First realignment draft would bring area 6 leagues

A first draft for statewide athletic alignments would double the number of leagues for high schools in the Greater Hickory area.

The area currently has 22 schools playing in three conferences – the Catawba Valley Athletic 2A, Northwestern 3A-4A and the South Mountain Athletic 2A-3A – and the first proposal out would place those schools in six conferences.

The overall highlights from the first draft include:

-- Two schools, South Iredell and R-S Central, will shift classifications. Based on enrollment changes, South Iredell would move from 2A to 3A and R-S Central would drop from 3A to 2A.

-- There would still be 11 2A schools in the area and they’d be placed in three 2A leagues. The 3A school count would remain at eight and they’d go into two conferences, and there would still be three 4A schools and they’d be in one conference.

The highlights by classification from the first draft include:

3A

-- Fred T. Foard, Hibriten, Hickory and St. Stephens, now all in the Northwestern 3A-4A, would remain together. They’d be joined by North Iredell, South Iredell, Statesville and West Iredell.

-- Freedom and Patton would stay together in 3A and Burns would remain with them. The new members would be Crest, East Henderson, North Henderson and West Henderson.

2A

-- Bandys, Bunker Hill, Maiden and Newton-Conover, currently in the CVAC 2A, would remain together. They would pick up Lake Norman Charter and regain three Lincoln County rivals from the old Southern District 7 2A – East Lincoln, Lincolnton and West Lincoln.

-- Draughn and East Burke would stay together in a league and West Caldwell would also move into a conference that would be more spread out with Ashe County, North Wilkes, West Wilkes and Wilkes Central coming in.

4A

-- The three 4A schools currently in the Northwestern 3A-4A – Alexander Central, South Caldwell and Watauga – would remain together. The league would also include Lake Norman, McDowell and Asheville Roberson.

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) is ready to begin work again on statewide realignment, which is does every four years, and the next conferences will form for the school years 2013-2014 through 2016-2017.

The first draft, available at www.nchsaa.org, was developed by SAS, a software company in Cary, at the request of the NCHSAA.

SAS ran multiple look-sees at realignments based purely on mathematics, using average daily memberships to put schools in classification and then group them to minimize overall travel throughout the state, NCHSAA deputy commissioner Rick Strunk said Wednesday.

The NCHSAA asked SAS to build conferences with no split classification leagues and with at least six but no more than eight schools in a conference.

The SAS draft will be released to the state’s schools, and a draft by the NCHSAA staff will also go to the schools – probably as early as the end of next week, Strunk said – so schools can begin to see where they could end up.

Each school will complete a form by the end of the year and send it to the chair persons (East and West) and indicate their preference for conference placements.

Much later in the process, there will be an East and West meeting. The West meeting will be at Maiden High.

Strunk stressed that both the SAS plan and the NCHSAA staff plan soon to be released are considered starting points for discussion only.

PROPOSED CLASSIFICATION NEXT REALIGNMENT

(*change from current classification)

Alexander Central – 4A

Bandys – 2A

Bunker Hill – 2A

Burns – 3A

Chase – 2A

Draughn – 2A

East Burke – 2A

East Rutherford – 2A

Fred T. Foard –3A

Freedom – 3A

Hibriten – 3A

Hickory – 3A

Maiden – 2A

Newton-Conover – 2A

Patton – 3A

*R-S Central – 2A

St. Stephens – 3A

Shelby – 2A

South Caldwell – 4A

*South Iredell – 3A

Watauga – 4A

West Caldwell – 2A

PROPOSED CONFERENCES (with enrollment figures)

2A

Conference No. 2 (7 schools): Chase 884, Cramer (new school in Gaston County) 958, E. Rutherford 816, Hunter Huss 981, Polk County 758, R-S Central 965, Shelby 906.

Conference No. 3 (8 schools): Bandys 944, Bunker Hill 929, E. Lincoln 852, Lake Norman Charter 797, Lincolnton 861, Maiden 843, Newton-Conover 874, W. Lincoln 969.

Conference No. 4 (7 schools): Ashe County 905, Draughn 797, E. Burke 966, N. Wilkes 701, W. Caldwell 985, W. Wilkes 698, Wilkes Central 849.

3A

Conference No. 2 (7 schools): Burns 1,070, Crest 1,214, E. Henderson 1,011, Freedom 1,167, N. Henderson 1,001, Patton 1,029, W. Henderson 1,052.

Conference No. 4 (8 schools): Fred T. Foard 1,058, Hibriten 1,011, Hickory 1,168, N. Iredell 1,201, S. Iredell 1,173, St. Stephens 1,228, Statesville 1,397, W. Iredell 1,017.

4A

Conference No. 1 (6 schools): Alexander Central 1,681, Lake Norman 1,998, McDowell 1,729, Asheville Roberson 1,466, S. Caldwell 1,819, Watauga 1,435.