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January 21st – Every few years, the Maine Principals Association holds this class division square dance. Which schools are placed in each class by sport?
On Thursday, the MPA’s Classification Committee met to consider proposals for high school soccer, volleyball, basketball and soccer beginning the 2023-24 school year. While a minor adjustment in football was approved, a football plan was submitted for further study on the proposed division of the small school to play 8-on-8 football instead of his traditional 11-on-11 game. it was done. His proposal to expand volleyball from three classes to four was unsurprisingly rejected. A third class was recently added to his 2017. Volleyball is growing in Maine, but with only 45 teams in last season, he’s still not growing on pace to warrant a fourth class.
You see changes every few years. Some are cosmetic, such as moving several schools from one region to another, or moving schools up or down one class. Sometimes there are bigger changes, like when football added his 8-a-side game in 2019 and basketball expanded to his five classes in 2016.
Hands often shake when classification raises its head. School A doesn’t like to play against schools with hundreds of students and low enrollment in new classes. The discussion never gets to the real underlying issues.
Using registration as the sole determinant of classification is an outdated system.
it doesn’t work anymore. To be honest, it probably didn’t work. However, it presents an illusion of fairness, and once committee members stop negotiating over deadline numbers between classes, it becomes relatively easy to stick to enrollment groupings.
Indeed, registration is a factor in sports success. The more students there are in the athlete pool, the more likely it is that talented players will emerge. No one is saying Forest Hills of Jackman, with about 42 students, should compete with Lewiston High School and its 1,500 students.
But registration is only one piece of the classification puzzle. Let it be 50%. The rest should include participation, success and local resources. If you think socioeconomic factors aren’t involved in your exercise program, you’re not looking at the truth.
Will a more complex system be a lot of work? Yes. Is it worth the effort? absolutely.
There are schools and communities across the state that take sport very seriously, with an eye on trophies and championship banner designers working on retainers. Neither approach is right or wrong, but it is a factor and should be considered.
With a thriving youth football culture, Yarmouth has hundreds of kids attending high school player-led football camps and clinics, where they can compete against like-minded communities in the top division. The Waynflete men’s tennis team has won the state C class championship for his 14th straight run. Flyers are absolutely competitive in the higher classes.
We have already seen schools choose to play classes in some sports, but not others.The St. Dominic Boys’ Hockey Team comes to mind. When the new football classification takes effect next fall, Connie and Lawrence will remain in Class B rather than sliding into Class C, where they will be placed based on registration.
A broader approach to classification requires schools to be honest with each other and with themselves.
As the new five-class basketball proposal, which includes expanded class A and statewide class S for the smallest schools, was voted on by the Classification Board, four-class proposals were put forward. At first glance, the 4-class proposal looks like 2015 Maine high school basketball. was very similar to
This is what happens when registration alone solves everything without the help of other factors. Move the numbers around for a quick fix, and if it doesn’t work as expected, start over.
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