It looks like Federal Way High School will be competing in the South Puget Sound League South Division in the fall.

The West Central District denied an appeal by the school to overturn a decision by the league’s principals’ association that shifted Federal Way from the SPSL North to the South Division.

“We are currently deciding if we would appeal that decision to the (Washington Interscholastic Activities Association),” said Miguel Perez, Federal Way High School’s athletic director.

Perez presented Federal Way’s appeal at a March 15 meeting and the West Central District, which includes schools from the SPSL and Narrows League, made its ruling Friday. According to Jerry Holsten, president of the district and principal at South Kitsap, the SPSL principals’ association followed the proper guidelines when they voted to place Federal Way in the SPSL South.

The result will leave the four Federal Way district high schools in three separate divisions of the SPSL in the fall, negating longtime rivalries. Federal Way and Beamer will compete in the South Division, while Thomas Jefferson will remain in the SPSL North. Decatur is set to move into the 3A Division of the league because of lower enrollment numbers.

The need for realignment came after the SPSL North admitted Des Moines’ Mount Rainier High School and reclassified Decatur as a 3A school. The Gators’ departure from the South left an open spot in the division.

The SPSL principals chose to send either Federal Way or TJ South. The vote chose that option over two others, including sending Auburn and Auburn Riverside to the SPSL South and moving Beamer to the North. The other option would have placed Mount Rainier in the South.

The league ended up flipping a coin to see which of the two schools would move. The Eagles’ came out on the short end of the coin toss.

“When you look at it, obviously multi-high school districts would want to all be together,” Perez said. “It seems like it’s going in another direction for us.”

All the other multi-school districts in the SPSL (Kent, Auburn, Puyallup, Bethel and Spanwaway) have their sports programs located in the same divisions.

According to Perez and TJ athletic director Mike Grady, the SPSL set a precedent when Beamer was kept in the SPSL South before the 2008 school year, allowing Auburn and Auburn Riverside into the North after both competed as 3A schools for two years. The SPSL principals cited geography as the reason. Beamer was the southernmost school not in the SPSL South.

In terms of geography, Auburn and Auburn Riverside are located south of the two Federal Way schools and closer to Highway 167, which is the main freeway leading to a bulk of the SPSL South schools in Graham, Spanaway and Puyallup.

According to Perez, a move by Federal Way into the SPSL South Division will add $15,000-$18,000 to the school’s athletic transportation budget. A number is a bigger deal within the Federal Way district. Here, each school’s Associated Student Body (ASB) fund is responsible for its own transportation costs. That is not the case in other school districts, where there is a general pool for transportation costs throughout all schools.