The West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission released its new classification alignment Thursday, a move that will create a significantly altered landscape for high school sports into the next decade.
The SSAC, which traditionally has divided its member schools into three competitive classes, kept its three-class format for school years beginning in 2016-17 and ending in 2019-20. However, the governing body's former method of dividing the classes between an even number of schools was eliminated in favor of trying to find a better competitive balance.
"There has been a lot of concern about the size of [Class] triple-A," said Bernie Dolan, who is set to replace Gary Ray as the executive director of the SSAC in January.
"It's extremely difficult for small triple-A schools to try to compete with an enrollment that's 1,000 students less than the biggest schools in the class," Dolan said. "We have classes to separate the schools by size, not to just separate the schools by number of schools."
Nine schools that currently compete in Class AAA will move to Class AA, and six will move from Class AA to Class A.
Man High School, in Logan County, which will move from Class A to AA, is the only school that will move to a class with larger schools.
Nitro High School, Winfield, Logan and Point Pleasant were among those moving from AAA to AA.
The changes take effect in the fall sports season of the 2016-17 school year. The SSAC classifications last for four school years.
Currently, there are 38 schools in AAA, 40 in AA and 49 in A. Of those schools in the smallest classification, 38 currently field football teams.
Under the new alignment there would be just 29 AAA schools, 44 in AA and 54 in A, with 44 football-playing schools in the smallest division.
"We really had a lot of good discussion about that in the office," Dolan said.
Two proposals were considered by SSAC officials, but Dolan noted that neither resembled the former classification style that saw each class have close to the same number of schools.
"We had the one they chose and another where the [maximum enrollment] number was just a little higher [for AA], but we wanted to address the enrollment disparity," he said.
The officers gave their recommendation to the SSAC's Board of Directors, which approved the plan Thursday afternoon.
Because of consolidations in Lincoln and Mingo counties, the southwest quarter of West Virginia has seen a decreased number of Class A schools in existence in the past 11 years. That will be addressed somewhat with the new alignment, as Ravenswood, Mount View and Tolsia were moved from Class AA to A.
Dolan said the proposals SSAC officers see when making these decisions show just enrollments and not school names. He said that was a positive side-effect of the decision but that it was not intentional.
"We moved a few to double-A and a few to single-A, but it didn't really expand the numbers of those classes," Dolan said. "More than anything, this was to try to fix triple-A. That was the goal."
The current classifications will stay in place until the end of the 2015-16 school year.
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Schools going from Class AAA to Class AA: Lincoln County, Winfield, Oak Hill, Shady Spring, Elkins, Nitro, Lewis County, Logan, Point Pleasant.
Schools going from Class AA to Class A: Ravenswood, Mount View, Webster County, Tolsia, Ritchie County, Summers County
Schools going from Class A to Class AA: Man
School Enrollment Grades 9-12
Cabell Midland 1,965
Morgantown 1,808
Parkersburg 1,798
Huntington 1,658
Parkersburg South 1,576
Musselman 1,525
Jefferson 1,515
Wheeling Park 1,514
Woodrow Wilson 1,351
Martinsburg 1,313
Capital 1,275
University 1,264
Spring Mills 1,252
Hurricane 1,237
Hedgesville 1,228
Riverside 1,207
Preston 1,205
Washington 1,172
Greenbrier East 1,171
George Washington 1,098
John Marshall 1,082
Spring Valley 1,050
Buckhannon-Upshur 1,037
Hampshire 1,036
Princeton 1,018
St. Albans 1,012
South Charleston 968
Brooke 963
Ripley 933
School Enrollment Grades 9-12
Lincoln County 871
Winfield 861
Oak Hill 851
Shady Spring 849
Elkins 833
Fairmont Senior 811
Robert C. Byrd 780
North Marion 775
Herbert Hoover 770
Bridgeport 762
Nitro 759
Lewis County 757
Logan 757
Point Pleasant 751
East Fairmont 746
Nicholas County 720
Berkeley Springs 719
Wayne 715
Mingo Central 699
Chapmanville 694
PikeView 693
Scott 682
Philip Barbour 680
Bluefield 675
Keyser 670
Roane County 668
Sissonville 637
Grafton 636
Westside 633
Weir 628
Independence 628
Braxton County 580
Frankfort 566
Liberty (Harrison) 564
Lincoln 562
Liberty (Raleigh) 557
Poca 552
Clay County 551
Oak Glen 544
Wyoming East 542
James Monroe 524
River View 498
Petersburg 486
Man 460
School Enrollment Grades 9-12
Ravenswood 433
Tyler Consolidated 422
Mount View 420
Sherman 416
Magnolia 414
Williamstown 413
Webster County 412
Tolsia 410
Ritchie County 409
Moorefield 406
Summers County 401
Greenbrier West 392
South Harrison 391
St. Marys 391
Richwood 383
Tug Valley 366
Doddridge County 342
Buffalo 341
Midland Trail 338
Tucker County 333
Fayetteville 326
Pocahontas County 310
Valley (Fayette) 302
Wirt County 301
Calhoun County 293
Pendleton County 276
Gilmer County 271
Wheeling Central 257
Tygarts Valley 247
Wahama 246
East Hardy 243
Cameron 240
Clay-Battelle 230
Montcalm 218
Charleston Catholic 210
Hannan 196
Madonna 179
Valley (Wetzel) 177
Meadow Bridge 165
St. Joseph 152
Notre Dame 145
Van 140
Paden City 115
Bishop Donahue 107
Hundred 106
Parkersburg Catholic 106
Trinity 103
Greater Beckley Chrisitan 94
Union 68
Paw Paw 65
Harman 36
W.Va. Deaf 30
Pickens 15
W.Va. Blind 13