Almost moving day
- Updated: December 13, 2021
Teams across the state gearing for next shuffling of AHSA classifications, not much movement expected locally
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
Tomorrow is one of the most anticipated days in Alabama high school sports and it doesn’t even involve anybody playing a game.
It’s that every two years exercise within the AHSAA that reshuffles the classifications to determine where its member schools are going to play for the next two years.
Most of the models don’t project a lot of movement for the Calhoun County schools and its neighbors, but there will be some.
Donoho volleyball coach Jamie Clendenin already knows his team is moving. With two blue maps and a red over the last three years, the Lady Falcons will move up to 2A in their sport to accommodate the AHSAA’s competitive balance initiative for private schools, while the rest of the school remains 1A.
Think of it like Sacred Heart the years it won all those state championships in basketball and the program bumped into 2A until the school discontinued athletics.
“We’ve known for a while; the biggest thing is who moves up and who moves down,” Clendenin said. “Some of the competition is about the same as 1A, but you have more solid teams towards the top. You’re going to have to win three really tough matches to in a state title.
“We’ve got to figure out how to get prepared for the next step. I’m not sure the approach is much different. We got into every summer like we’re going to play 6A and 7A schools. When we’re working in the summer it’s not to be the best in 1A-2A, it’s to be the top 10 team in the state all the way through 7A.”
Pleasant Valley is expected to move down to 2A and be a potential area rival with Donoho volleyball. It will move the Raiders out of their highly competitive and county-heavy football region and the girls basketball team away from the likes of Pisgah in regional play, but it will set up an anticipated battle with former Ohatchee coach Casey Howell’s Cold Springs program for a state cross country title.
Perhaps the biggest question locally is what happens at Jacksonville.
The Golden Eagles could remain one of the largest schools in Class 4A or move up to Class 5A. They could remain in the South for football or come back to the more favorable and geographically sound North.
“I think there’s a lot of question marks as far as what’s going to happen with us,” Jacksonville football coach Clint Smith said. “We’re just waiting to see. It’s one of those years there are a lot of different possibilities for us. It’s more anticipated than it has been.”
It all depends on how the numbers fall and how that private school calculation fits into the mix. While there’s a chance the details could be leaked overnight it won’t be official until around 10 a.m. Tuesday following a Central Board of Control vote.
With the growth Smith has seen at his school, he figures the Golden Eagles are going to move sometimes. It might be this year; it might not.
“I think we’re in a situation now if we don’t go 5A this year in two years we will be,” he said. “Our biggest classes are in the seventh and eighth grades and they don’t count (towards classification). We’re growing. 5A is where we’ll end up, if not this time. It’s probably just a matter of time.”
Of course, which classification they’re assigned is only part of the equation. If they do go to 5A, will they get placed in a region with Alexandria (which will certainly give the Valley Cubs someone more familiar to play) or do they go South with the likes of Clay Central and Sylacauga where there are no close trips?
If they stay in 4A, do they stay in the South where they’ve been the past two years (and the possibility of a first-round playoff game in Mobile existed) or do they get placed in a North region where the teams will be familiar and the postseason travel not as taxing?
One model has the Golden Eagles remaining in 4A (South) this time through with the same teams they’ve played the last two years plus Talladega. That same model places Oxford in a 6A region similar to what it played in 2019-20 with the addition of Gadsden City, and Alexandria in a 5A region similar to its current one with the addition of Springville and Southside. It also has Spring Garden going back to 1A and Woodland back to 2A.
As he keeps a close eye on the situation, Smith remains rather matter-of-fact about it all.
“We can guess and look at things, but until the numbers are in, we really don’t know,” he said. “We’re going to go where they tell us to go and play who they tell us to play and do it with a smile on our face. It is what it is.”
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