District 4 approves 2A Evergreen-Greater St. Helen’s League football merger

Published 9:00 pm Friday, January 23, 2026

The 2A Evergreen Conference and 2A Greater St. Helen’s League are set to merge for the 2026-27 football seasons after restructuring of the two leagues was approved by Washington Interscholastic Activities Association District 4 officials earlier this week.

Aberdeen athletic director Doug Farmer confirmed to The Daily World that the merger was approved by District 4, but that several details still need to be worked out as multiple options are still on the table for discussion.

“(The merger) was approved by District 4 this week,” Farmer said. “The format is still up in the air a bit, but we plan to join with the 2A GSHL for the next two years.”

The merger means the Aberdeen Bobcats football team will be one of 12 teams in a new league that will include current 2A Evergreen Conference opponents Black Hills, Tumwater and W.F. West while combining with the eight teams in the 2A GSHL.

While the league format has yet to be officially confirmed, multiple sources have informed The Daily World that officials are leaning toward a structure that would include three pods of four teams each, with teams playing each team in their own pod and two teams from each of the additional two pods to create a seven-game league schedule.

Tentatively, Aberdeen would join Black Hills, Tumwater and W.F. West in the “North” pod.

R.A. Long, Mark Morris, Woodland and Ridgefield would comprise the “Central” pod with Washougal, Hudson’s Bay, Columbia River and Hockinson making up the “South” pod.

Previously, 2A EvCo teams were in a precarious position of searching for additional non-league opponents when teams were well into their league schedules due to playing in a five-team league while most other conferences in the class were at or near eight teams.

Playing seven league games means the Bobcats will have an easier time filling up the non-league portion of the schedule.

“We really appreciate the GSHL. They have a pretty nice league down there with eight teams,” Farmer said. “We’re the ones, the 2A EvCo, that are in need of this. We appreciate them and District 4 working with us on this.”

With just two non-league games to schedule, Farmer said he plans on filling those dates with local teams.

“The plan is to play (the Myrtle Street Rivalry game against Hoquiam) Week 1 next year in Aberdeen,” said Farmer, noting he’s already been in discussions with Hoquiam officials to schedule the game. “We think it’s very important to our communities to keep that game going.”

Farmer added that he also hopes to resume another in-county matchup in the second week of the season.

“I’ve already been in talks with Montesano and I’m pretty confident we’re going to play at Montesano in Week 2,” he said.

The planned merger appeared to also have an impact on the 1A Evergreen League where Hoquiam, Montesano and fellow Harbor program Elma reside after the Centralia Tigers were approved to move from the 2A EvCo down to the 1A Evergreen League for football, but a statement from Centralia athletic director Tim Ahern released on Friday stated the Tigers will play football next season as an independent 2A-class team.

While the merger is moving forward and the new league’s structure is being ironed out, several questions still remain as school, league and district officials meet over the next few weeks.

One issue is travel as playing four league games outside a team’s own pod can make for long road trips depending on the matchup.

For example, the distance between Aberdeen and Washougal high schools is 150 miles, equating to a 2.5 hour drive by car and possibly longer by team bus, drive times usually only reserved for state-playoff games or the rare cross-state trek to face a tough non-league opponent.

Another detail currently in limbo is how the playoff seeding will work as in a 12-team league, not every team will play each other during the league schedule. It is plausible for multiple teams to finish with perfect league records or create playoff log-jams, year in and year out.

How the seeds will be determined, what tiebreaking procedures will be implemented and how those will be considered in a possible 32-team playoff format – which is under consideration by the WIAA – have yet to be determined.

“There’s nothing set in stone,” Farmer said regarding the playoff-seeding structure. “We have a few different scenarios out there that the GSHL has looked at and I think we’re in a good spot with that, but it’s all dependent on what the WIAA postseason looks like.”

All this is subject to change as currently the only confirmation received from District 4 is that the two leagues have been approved to proceed with a merger for football only.

“We’re pretty ancy about getting this stuff behind us,” said Farmer, who confirmed 2A EvCo and GSHL liaisons will be meeting in the next couple weeks to further discuss the details.