Page 8 - 2020 Sollenberger

New AIA realignment changes seek to enhance competitive balance
The new football realignment formula should give programs such as Holbrook a better chance to make the postseason. (Darin Sicurello photo/MaxPreps)
By Les Willsey azpreps365.com
Realignment comes every two years for Arizona Interscholas- tic Association member schools in all sports.
For the football-frenzied fan, the sport gets unique treatment this time around that should be interesting to follow. Football will be the only sport that has its own alignment.
The look for the 2020-22 block took into account enroll- ment, but also how well schools performed over the past three seasons in terms of record and playoff qualifying. That weighed heavily in movement up or down a conference for a handful of top-notch programs.
The formula ended up affecting 26 schools. Thirteen moved up a conference and 13 down a conference.
New regions were established in each conference. All of it signals, hopefully, better competition across the entire sport.
“One of the main goals of reclassification was to bring about opportunity for better competition for everyone,” AIA Executive Director David Hines said. “We will have a lot of great games. Closer games. More competitive games throughout the way the regions have been laid out.”
The 13 schools moving up have done plenty of winning and likely will continue to do so.
Three of the schools moving up (Williams Field, ALA-Queen Creek and Round Valley) won state championships last year, and four were runners-up (Saguaro, Desert Edge, Benjamin Franklin
and Phoenix Christian). Nine of the 13 have been in existence at least 15 years and qualified for postseason play at least 60 percent of the time over that period.
Three of the four newcomers to athletic competition (schools that opened in the last decade - ALA-Queen Creek, Williams Field and Casteel) have already won a state title or two.
The 13 schools moving down have struggled, some mightily, for more than a fistful of seasons. Of those schools only Empire, Dysart, Holbrook and Kingman Academy have made the playoffs in the last decade - a combined six postseason trips.
Tempe Prep’s enrollment has dropped the school to a 1A level. The program won just two games the last two years after being a perennial playoff contender the seven years prior in 2A.
Much of the need for reclassification has come from a reality the playing field has tilted so much that it’s impossible to be level again. The continued use of open enrollment, rise of school shopping and transfers more often than not takes from schools struggling to compete while perpetuating the stability/rise of schools that are established winners.
The newly formed 6A regions are a good example of trying to mend the playing field. The Desert Valley, Premier and Fiesta Regions all feature winning programs from last year and in the years that preceded this decade or longer.
The Desert Valley Region has Brophy (8-3 in 2019), Centen- nial (9-2), Chaparral (8-3), Liberty (10-4) and Pinnacle (8-3). The Premier Region is home to Chandler (13-0), Hamilton (9-3), Highland (8-4), Higley (8-4) and Perry (7-5).
SCHOOLS MOVING UP ONE CONFERENCE
5A to 6A - Centennial, Williams Field, Higley, Casteel 4A to 5A - Saguaro, Desert Edge, Salpointe Catholic 3A to 4A - American Leadership-Queen Creek, Benja- min Franklin, Northwest Christian
2A to 3A - Round Valley, Thatcher, Phoenix Christian
SCHOOLS MOVING DOWN ONE CONFERENCE
6A to 5A - Kofa, Alhambra, Maryvale
5A to 4A - Empire, Carl Hayden, Sierra Linda
4A to 3A – Cortez, Dysart
3A to 2A - Holbrook, Catalina, Kingman Academy, Tanque Verde
2A to 1A - Tempe Prep
NEW TO VARSITY COMPETITION
5A - Canyon View, West Point
3A - Eastmark
2A – San Tan Charter, Sequoia Charter, Sequoia Pathway, St. John Paul II
1A – Cicero Prep, Desert Heights Prep, Lincoln Prep
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