WHSAA reclassification preview for 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years

In September — as it does every two years — the Wyoming High School Activities Association will begin discussing reclassification of its schools.

The discussions are usually pretty straightforward. After all, enrollments are what they are, and the lines are set where they are set.

Because of that, if we know where to look, we can get a preview of what changes might be headed down the pike this fall.

Enrollment data from the Wyoming Department of Education, which the WHSAA uses for reclassification, shows only a couple small changes for football classifications but some potentially big changes for other sports.

Football

Based on the enrollment data I see, the football changes I anticipate are small. Wright and Moorcroft will switch places, with Wright moving to 1A 11-man and Moorcroft to 2A, and Lingle and Burlington will switch places in 11-man and six-man. This is significant only in that it will now be Burlington, not Lingle, that will have to petition the WHSAA to stay in 11-man (if they so choose), and Lingle will be in 11-man automatically instead of having to opt up. I also anticipate that Cokeville will still have to continue to opt up to stay in Class 1A 11-man.

Burlington’s choice is interesting. If the Huskies opt up, I envision similar conferences to what we have now: eight teams in the 1A 11-man West and seven in the East (with the continuation of the Upton-Sundance co-op) and seven teams in the 1A 11-man East and six in the West. However, if Burlington opts for six-man, that will give both 1A 11-man and 1A six-man seven teams in both their East and West conferences, which would mean a balanced and full schedule for every team in both divisions of 1A.

If Burlington decides to go to six-man, conferences could look like this:

1A 11-man East: Wright, Upton-Sundance, Lusk, Southeast, Pine Bluffs, Tongue River, Lingle.
1A 11-man West: Rocky Mountain, Riverside, Wind River, Wyoming Indian, Shoshoni, Saratoga, Cokeville.
1A six-man East: Hulett, NSI, Kaycee, Midwest, Guernsey, Rock River, Hanna.
1A six-man West: Snake River, Farson, Dubois, St. Stephens, Burlington, Ten Sleep, Meeteetse.

Other sports

I anticipate four-class sports, like basketball, volleyball and track, will see more significant changes: Based on the numbers posted, Lyman and Thermopolis would move from 2A to 3A; Lovell and Glenrock would move from 3A to 2A; Upton would move from 1A to 2A; and Saratoga would move from 2A to 1A.

Lyman, Thermopolis, Lovell, Upton and Saratoga have all made moves like these recently, but Glenrock’s move from 3A to 2A would be the Herders’ first such move in about 40 years. The Herders made the move from Class B to Class A in the 1970s and have been a Class 3A/A school ever since…. but I anticipate that will end with the 2016-17 school year.

When I made similar predictions in 2013, my predictions were right on the mark. But, of course, that (and this) doesn’t mean anything yet. These numbers could change by the time the WHSAA puts out its ADMs, or it’s possible I read the wrong numbers. And I had to make educated guesses for enrollment with Lusk, Burlington and Wyoming Indian, which will have their numbers adjusted by the WHSAA.

Let’s not forget, too, that this fall’s reclassification discussions will be complicated a bit more by the proposed addition of a new high school in Gillette, tentatively scheduled to open in 2017 — right in the middle of this two-year reclass cycle.

There’s no guarantee that anything will come out the way I predict it might.

Still, this is a nice little glance at what might be happening when we start talking reclassification in September and when classifications are finalized in November.

–patrick