Sweet Home’s team sports took a step forward toward competing in the Oregon School Activities Association 3A division starting next fall, based on the final recommendation issued by the OSAA’s Classification and Districting Committee on Dec. 1.
The committee’s final recommendation still must be acted on by the OSAA Executive Board, which will meet Dec. 15. The board will receive public testimony in writing or in person prior to making a final determination on the recommendation.
The redistricting plan will be in effect for 2026-30, although schools can petition to move up or down, based on their needs.
According to OSAA, the redistricting committee has received more than 210 pieces of correspondence since the process began in August.
Here are the committee’s recommendations:
- Number of Classifications: The committee is recommending a six-classification model.
- Petitions to Play Down: The committee approved a recommendation for Sweet Home to move from 4A to 3A, for Rogue River to move from 3A to 2A, for Chemawa to move from 2A to 1A and for Aloha to move from 6A to 5A.
- Petitions to Play Up: The committee has approved a recommendation for the following schools to play up (stay up): Beaverton, Benson, Central Catholic, Clackamas, Jefferson (Portland), Jesuit, Lake Oswego, Lakeridge, McDaniel, Newberg, Roosevelt and St. Mary’s Academy (Portland) all want to continue to compete at the 6A level.
La Salle Prep and Parkrose have requested to continue to compete at the 5A level.
Cascade Christian (Medford) has requested to move up from 3A to compete at the 4A level.
Trinity Lutheran (Bend) has requested to move up from 2A to compete at the 3A level.
In the 4A division, the committee changed the maximum student body number cutoff from 580 to 560 to better address the ratio of largest to smallest schools in the classification.
In the 5A division, it adjusted the low-end cutoff to 561 for the same reason. It also added Cascade to the Mid-Willamette Conference due to that cutoff number and added Henley to the Southern Cascade Conference with Ashland, Crater and Eagle Point, dissolving the proposed Southwest Hybrid, which would have put Crater, Eagle Point, Grants Pass, North Medford, Roseburg and South Medford together, while putting Ashland in the 4A Skyline Conference.
Both Cascade (577 students) and Henley (564) have been dominant in 4A competition in nearly every sport,
If the Executive Board approves the committee recommendation after hearing final public testimony on the issue, Sweet Home, which is listed by the OSAA as having 401 students, would be moved to the Mountain Valley Conference, which includes Creswell (243), La Pine (245), Pleasant Hill (216), Sisters (280) and Trinity Lutheran (104).
The final recommendation moves Central, with 550 students, and Taft, with 291, into the Oregon West Conference along with Newport (420), Philomath (363), and Stayton (488) as Sweet Home (401) and Cascade exit.
Trinity Lutheran finished third in the 2A volleyball state playoffs, lost to East Linn Christian in the consolation semifinals of last year’s boys basketball state playoffs, lost in the first round of last year’s girls playoffs, and qualified its boys and girls golf teams for the small-schools state tournaments.