Combining two classes proposed
At least two proposals involving reclassification are scheduled to go before the Arkansas Activities Association’s governing body this summer.
Janet Wood, athletic director at Class 6A Mountain Home, said a proposal drafted by her school passed during the Activity District 1 East meeting Thursday in Harrison.
Mountain Home’s proposal would eliminate one classification by combining what is now 6A and 5A and become effective in the 2014-2016 cycle.
It would group the state’s largest 16 schools in enrollment in 6A, then 5A, 4A, 3A and 2A would each get 48 football and basketball schools based on size, with the remaining schools placed in Class 1A.
The breakdown of Arkansas’ seven classifications is now 16-16-32-48-48-48-remaining schools.
Wood said another Class 6A school, Searcy, is floating a similar reclassification proposal.
Wood said Mountain Home’s proposal is designed to reduce travel and the loss of class time for students, eliminate play outside of classification in conference games, eliminate a power rating system now used to seed schools in team sports in Class 7A and Class 6A and lessen the enrollment discrepancy from top to bottom in each conference.
“The feedback that we’ve gotten at first, especially from the lower classifications, and, of course, our feeling in the 7A, is the more schools you have in a classification, it should lead to less travel,” Wood said. “If you have 48 schools to divide into conferences, it should result in less travel for the majority of the schools.”
Although Mountain Home is classified 6A, the Baxter County school in far north Arkansas competes against 7A schools during the regular season in the 7A/6A-East, one of four blended conferences in the state’s two largest classifications.
Schools in Class 7A and 6A then split evenly, 16/16, following the regular season to compete for separate state championships.
Under enrollment figures the AAA used to classify schools for the 2012-2014 cycle, Bentonville is the state’s largest school with an enrollment of 2,591.
Little Rock Fair is No. 32 with an enrollment of 811.
Mountain Home ranks No. 26 (929), but competes during the regular season against three much larger central Arkansas schools: North Little Rock (No. 2/2,269), Cabot (No. 3/2,199) and Little Rock Central (No. 5/2,041).
Wood said the discrepancy in enrollment between Bentonville and Fair is roughly 3.1 times, where it’s roughly 2.5 times between No. 17 and No. 64.
“It just makes sense to play schools closer to your size, which should reduce the travel,” Wood said.
The proposal will need a two-thirds majority from the governing body to pass.
The governing body is comprised of more than 300 AAA member high schools across the state.
Wood said proposals by Mountain Home and Searcy, if passed, would supersede changes Class 7A and Class 6A schools voted in earlier this year.
Those changes, effective with 2014-2016 cycle, include eliminating the power rating system and create playoff seeding based strictly on results against schools in the same classification.
Talking turf
Jonesboro Coach Randy Coleman said ground is scheduled to be broken Wednesday on the installation of artificial turf at Cooksey-Johns Memorial Stadium, part of a $1.2 million renovation project that is being funded equally by the school district and private donations.
In addition to switching from natural grass to an artificial playing surface, Coleman said the project includes new lighting and resurfacing of the track.
Coleman said Jonesboro decided to go to turf because of heavy traffic on the grass surface, namely varsity, junior varsity and junior high football games in the fall and soccer matches during the spring.
Coleman said Jonesboro spent more than $300,000 in recent years on improvements to the grass playing surface.
“Long-term, turf is more cost efficient,” Coleman said. “It just made more sense.”
Coleman said the turf project is scheduled to be completed by mid-July.
Extra points
Assistants at Bald Knob (Randy Johnston) and Elkins (Thurman Shaw) were promoted to head coach last week. … Defending Class 6A runner-up Pine Bluff is among 15 schools entered in the Summer Showdown 7-on-7 tournament June 5 at Pulaski Robinson in Little Rock. … Little Rock Catholic Principal Steve Straessle said plans for an on-campus indoor workout building remain on the drawing board. He said the school hopes to build its new on-campus track this summer at Roy Davis Field.
Sports, Pages 31 on 04/28/2013