NCHSAA releases second realignment draft

Reidsville High School is hoping that there’s a Plan C for realignment in the works.

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s first two configurations for conferences had the Rams traveling to the far reaches of the Piedmont area for league games and with no traditional rivals.

But the plans are just drafts and there’s still plenty of time for changes for the leagues that will be used for a four-year term beginning in the fall of 2013.

The initial model was totally computer generated and had Reidsville in an eight-school conference with Winston-Salem Carver, Forbush, North Surry, South Stokes, Surry Central, West Stokes and Bartlett Yancey.

The second proposal, released Dec. 9, had Reidsville in a split 2-A/1-A conference with 2-A schools Carver and High Point Andrews and 1-A schools Winston-Salem Atkins, Bishop McGuinness, Walkertown and Winston-Salem Prepartory Academy.

Bishop McGuinness is a parochial school in Kernersville, Walkertown is a new school that opened this year, Atkins is now a magnet school and had less than 400 students in the last official count and W-S Prep doesn’t currently have a football program and also doesn’t field teams in several non-revenue sports.

Reidsville High School officials are planning to object to those realignment models and will make an alternative proposal to the NCHSAA and also attend a meeting in January to express concerns.

In a notice posted on the NCHSAA website, it said that schools will have their chance to make suggestions.

“The membership now has two drafts to study in preparation for the January Realignment Regional Meetings,” the website release stated. “Schools have already received information on how to present their suggestions to the Realignment Committee in addition to the meetings in January.”

The state is attempting to cut back on the number of split conferences with the upcoming realignment period and the initial draft by SAS (a leading software company in Raleigh) eliminated all of them by using the following criteria: six to eight schools in a conference, geography (longitude and latitude) and no split conferences.

The subsequent plan included some split conferences, particularly in areas where a straight one-classification conference appeared to have some travel issues.

Joe Walker, in his first year as Reidsville High’s athletic director, said travel would be a budget killer for the Rams in either plan on the table now.

“In the first plan, one of the trips was almost 90 miles,” Walker said.

“Then they put us in a split conference. I tried to go down every sport that we have and of course you start with football because it’s the sport that brings the most revenue. And from the revenue standpoint, it’s going to kill us. Even with travel, it’s at least an hour on a school bus. It will hurt us everywhere.”

Established rivalries – with the possible exception of High Point Andrews – are totally absent and the competition is some sports will be lacking. Some of the schools in the second plan don’t field teams in several of the non-revenue sports and putting together a junior varsity schedule will be a headache.

When the last realignment was being put together four years ago, Reidsville was able to submit a proposal that the state agreed to after the initial model created travel hardships.

RHS’s problem is the dearth of 2-A schools in the area. In the current Mid-State 2-A Conference, only Bartlett Yancey, Burlington Cummings and Graham are in the 30-minute range while the other members – Providence Grove, Eastern Randolph and Siler City Jordan Matthews – are all in the one-hour trip range.

The latest realignment plan pretty much kept that group intact except that it cast out Reidsville while adding Randleman and Carrboro for an eight-team league 2-A league.

While Reidsville is hoping for better solutions, 3-A schools Rockingham County, Morehead and McMichael pretty much stay the same under the new plan.

The only difference is that Northeast Guilford is now part of the group, increasing the conference membership from eight to nine. Northeast was a part of the Rockingham and Morehead’s conference four years ago.

The other schools are Eastern Alamance, Eastern Guilford, Western Alamance and Burlington Williams.

The longest trip for any of the Rockingham County schools is Eastern Alamance in Mebane. It’s approximately an hour from Wentworth.

The last time Reidsville was in a conference with their three county foes was the Triad 3-A in 1989-92. But now the school size leaves the Rams just short of the county rivals. Rockingham has 1,176 students, Morehead 1,067, McMichael 1,049 and Reidsville 919.

The largest 2-A school in the state is East Davidson with 996 students and the smallest 3-A school is South Rowan with 999.