No. 3 – AHSAA reclassification affects area teams
Published 11:51 pm Thursday, December 29, 2005
In the weeks leading up to the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s reclassification, plenty of rumors were swirling around.
Most of them turned out to be true, including West Point’s rise to Class 5A and Holly Pond’s return to 3A.
The reclassification procedure, approved by the Central Board of Control, is implemented every two years to take into consideration the changing enrollments of schools, school consolidations and closings, new schools and association members and current member schools adding sports to their interscholastic program.
Classifying member schools for the purpose of athletic competition is one of the Central Board’s duties under Article VII of the AHSAA Constitution.
Schools are divided into six classifications (1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A and 6A) for competition in championship programs.
Classification was based on the Average Daily Membership (ADM) figures furnished by the state Department of Education for the upper three grades (10-12) plus ninth-grade holdbacks. Schools with the largest enrollments are placed in Class 6A, the next largest in Class 5A, etc.
Holly Pond expected to be back in 3A after a two-year stint in Class 2A. But West Point’s ascension into 5A came as a surprise to many of the school’s athletic officials.
“If we had a choice we’d rather not be in 5A,” said West Point boys basketball coach Heith Yearwood after the announcement. “But it is out of our control. We have to make the best of the situation and our kids are going to have to work that much harder.”
To make matters even worse for West Point, the football team was placed in arguably the toughest region in 5A, containing the likes of Russellville, Athens, Hartselle and newcomer Decatur.
West Point’s pain turned into Cullman’s gain as the Bearcat’s football squad moved out of the powerful Region 8 and into a weaker Region 6. Starting next season, Cullman’s toughest region games will be Walker, Erwin and Mortimer Jordan.
Already facing a brutal region schedule in football, West Point decided against playing Cullman in the regular season starting next season — much to the chagrin of the Bearcats’ athletic department. However, West Point and Cullman are placed in the same area for basketball and baseball play starting in 2006.
While the top largest schools in the county were not placed in the same region for football, Class 3A, Region 7 could be called the Cullman County region. Holly Pond joined Good Hope, Hanceville and Vinemont in the region.
“This is very good for all of us from the standpoint of money,” said Good Hope head coach Chris Moss. “The gates will be good and travel will be less. We don’t have to worry about traveling to Sulligent or Winfield anymore.”
Basketball season will be the same story, with the four county schools joining Danville in the same area.
The only other team from the Cullman area to move up in classification was Addison, which jumped up to Class 2A. Addison doesn’t face fellow Class 2A school Cold Springs in the regular football season, but the two schools will meet on the hardwood and the baseball diamond in area play.
The classification alignment will go into affect the start of the 2006-07 school year and run until the end of the 2007-08 seasons.