When high school basketball season begins in November, most schools will be part of a new alignment -- districts comprised from the combination of schools from different conferences and classifications.
This plan was used to relieve travel problems some schools would face over the next two years, particularly those in Class 5A and Class 6A that are spread out across the state. This plan, however, has given coaches a new set of problems as they assemble their schedules.
Entering The District Era
Beginning in the 2016-17 school year, schools will be placed in districts made up of teams from different conferences and classifications and play regular-season games in basketball, baseball and softball against other district teams. Once the regular season is completed, schools will return to their respective conference alignments for postseason tournaments. This new alignment will not affect any Class 7A schools, which chose to remain by themselves.
The districts that involve Northwest Arkansas schools include:
5A/6A District 1 — Alma, Clarksville, Farmington, Greenwood, Harrison, Russellville and Siloam Springs.
Postseason: Alma, Clarksville, Farmington and Harrison will compete in the 5A-West Conference tournament; Greenwood, Russellville and Siloam Springs will be in the 6A-West tourney.
3A/4A District 1 — Elkins, Gentry, Gravette, Greenland, Haas Hall Academy (Fayetteville), Lincoln, Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove, Shiloh Christian, West Fork.
Postseason: West Fork goes to the 4A-4 Conference, while Elkins, Greenland and Haas Hall goes to the 3A-1 West Conference. Remaining schools will go to the 4A-1 Conference.
3A/4A District 2 — Bergman, Berryville, Green Forest, Huntsville, Marshall, Valley Springs, Yellville-Summit.
Postseason: Berryville and Huntsville will go to the 4A-1 Conference. Remaining schools will go to the 3A-1 East Conference.
1A/2A District 1 — Alpena, Arkansas Arts Academy, Decatur, Eureka Springs, Haas Hall Bentonville, Kingston, Omaha, St. Paul. * — does not field basketball teams.
Postseason: Arkansas Arts Academy and Eureka Springs belong in the 2A-4 West, while the remaining schools are part of the 1A-1 Northwest Conference.
"I am not a big fan of it," said Prairie Grove girls coach Kevin Froud, whose team is in a 10-team district with the other Class 3A and 4A schools in Benton and Washington counties.
These districts are the result of Proposal No. 4, passed during the Arkansas Activities Association's 2014 meeting of the governing body. It calls for two classes to be combined -- except for Class 7A, whose schools will play the usual conference schedule -- then those schools will be split into geographical districts.
Each district team plays a double round-robin schedule, then returns to its respective conferences for postseason tournaments. That is new for Class 5A and 6A schools because they went from the regular season straight to the state tournament.
There's where the problem lies for the 10 area schools that will form what is called 3A/4A District 1. The double round-robin schedule means 18 district games -- at least four more than they previously played in conferences -- and the AAA handbook states football-playing schools can only schedule 18 regular-season basketball games if they play in three tournaments or 20 games if they play in only two tournaments.
"The challenge is having those 18 district games and trying to fit some of them in your schedule a little bit earlier," Pea Ridge boys coach Trent Loyd said. "It's impacting a lot of tournaments, and we had to drop a tournament. We also have a nonconference game in January.
"You have to play the cards you're dealt, but at the same time, you have to find ways that works best not only for you but the other teams in the conference."
Those extra games mean teams will begin district play in late November, and coaches have resorted to some Saturday games and games on back-to-back nights to make the district schedule work around tournaments. The situation becomes even stickier if a school's football team makes a deep run in the state playoffs, or if significant winter weather cancels classes and basketball games for any amount of time.
Froud and Farmington girls coach Brad Johnson both said their schools need a nonconference game against each other because of the local rivalry and the revenue it draws, so both schools dropped a tournament. Other schools chose nonconference games over a tournament to play teams that might not be in their district but will be in their conference during tournaments.
The school with possibly the biggest problem is West Fork, which moves up to Class 4A. Its teams will play NWA schools in district games, but they will go to the 4A-4 Conference tournament and play teams from the River Valley that they didn't face during the season.
"I'm definitely not happy about it," West Fork boys coach Cody Vaught said. "No matter what we do, we can't schedule those teams in our conference. Then the conference coaches are going to get in a room and hash out the seedings for the conference tournament, and the only problem there is we have no common opponents with the rest of them.
"I hope it's done fairly when the seedings take place. But when you get a bunch of coaches together in a room to do these, a lot of issues could come up. It makes me nervous to think seedings will be decided in a room and not on a basketball floor."
Vaught said school officials approached the AAA about different options, including the possibility of playing a single round-robin schedule so it could get some games against its conference foes. Those talks, however, were in vain.
Vaught also said he also doesn't like the new format because it won't allow his team to play for a conference championship, something he said he dreamed about when he played. Instead, West Fork will play an 18-game district schedule that might not matter much when it reaches conference tournament play.
"I would rather travel all the way to Pottsville and play a conference game than take the short trip to Greenland for a district game that may not help my team in the conference tournament," Vaught said. "I'm friends with all the coaches in our district and our conference, but I feel like we're outsiders in this. I pray this changes in two years."
The plight of the teams in that district has had an indirect effect on other area teams. Decatur not only played those schools in nonconference games, but also had them play in its invitational tournament.
Decatur boys coach John Unger said his team still needs four games, and scheduling wasn't helped because he can't schedule many of the local schools. Its cause was not helped when Decatur was placed in the 1A/2A District 1 because two schools -- Arkansas Arts Academy and Haas Hall Bentonville -- won't field teams next year.
"We can't find nonconference games, and we had to go to the smaller schools in the River Valley to fill up our tournament," Unger said. "The travel matters of this new district is not helping, either.
"At least when we were in the 2A-4 West Conference, we were going south and could travel by interstate. In this district, we're going to be on two-lane back roads, which is worse for drivers. We'll have people getting carsick on our way there."
Things are a little different for Farmington and Siloam Springs because they are part of the seven-team 5A/6A District 1. The blended districts helped them cut down on travel because now their longest trip is to Russellville, where Farmington would have to go as far as Maumelle and Siloam Springs would make trips to El Dorado and Texarkana under regular conference play.
They could still have to make those long trips when the conference tournaments roll around, however.
"It just adds to the mess while we have a constant effort in finding the most level playing field," Siloam Springs boys coach Tim Stewart said. "I'm loving not having those conference trips to El Dorado, Sheridan and Texarkana, but we still have to figure out how the conference tournament and the seedings work.
"We could end up having to spend three days in El Dorado for a conference tournament, then go the following week to Jonesboro or somewhere else for the state tournament. That's a lot of travel."
The seven-team district adds extra challenges to scheduling because the odd number of schools means each team will have two open dates during district play. Farmington and Siloam Springs quickly filled one of those idle spots with Providence Academy, and they picked up early nonconference games against area Class 7A teams such as Bentonville West, Rogers High, Rogers Heritage and Springdale High.
What has Johnson more concerned is a big obstacle his team may face in district play. Under the AAA's latest enrollment numbers used for reclassification, Farmington, one of the smallest Class 5A schools, will have to play Class 6A Russellville -- a school with more than twice the enrollment.
"The travel will play way better, I know," Johnson said. "After some of the trips we've made the last two years, the trip to Russellville will be a short one. But I worry about being competitive against a school twice our size, and that will be a challenge. It's going to be new to us."
Sports on 06/10/2016