class model, the enrollment cutoff is for now set at 1,165 and Hermiston would again be in the Mt. Hood Conference. That proposals includes Barlow, Centennial, David Douglas, Gresham, Hood River Valley, Reynolds and Sandy.
The OSAA has introduced a football only plan for six classifications, and Hermiston has been placed in a seven-team special district with Barlow, Centennial, Central Catholic, Clackamas, David Douglas and Hillsboro's Liberty.
All of those plans are fluid and will change to some degree, but with every previous iteration, Hermiston has been lumped in with teams from the eastern part of the Portland-Metro area in the largest class.
Hermiston already has full support from superintendents and athletic directors from the Mid-Columbia Conference, the league they would join with schools in southeast Washington towns Richland, Pasco, Kennewick and Walla Walla.