PREP FOOTBALL: Many changes ahead

The teams in Class A

Postby NATURAL TALENT » Sun May 07, 2006 9:43 am

PREP FOOTBALL: Many changes ahead

PREP FOOTBALL: Many changes ahead
New N.D. football proposal will have several area teams making switches
By Greg DeVillers
Herald Staff Writer
For longtime Devils Lake football followers, the now-defunct North Star Conference was a collection of fond memories.

"It was a great fit for us," Devils Lake High School superintendent Steve Swiontek said. "It paired us up with schools similar in size. We were pretty competitive in that league.

"Then a lot of those North Star schools went into Class AA because of declining enrollment. We were left in Class AAA. And I think that hurt our football program."

The North Star folded after the 1989 football season. But the North Dakota High School Activities Association's draft of football alignments for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years will, in Class AA, have a North Star look to it.

Under the plan, which will be up for final approval in October, Devils Lake will be reclassified from AAA to AA. The Firebirds would be in an eight-team AA East Region that would include former North Star members Valley City, Grafton, Bottineau, Carrington, Rugby and Devils Lake, as well as Central Cass and Fargo Oak Grove.

While the Devils Lake school board is still considering the positives and negatives of making the switch from AAA to AA - schools in lower classifications are allowed to petition to play in a higher class - Swiontek said the switch would be good for Devils Lake.

"We haven't been that successful (in AAA)," Swiontek said. "We ended up 4-5 last year. That was one of our better years in AAA.

"When you look at the numbers differential (in enrollments) between Devils Lake and a Fargo South or a West Fargo, it's pretty big. Even this year, when we had some darn good athletes, we couldn't always win because of the numbers game."

Several area teams impacted

Devils Lake is one of several area schools that would be reclassified under the proposed new football plan.

Others scheduled to switch classifications, if the plan is approved, will be Northwood-Hatton, going from 11-man Class AA to Class A; and, going from Class A to 9-man, Thompson, Griggs County Central-Midkota, Park River/Fordville-Lankin, North Border and Midway-Minto.

Under the new plan:

• The 16 football programs whose schools have the highest enrollment would be in Class AAA. There will be two eight-team regions, with five teams from each region qualifying for the playoffs. That is unchanged from the current format.

• The next 16 largest schools would be in Class AA. There will be two eight-team regions, with four teams from each region qualifying for the playoffs. That is unchanged from the current format.

• The next 24 largest schools would be in Class A. There will be three eight-team regions, with five teams qualifying for playoffs from each region. Currently, there are 32 A teams, with 16 - four from each of four regions - advancing to the playoffs.

• The remaining teams will be in 9-man, with four teams from each of the six regions qualifying for the playoffs. That would be 24 playoff teams, up from the 16 teams in the 9-man playoffs under the current format.

"When we were meeting and discussing how many divisions to have, whether it should be three or four, we surveyed schools in the state and that indicated most schools still wanted four classes," said Mandan athletic director Lorell Jungling, the chairman of the NDHSAA's football committee.

"But we could see the numbers dropping in enrollment in a lot of schools. We wanted to allow more teams in 9-man just because of the lower numbers. We've questioned schools: How many male students do you need to field an 11-man program or go with a 9-man program. It's a big question, and we don't have that answer."

The classifications are based on the male enrollment of students in grades 7 through 10 this school year.

Short stays

North Border and Northwood-Hatton both will have short stays in their current divisions if the new plan is approved.

Northwood-Hatton had been Class A before being switched to AA when the current football alignments went into place for the 2005 season. At the same time, North Border went from 9-man to Class A 11-man. Both were playoff qualifiers last season.

While North Border will find itself in closer proximity to region opponents under the new plan, Eagles coach Jeff Carpenter would prefer to not see his program continually moving from one class to another.

"You'd sooner stay in one division and go with it," Carpenter said. "You have consistency when you're in one division. You develop rivalries. We are going back to some familiar rivalries in 9-man. But it wouldn't have bothered us to stay in 11-man, as long as (the NDHSAA) had been willing to address some of the travel issues we have."

Thompson, on the other hand, last played 9-man in 1996.

Thompson athletic director and football coach Jim Larson said there was consideration to petition to remain in 11-man. But there were unknowns.

"If they had said there would be four Class A regions with 10 teams per region, we'd have petitioned to move up to A," Larson said. "But the structure - whether they'd go with three eight-team regions or four six-team regions - wasn't known at the time we had to make that decision. And it would have been much more difficult to put together a schedule if you're in a six-team region.

"From a competitive standpoint, we didn't think it would make a difference. We have a string of good players coming up. We felt we'd be competitive at either level."

Some schools did petition to play up a class. As a result, Mayville-Portland-Clifford-Galesburg is in Class A under the current draft, despite having larger projected enrollments than three AA programs. The Patriots are the largest A program.

Details remaining

Before the new plan is finalized, several steps remain. Key dates ahead include:

• June 1: Deadline for requests to dissolve football co-ops.

• Sept. 15: Deadline for new football cooperative agreements.

• October: NDHSAA football committee meets and recommends adjustments to the plan and, later that month, the board approves the final plan and reveals it to memberships.

"There are a number of schools that have indicated they will be co-oping," Jungling said. "That will change the scope of the current plan some.

"It's not an easy process. You try to do what's best for the kids. I'm sure people sometimes scratch their heads at what we do. But everybody on that board cares first about the kids."
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Postby ndfan » Sun May 07, 2006 1:23 pm

The Herald also had the PROJECTED realignment of regions

AAA
East Region-
North
South
Shanley
West Fargo
Central
Red River
Jamestown
Wahpeton.

West Region-
Bismarck
Bismarck Century
Bismarck St. Mary's
Dickinson
Mandan
Minot
Turtle Mountain
Williston.

AA
East Region-
Bottineau
Carrington/P-B-K
Central Cass
Devils Lake
Fargo Oak Grove-Park Christian
Grafton
Rugby
Valley City

West region -
Beulah-Golden Valley
Bowman-Scranton
Dickinson Trinity
Hazen
Minot Bishop Ryan
New Town-Mandaree
Standing Rock-Selfridge,
Watford City-Alexandria.

A
Region 1
Enderlin-MVO
Hankinson/Fairmount/C-T
Kindred
LaMoure/Litchville-Marion
Linton/H-M-B
Lisbon
Milnor-North Sargent
Oakes

Region 2
Cavalier
Four Winds
Harvey
Langdon-Munich
Larimore
MPCG
New Rockford Sheyenne
Northwood-Hatton

Region 3
Beach
Des Lacs-Burlington
Garrison-Max
Grant County-Flasher
Kenmare-Bowbells-Burke Central
Killdeer-Halliday
Stanley-Powers Lake
Velva

9-man
Region 1
Edgeley-Kulm
Ellendale
NNapoleon-Gackle-Streeter
Sargent Central
Shiloh Christian
SDTTP
Strasburg-Zeeland
Wilton-Wing
Wishek-Ashley

Region 2
Central Valley
Griggs County Central Midkota
Hillsboro
Finley-Sharon
North Central Barnes
Northern Cass
Richland
Thompson
Wyndmere-Lidgerwood

Region 3
Adams-Edmore/Edinburg
Cando/Bisbee-England
Dakota Prairie
Drayton St Thomas Valley
Lakota
Midway Minto
North Border
Park River
Fordville Lankin
Rolla Rock Lake

Region 4
Drake-Anamoose
McClusky/Goodridge
Dunseith
Maddock
North Central Benson
Rolette-Wolford
St. John
Towner-Granville-Upham
Wells County
Westhope-Newburg-Melita

Region 5
Berthold-Our Redeemer's
Divide County
Glenburn
Mohall-Sherwood
Parshall-North Shore
Surrey
Tioga-Ray
Trenton
Trinity Christian

Region 6
Belfield-South Heart
Center-Stanton
Hettinger
Mott-Regent
New Salem
Richardton-Taylor/Hebron
Turtle Lake-Mercer
Underwood
Washburn

Its Just PROJECTED realignment nothing is finalized and could possibly change at some point before finalized.
Last edited by ndfan on Sun May 07, 2006 1:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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