Seattle Academy Athletics to Join 1A Emerald Sound League 

Beginning in the Fall of 2020, Seattle Academy Athletics and our current league (the Emerald City League) will merge with the North Sound Conference to form the 1A Emerald Sound Conference.

Given the size of the schools merging into the new league and the strength of their programs, this change will provide greater opportunities for participation for our teams and athletes.

In addition to the considerations relative to participation and excellence, we also place a high value on the opportunity for our students to compete with and against students from a wide range of schools: urban and rural, public and private, faith-based, and independent schools. In fact, the 1A Emerald Sound Conference will be the only conference in the state made up of private/public/charter schools competing together and hopefully will facilitate dialogue between students from very different backgrounds.

The new league will consist of the following:  

Private schools: Seattle Academy, The Bear Creek School, The Bush School, Eastside Prep, Forest Ridge, The Northwest School, The Overlake School, Kings, Cedar Park Christian, and University Prep

Public schools: Granite Falls, Sultan, and South Whidbey

Public Charter schools: Summit Sierra

Our @SeattleAcademy Upper School Athletic Programs are excited to be joining the @wiaawa 1A #EmeraldSoundConference beginning this Fall 2020. More info to come! Subscribe to the list below to learn more about the teams competing. https://t.co/kwhkx6kE90

— SAAS Athletics (@SAASCardinals) February 4, 2020

The 1A Emerald Sound Conference will have boys’ tennis, boys’ and girls’ golf, cross country, wrestling, ultimate, and track and field. Those sports will be in one division. Lacrosse will continue to operate separately from the WIAA and not be played in the new conference.

The Emerald Sound Conference will be broken up into two divisions based on competitive balance across boys’ and girls’ basketball, boys’ and girls’ soccer, girls’ tennis, and volleyball. The upper division will be called Chinook and the lower division, Coho.

What will not be different is that all member schools will be 1A schools, so we will continue to play against schools of comparable size. That will be true of our league schedule, as well as, district and state playoffs.

The new league is specifically a high school league, so this change will not directly impact our Middle School program. We’ll continue to play in our current Middle School league and against the teams we compete with today.

All of us are excited about the path ahead for our student-athletes and for our program, and we look forward to continued growth and vitality of the Seattle Academy athletic program.

Any questions contact SAAS Athletic Director, Cathy Schick.