When the Oregon School Activities Association Classification and Redistricting Committee holds what likely will be its final meeting this Monday, Dec. 1, at OSAA headquarters in Wilsonville, Sweet Home is likely to find itself competing in a new division in athletics and music.
That’s because the Huskies are on a list of schools requesting a move down in classification, which have had difficulty competing in various sports at the 4A level and the Redistricting Committee’s latest draft proposal, which came out of its Nov. 19 meeting, has Sweet Home moving down to the 3A Division.
“It’s not 100% yet, but if things shake out the way we think they might, then we would likely be a 3A school in our team sports,” said Athletic Director Dan Tow.
Sweet Home is dominant in wrestling and swimming at the 4A level (and below in swimming, which combines 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A schools in a single division). The Huskies played for the state championship in volleyball in 2019 and won a pared-down state tournament (that didn’t include some of the perennial contenders) in 2021 during COVID. Sweet Home’s volleyball and softball teams are regular state tournament qualifiers, which usually means they finished in the top three in the league.
The Huskies are also gaining ground in track and field and cross-country, with a young team that has started to turn heads as a contender in the touch Oregon West Conference, in which most top finishers also finish high in the state championships. Cheer in Sweet Home is also a regular contender at the state level.
Football teams in Oregon are assigned to special regions; Sweet Home is in Special District 3, which is a combination of Sky-Em and Oregon West teams, and, this year, 5A-Division Crescent Valley, which is playing down for the same reasons that Sweet Home is seeking redistricting.
“Football has an ad hoc,” Tow said. “We were four and five this year, quite a bit better. Prior to that, our football team had, you know, a two-win season, a zero-win season. So anyway, but football has its own special league.”
But not so for soccer, basketball and baseball. They all have perennially finished in the depths of the powerful Oregon West League, which regularly sends teams to the state finals in nearly every sport.
Tow said coaches in those sports have expressed interest for “as much as two years, something like that,” in requesting a move down.
Criteria for “playing down,” as it is called, include perpetual losing as well as poverty rates. Sweet Home rates high on both counts, Tow said – particularly, soccer and girls basketball (see chart).
“One of the main criteria for the OSAA to qualify to play down is that your team sports – not your individual sports – had a 20% or lower winning percentage in the previous four-year period. We’ve been just over 20% – we’re 20.8.”
Based on the number of SHHS students who receive free or reduced-cost lunch, he said, “we’re one of the highest in the state.”
Tow said after conversations with coaches and Principal Ralph Brown, the school decided to make the request.
“Not everyone was in favor, but a large number of our coaches were very much in favor of petitioning to go down and seeing what that would look like.”
“It would be a good move for a lot of our sports,” he said. “I don’t like it very well for cross- country and track, though it’d be OK. We were pretty good this year. I wish we could keep track and cross-country and softball where they are.”
Move Not Necessarily Permanent
Tow noted that the move could only last a couple of seasons, depending on how the Huskies do.
“It can change, year-to-year, so it’s not a done deal for four years. I would think that we would play down for two years, but that’s not etched in stone.”
The redistricting committee will meet Dec. 1 and is expected to finalize its proposal on moving teams around in the state. Their recommendations will then go to the Executive Board, which will meet Dec. 15.
The committee, which has met six times since Aug. 11, is made up of 15 school representatives representing all the size classifications in the state, as well as four OSAA staff members. The 4A DIvision representative is Nathan Stanley, principal of North Marion High School, which is a member of the Oregon West Conference in which Sweet Home currently competes.
The committee has bounced back and forth between returning to five divisions from the current six, but seems to have settled on maintaining the current six divisions. In that process, Sweet Home has been moved back and forth between its current OWC and the 3A Division Mountain Valley Conference, which currently includes three fairly recent conference rivals: Elmira, Sisters and La Pine, along with Creswell, Pleasant Hill and Harrisburg. The committee has produced seven draft proposals, the most recent of which Oct. 29 would remake the Mountain Valley Conference to add Sweet Home and Trinity Lutheran of Bend, which is requesting a move up in classification. Elmira would move from the 3A back to the 4A Sky-Em League.
The committee appears to be determined to move Central, which about 15 years ago was a league opponent of Sweet Home before moving to the 5A Division, to the Oregon West League; every realignment proposal since September has had the Panthers in the OWC, and one added Crescent Valley, while moving Sweet Home to the Mountain Valley Conference.
Coaches in sports that have struggled in the OWC said they expect to be more competitive when not playing some of the state’s top teams week in and week out.
“I would say that the proposal would definitely increase our competitiveness across many of our sports programs,” said girls basketball coach Erika Evans. “But, of course, we don’t know until it happens. Our proposed league would greatly increase our travel, though, so you never know how that may play into the equation as well.”
Tow also said he expects the move to “definitely increase our competitiveness across many of our sports programs. But, of course, we don’t know until it happens! Our proposed league would greatly increase our travel though, so you never know how that may play into the equation as well!
Tough 4A Opposition
Boys soccer Head Coach Eric Stutzer noted that Sweet Home plays in one of the toughest soccer leagues in the state – at any level, and this year the Huskies’ 23-player roster was composed largely of underclassmen..
“Redistricting will help our program,” he said.
“To put it in perspective, Stayon played North Marion and won the state championship this season. Over the last 11 seasons in which a championship was played, a team from our league took the state championship eight times. In only one of those seasons, was a team from our league not represented in the state championship game. In five of those championship games, two teams from our league played each other.
“We are in a dominant league where in every league match, a team is potentially playing the eventual state champion. This reality has made us better, but it has also been highly discouraging for our players who are consistently not competing against the same level of experience.”
Sweet Home is 30 miles distant from I-5 and a metropolitan area, while other teams, such as Stayton and North Marion, either have easy access to opportunities for club play or have a strong population of soccer aficionados.
“We don’t have strong youth programs for soccer in our community, so many of our athletes join during their freshman year with little to no competitive experience or skills, in contrast to our opponents, who have been playing together competitively much of their lives.” Stutzer said.
“I strongly believe that redistricting will help level the playing field for us, but we are still going to need to focus on youth development and intentionally create opportunities to up the level of competitive play in those programs.”
Stutzer added that the schools in the Mountain Valley Conference – Creswell, Sisters and Pleasant Hill – have strong youth feeder programs, which means Sweet Home will need to continue to focus on player development and building feeder programs and reaching out to younger children.
‘Not a Walk in the Park’
Baseball Coach Evan Teter, who played his high school ball at Siuslaw, which was moved to the 3A Division several years ago and is to remain there, agreed.
“We feel it will allow us to compete for a league title right away,” said Teter, who has held voluntary baseball skills training sessions throughout the offseason. “We are getting better and better each year. The Oregon West Conference is a very competitive conference year in and year out. Looking at the past few years, our programs have gone through a lot of tough times.”
He added that although some might view a move to the 3A as a “downgrade,” the 3A has high-level programs.
“This will not be a walk in the park,” he said. “I think it could serve as a confidence boost for our athletes, but we aren’t walking into this new potential level thinking we will dominate from the get go simply because of the level.”
Teter’s players have consistently been putting in offseason time on building skills and he said that work should bear fruits – at any level the Huskies are playing at.
“A league change or redistricting alone won’t immediately change our ability to competitively compete,” he said. “It will take commitment, time investment, and hard work in the off season. If we can effectively accomplish that goal, then we will see positive change that will ultimately result in a higher level of competitive play.”