Cascade High School has petitioned the Oregon School Activities Association to remain in the 4A Division after being moved to 5A in the redistricting process that ended in October.
If the Cougars’ appeal is successful, they would compete in the 4A Oregon West Conference witih Sweet Home, Newport, Philomath, Sisters, Stayton and Woodburn.
For most of the redistricting deliberation process, Cascade was slated to stay in the 4A, but late in the process the OSAA Classificaiton and Redistricting Committee decided to move Cascade to the 5A, where it would compete in the Mid-Willamette Conference, which includes Lebanon and the Albany and Corvallis high schools. But according to to a report in Salem’s Statesman Journal newspaper, Cascade officials are arguing that the school’s enrollment numbers used in making that determination are based on last June (687) and that its October numbers have declined to 612.
Both North Salem, which is playing down a classification, and West Albany are roughly twice the size of Cascade.
A number of Salem schools have also protested the redistricting decision, which placed them in a league with schools in Bend.
A hearings officer is being engaged to consider the matter, the Statesman Journal reported.
Meanwhile, the OSAA’s Football Ad Hoc Committee has begun to produce some recommendations designed to solve problems of competitive equity and participation numbers.
Former Sweet Home football coach Rob Younger, now director of the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association, is one of 13 school and athletic administrators, coaches and others appointed to the committee, which held its first public meeting on Nov. 27. A second public meeting is scheduled for Dec. 18, after the Ad Hoc Committee’s recommendations to the OSAA Executive Board on Dec. 4.
Those recommendations include:
n Creating a criterion-based system that will allow eligible schools to “play down” in football only, for a defined period of time.
After “extensive discussion” committee members agreed that any school with an in-classification winning percentage over the last four years that is 22 percent or lower (two wins per year) and any school with 12 or fewer in-classification games (three games per year) over the last four years are under consideration to be moved down in football only.
Committee members decided that schools identified as meeting those criteria should have the option to decline and remain at their adopted classification placement.
Schools meeting the four-year 22 percent-or-lower threshold include 4A Division Hidden Valley, which finished 1-7 overall, including a 35-6 season-opening loss to Sweet Home this year, McLoughlin-Griswold, and Ridgeview, which opened as a 4A school but has moved to 5A, finishing 1-8 (as did Redmond, also in 5A Special District 1).
Schools meeting the benchmarks but which have already been assigned to a lower classification include Sutherlin, which is dropping from the Sky-Em League to the 3A division, and Woodburn, which will drop from the 5A Mid-Willamette Conference to Sweet Home’s new league, the Oregon West Conference, and Yamhill-Carlton, which will drop from 4A to 3A.
n Allowing variations in game format – one-, two- or three-quarter contests, for instance – at the sub-varsity level to provide needed flexibility for some programs.
n Codifying modifications to NFHS football rules at the sub-varsity level that include no kicking game, no blitzing, etc.
n Allowing separate sub-varsity and varsity scheduling to enable schools to better match their teams competitively, with an emphasis on local geographic play.
The committee is also looking into the possibility of splitting classifications, particularly the 1A and 6A, into divisions, each with its own championship bracket. It is also considering adding six-man football to its list of sponsored sports, and allowing eligible schools to select either eight- or 11-man football.