It looks like the Lovell Bulldogs will compete in Class 3A for another two years if the Wyoming High School Activities Association later this month approves a reclassification proposal proposed last spring.


WHSAA President-elect and Rocky Mountain High School Principal Tim Winland said the new reclassification proposal was developed over the last year emphasizing natural breaks in school average daily membership along with equity of competition and time out of school and travel. The goal was to be more flexible instead of sticking with strict dividing lines, he said.


Winland said the WHSAA in general and the reclassification committee specifically has been examining projected ADM figures for the 2009-11 cycle after the reclass committee established priorities and guidelines in October of 2007.


Winland is chairman of the reclassification committee and the Northwest District representative on the WHSAA board for class 2A. He said he just joined the reclassification committee this summer but has been “part of the conversation for a while.”


As the reclassification committee started working on the new proposal a year ago, it first developed priorities and guidelines designed to not be so rigid in drawing the lines for classifications as the WHSAA has been in the past. The top two guidelines included equity of competition and time out of school, he said.


“Their number one priority was to develop equity of competition so we don’t have schools playing schools three or four times their size,” he said. “Cody and Riverton have been in the middle of that.”


He said the committee looked for natural breaks in enrollment, and if the breaks fell within the equity of competition and time out of school primary guidelines, the natural breaks were followed, but such things as isolation, tournament structure and conference alignments were also considered. For instance, he said, Cody could be left as the only Class 4A school in the Big Horn Basin for sports other than football.


The reclassification committee developed the current proposed plan last spring, and it was approved at the district level (four quadrants) and then the WHSAA board on first reading in April. Since then, the WHSAA has been awaiting the projected average daily membership for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years, which was released July 23.

As approved on first reading in April, Class 4A, for sports other than football, would expand from 12 to 14 teams, adding Cody and Jackson. Class 3A would remain at 16 schools, and even though Mountain View and Thermopolis are projected to leap frog over Lovell and Kemmerer, the expansion of Class 4A would keep Lovell and Kemmerer in 3A for volleyball, girls and boys basketball, wrestling and track and field and cross country.


The next 20 schools would be in Class 2A, including Rocky Mountain High School, and Southeast and Saratoga would rejoin the 2A ranks after playing in 1A for two school years. The remaining teams would play in Class 1A.

As for football, the current proposal would drop the 5A classification and add six-man football for 1A schools who choose to participate. Under the new alignment, the 10 largest schools would play 4A football, with Riverton dropping to 3A. Class 3A would include 12 teams, virtually the same list as the current 4A ranks with the addition of Riverton.


Class 2A would include 16 teams ranging from Pinedale to Wyoming Indian and would include Lovell about midway through the list. Greybull, Tongue River, Big Horn and Wyoming Indian would move up with the bigger schools that are currently designated as 3A schools.


The rest of the schools would be in the 1A ranks, Winland said, including Rocky Mountain, with some playing 11-man football, some forming six-man teams and the rest not playing on the gridiron. As things look now, 16 teams would play 11-man football, with eight or nine playing six-man football.


Teams expected to play six-man football include Guernsey-Sunrise, Hanna-Elk Mountain, Fort Washakie, Midwest, Kaycee, Meeteetse, Rock River and Ten Sleep. Little Snake River is also considering strapping on the pads.

As for conference alignments in football, the big change for the Lovell Bulldogs, according to the current proposal, would be moving to the Western Conference and joining Pinedale, Lyman, Mountain View, Kemmerer and Big Piney. Also playing in the west would be Greybull and Wyoming Indian. The East Conference would include many of Lovell’s current conference foes including Newcastle, Glenrock, Moorcroft, Wright and Thermopolis. Also joining the East would be Burns, Tongue River and Big Horn.


The Rocky Mountain Grizzlies could compete in the 1A West with Shoshoni, Wind River, Riverside, Burlington, Dubois and Cokeville, but Winland said that proposal hasn’t been finalized yet. The WHSAA could go with four quadrants, he said.


Winland said some fans may be upset to see the Grizzlies drop to 1A, but he said the school’s projected enrollment – a two-year average of 106 – doesn’t allow the Grizz to play in 2A.


“The numbers don’t lie,” he said. “It (the estimate) has us at 106, and 1A is where we need to be. We just don’t have that student base, at least currently.”


The current proposal was approved on first reading in April by the districts and then the WHSAA board, and Winland said there have been some minor modifications since the new numbers came out in July.


The proposal is currently in the hands of the four districts for consideration on second and final reading. The Southeast will meet Sept. 10, the Northeast Sept. 11, the Southwest Sept. 16 and the Northwest Sept. 17.


After the district recommendations, the full WHSAA board will consider the proposal on second and final reading on Sept. 30.


“We will take the recommendations and comments from the four district meetings and the board will make a final decision,” Winland said. Conference alignments will also be discussed, and Winland said a final decision would have to be made before the November scheduling meeting.

Winland said there is also the possibility that the WHSAA would reject the proposal. If that happens, the classifications would revert to the current arrangement, except with the new numbers factored in. Thus, with Thermop and Mountain View jumping over Lovell and Kemmerer in projected enrollment, Lovell and Kemmerer could fall to class 2A for sports other than football, placing Lovell in the Five Rivers Conference once again.


Winland noted that while the new proposal passed in the spring, some schools are not happy with the new alignment, most notably Cody, which is adamantly opposed to moving back up into Class 4A for sports other than football.


“They don’t want to go back up to 4A after being down in 3A, and those are legitimate concerns,” Winland said. “We’ll know a lot more as of September 30.”