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Winter sports alignments set

Staff Report

The Alabama High School Athletic Association has approved changes to alignments and regions for winter sports effective for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years.

Wrestling will be reorganized to three new divisions. Classifications were originally 1A-5A, 6A, and 7A. The new setup changes to Class 1A-4A, Class 5A-6A and Class 7A.

Tallassee will be in Section 1 of the Class 5A-6A division. There will 35 teams in Section 1. The other 36 schools will be in Section 2. All five Elmore County public schools that compete in the AHSAA will be in Section 1; Elmore County, Holtville, Stanhope Elmore, Wetumpka and Tallassee.

Wrestling has seen significant growth among member schools in the last four years – especially in southern Alabama. The larger schools have dominated the sport in the previous 1A-5A division. In 2020, eight of the top 10 teams at the 2020 State Championships were Class 5A schools and 11 of 14 individual weight divisions were won by wrestlers from Class 5A schools. Twenty-one of the 28 wrestlers in the championship matches represented 5A schools.

Basketball alignments will remain 16 areas in Classes 1A through 6A and eight areas in Class 7A. The Competitive Balance factor, which was instituted for member private schools in 2018-19, did affect two private school teams. St. Luke’s Episcopal, currently in 1A, earned enough points to move to Class 2A; and Madison Academy’s teams, playing basketball in 5A, will move to Class 6A.

Tallassee will be in Region 5 with Beauregard, Brewbaker Tech and Pike Road. Pike Road, which moves up from Class 3A to 5A, is the new addition. Valley was in the same region last season but is moving up to 6A.

Divisions will remain the same for Indoor Track with Competitive Balance affecting four private schools. Whitesburg Christian, Bayside Academy and Saint James will move from 1A/3A to 4A/5A, and UMS-Wright, which moved to 6A in the current alignment, will drop back to 4A/5A in 2020-21.

THS will compete in Class 4A/5A Section 1 for Indoor Track among 55 total schools.

No teams were affected by the competitive balance factor in bowling or wrestling.

AHSAA school reclassification for the upcoming 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years was announced last November, and fall sports alignments were announced at the conclusion of the fall sports’ season last December. Spring sports alignments for the upcoming classification period will be released in May after the conclusion of the 2020 spring sports championships.     

AHSAA fall and winter sports alignment maps and area alignment groups for 2020-21 & 2021-22 can be found at the following link:http://www.ahsaa.com/Schools/2020-Re-Classification.