While the 2010 football season is not even half done, the focus of the early part of this week will be on the 2011 season.
The Wyoming High School Activities Association has its first quarterly meeting this week in Casper, and reclassification — like it is every two years — will be on the board agenda.
For football, most of the changes are precipitated by Cheyenne South’s entry into the field, WHSAA Commissioner Ron Laird said Monday. Laird said the WHSAA, for now, is planning on sticking with the format it currently uses for football, with the 10 largest schools in Class 4A, the next 12 in 3A, the next 16 in 2A and the remainder in the two divisions of Class 1A.
Right now, Cheyenne South occupies the No. 9 spot. However, the WHSAA approved on first reading back in April to classify South in Class 3A for football in 2011, then to move the Bison to Class 4A in 2012 (this proposal still has to pass one more vote of the WHSAA board this week).
The schools most affected by this decision are Riverton at No. 11, which may or may not be in 4A for the 2011 season only, depending on how the WHSAA handles South’s entry and the imbalance it will create in 2011, and Green River at No. 12, which for now is slated to move to Class 3A football for both 2011 and 2012 but has voiced a desire to opt up to 4A.
Other schools expected to move classifications for football are Wheatland (from 3A to 2A) and Wyoming Indian (from 2A to 1A). Oddly enough, both schools would have changed classifications even without South’s entry due to dropping enrollments.
Also, both Hulett and Dubois have announced their intentions to move to the six-man division of 1A for 2011 and 2012, Laird said. No other schools are joining the division and none of the current six-man schools are moving to 11-man, Laird said, giving the classification 10 schools for 2011 and 2012. Class 1A 11-man is anticipated to have 15 teams those two years.
For non-football classifications, anticipated moves based on current enrollment standings include South into 4A, Star Valley from 4A to 3A, Thermopolis from 3A to 2A and Lingle from 2A to 1A.
The WHSAA board will meet Tuesday and Wednesday in Casper.
–patrick
It’s sad to see Wheatland going down to 2A. Being from Douglas I’ve played, coached, or watched the bearcats and bulldogs get after it for many years. I guess thats how it works. It should be another good matchup this friday. Anderson is one good football player. Go Bearcats!
I agree that seeing some of the traditional rivalries change is disheartening, but I would like to see a little more long-term thought go into these discussions. If you’ve got schools having to make this move every two years like a Mtn. View and Lyman, then something is wrong with that. From our standpoint, we will have been at 4A for four years which is much better, but if these numbers get manipulated by districts who want a leg up for their own schools I’ll be disappointed to have to make the change in two years after that. BTW that is one fine Bearcat squad, things really are rolling for you Mr. Stinson.
Dahl,
I agree with you about the long term solution but what is it. Maybe revisiting reclassification every four years instead of every two? By the way was that you giving the bearcats a fourth place vote? If so, where are you putting us now. On the outside of the rankings looking in? lol
Shane
It will be weird to see Wheatland drop to 2A (that’s if it goes through as planned, and I haven’t heard any reason why it shouldn’t). However, it’s not that surprising. Wheatland has seen a pretty steady decline in its enrollment over the past few years. Its ADM for this reclass cycle was 286. This for a school that was well over 400 just a decade ago, IIRC. Believe it or not, Pinedale jumped them in the last ADMs….
–patrick
I’ve never voted Douglas lower than second this year and I’ve obviously got them ranked first this week as I did last week. Careful about taking ranking shots at other teams, the football gods don’t like that. Yes, schools like Wheatland have been on a steady decline so maybe they are one that is ready for the change but schools that are constantly on the WHSAA’s bubble really face a tough job in terms of coaching and scheduling. I wouldn’t be opposed to a four-year cycle, but I’m more for the idea that cities with huge student enrollments do add sports programs like Cheyenne South. I give Cheyenne a lot of credit for doing it the right way. When I read that Casper is just going to have this new “campus” and not create a new sports program that’s irritating. How about a Big-8 with the idea that Casper and Gillette will be creating a new program each in the next four years? I like the geographical conference of Green River, Evanston, Star Valley, Jackson, Lander, Riverton, Cody and Powell. All of those schools are within 300 kids of each other. I know there isn’t an easy solution but the WHSAA seems to handcuff themselves with their numbers of schools within the class itself rather than discussing different options.