WVSSAC Board of Control approves proposal for four classifications in other sports
(Photo by Marcus Constantino)
Back in July 2019, the West Virginia State Board of Education approved a proposal to add a fourth classification for boys and girls basketball.
To this point, no other sport has featured a four-class system.
That may change in the not too distant future.
On Tuesday, during the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission's annual meetings at Stonewall Resort, the WVSSAC Board of Control approved a proposal to add a fourth classification in other sports. The proposal was approved in overwhelming fashion, 117-12.
Public opinion will be heard on the proposal in June, before the state's Board of Education votes on the matter in July. Should the proposal pass through the BOE, it would become official 60 days later — likely early to mid-September. That prevents it from being able to go into effect until the 2024-25 athletics season.
A year ago, a proposal for a fourth classification was rejected 137-5 by the SSAC's Board of Control, which is comprised of principals and allows each high school to have one vote.
"The consensus in the room was we already have a Competitive Balance Committee who is monitoring the competitive balance and they will come back with recommendations for what sports make sense and which ones would be eligible," WVSSAC Executive Director Bernie Dolan said then. "They're just waiting for them to do it. In this case, somebody wanted to push the issue a little faster than everybody else was ready for.
"There was some confusion also as to whether or not it would mean four classes in every sport, which it would not. Everybody just decided let's wait and let the committee continue to work."
This time around, the votes overwhelmingly went in a different direction. Dolan, who announced earlier this week he's retiring effective at the end of June, believes that can be attributed to a change in determining schools' classifications, which was another notable item that came about Tuesday.
Moving forward, the SSAC, West Virginia's governing body for high school athletics, will use the Competitive Balance Formula currently in place to determine basketball classifications for the classification of each school.
That will first occur in October when reclassifying, which occurs every four years, takes place. Currently, classification outside of basketball is solely based on enrollment.
"Last year had it classified by enrollment and this year is classified by competitive balance," Dolan said. "The real discussion last year was they wanted four classes, but it would've had to have been by enrollment. Going by the Competitive Balance Formula led to a lot more votes for yes."
There is also a change coming to the Competitive Balance Formula. At present, 70 percent is based off a school's enrollment, 10 percent off its location to a city, 10 percent off its location to a county seat and 10 percent off the socioeconomic status of the school and county it's part of.
A new proposal removes the 10 percent of a school's location to a county seat and increases the school's location to a city to 20 percent.
"For several schools, there's really no advantage to being located by a county seat," Dolan said.
The next reclassification figures go into effect for the 2024-25 athletics season.
As for what sports would move to a four-class system, that's for the BOE to decide.
Current requirements are: Thirty-two schools competing for a one-class championship; 62 for two class championships; and 95 for three class championships That equates to approximately 25, 50 and 75 percent of the state's high schools, respectively.
"The Board of Education will decide would there have to be another number, maybe 90 or 95 percent, for four classes to use as a benchmark," Dolan said.
Basketball is split into four classifications, while football, cross country, golf, volleyball, wrestling, cheer, softball, baseball and track and field each have three classes.
Soccer and tennis both have two classifications and swimming has one class.
All sports would not feature a four-class system, though Dolan believes football, volleyball, cheer, baseball and softball all likely meet the criteria for four classes.
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Among other important changes to stem from the SSAC's annual meetings are an adjustment coming to flex days.
In 2016, an alteration to the flex day format allowed teams to utilize a three-week window between the end of baseball season and the start of fall sports season for organized team workouts that could include high school coaches. That dates for the three-week window were set on a county-by-county basis. That'll no longer be the case with the three-week window eliminated in favor of 32 flex days to be spread out however a team wishes to use them.
"You're not penciled in for three weeks in June or July," Dolan said. "Different sports have different times where camps are held and this provides a lot more flexibility. You're not getting more flex days, but it's more flexibility for how to use them."
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Normally reserved for a week later start, high school volleyball will be moved up one week and begin at the same time as other fall sports such as football, cross country and soccer.
That will start with the 2024 season.
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