After lying dormant for 26 years, the North Puget Sound League is ready to get the ball rolled, spiked, kicked or whatever appropriate sports verbiage fits the game.

The Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association finalized enrollment figures for the 2016-2020 cycle on Tuesday and shortly after, the future members of the NPSL came to consensus on league alignment.

The 16-team, 4A league will be broken up into two, eight-team divisions – the Cascade and the Olympic.

The Olympic division is expected to be comprised of schools from the Federal Way school district – Decatur, Federal Way, Thomas Jefferson and Todd Beamer; the Auburn School District – Auburn, Auburn Mountainview and Auburn Riverside and Enumclaw.

The Cascade will be comprised of schools from the Kent School District – Kentlake, Kent-Merdian, Kentridge and Kentwood, along with Hazen, Kennedy Catholic, Mount Rainier and Tahoma.

“We had a set of criteria and priorities for forming the divisions for the schools,” Federal Way Public Schools District Athletic Director Jerry Peterson said. “We came together at our first organizational meeting and all of the members schools voted on supporting this division format.”

The four criteria they looked at were keeping schools within the same district together, proximity to other schools, travel time and lessening the amount of times kids spent out of class for sports.

“It was huge for not just the Federal Way schools, but also the other multischool districts to stay together,” said Peterson. “Having schools in close proximity has done a lot to improve gates at games.”

The divisional alignments will be reevaluated after the 2017-18 school year.

Of the 16 schools, 12 of them are opting up from 3A, only Kent-Meridian, Kentridge, Kentwood and Tahoma would have been classified as 4A based on original numbers.

Originally, the league looked as though it would be comprised of 14 teams – the teams from the current South Puget Sound League Northeast and Northwest divisions, the Auburn School District and Kennedy Catholic.

Hazen and Enumclaw were late additions to the league, deciding to opt up just before the deadline on Jan. 13.

Hazen would have been the lone 3A school left in the Seamount League with Kennedy Catholic’s departure had it chosen not to opt up. It was also enticed by the fact that the majority of the schools in the NPSL would be the same size, allowing them to remain competitive.

Enumclaw decided to make the jump after the SPSL 3A, its former league, accepted the applications of Gig Harbor, North Thurston, Timberline and Yelm. Travel costs were the main factors in their decision.

The formation of the NPSL began after it became clear that the 4A Narrows League was going to lose the majority of its members to classification changes.

Bellarmine Prep, Olympia and South Kitsap began to look at applying to the SPSL 4A league. With Sumner reaching 4A status, the league would have ballooned to more than 20 schools.

“Throughout the whole process there were a lot of unknowns,” said Peterson. “The idea of those adding schools pushed us [to reform the NPSL] as it was too large. We wouldn’t have even had a district tournament anymore. We thought it was healthy to have two leagues, so forming the NPSL was a real positive.”

The SPSL 4A will form the other portion of the West Central District now. It will consist of current SPSL South members Curtis, Graham-Kapowsin, Emerald Ridge, Rogers and Puyallup as well as newcomers Bellarmine Prep, Olympia, Sumner and South Kitsap.

In total, the district gained one team as it grew from 24 to 25 schools.

The next step is to start putting together the organization of the league, such as selecting commissioners for each sport, and creating schedules. The fall sports schedule is the current priority for the league.