The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association is officially looking at making changes to the basketball state tournament formats.

The WIAA is looking for ways to trim costs from putting on the events and help defray costs for schools that must travel long distances and pay for meals and lodging for athletes and coaches.

"This is being driven by the costs of putting on a tournament and the costs schools are having to pay by being there for multiple days," said Bellarmine Prep athletic director Ed Ploof, a member of the board.

Three weeks ago, I wrote a column that outlined a plan to reduce the 16-team basketball state tournaments to eight and get rid of the consolation games. This would allow the WIAA to play the 4A and 3A boys and girls tournaments at one site.

My plan -- here's a previous blog post explaining my regional tournament idea, along with a lively discussion -- would address all the things that WIAA and executive board officials say they want to remedy: lower costs to put ontournaments, lower costs to send teams to tournaments and fewer missed days in the classroom.

But would combining tournaments at one location pull in the same amount of money as the current set-up? To make a change feasible, it must. The basketball state tournaments, according to WIAA executive director, are the organization's "cash cow."

What do you want to see become of the basketball state tournaments?

David Sundheim is the new coach at Todd Beamer High School. Sundheim has spent the last three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Bethel High School.

"We got a number of great applicants," said Beamer athletic director Jerry Peterson, "and we feel great about David."

Sundheim, who played at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., has also coached at high schools in Florida and Virginia, Peterson said.

Sundheim takes over for former coach Gem Abe.