New 2-Year Reclassification Cycle Starts For Wyoming High School Sports

Practice for Wyoming High School Tennis, Golf and 4A Football starts on Monday, August 12th and as the new sports year gets started, there are a few changes in terms of which schools are in which class.

Every other year the Wyoming High School Activities Association starts a new classification cycle, and this school year will be the start of a new 2-year cycle.

In the past depending on where a school ranked in terms of its 2-year enrollment numbers, would depend on which class that school was in.

For example, in volleyball, basketball and outdoor track and field, the top 16 schools in terms of enrollment numbers were in Class 4A, the next 16 in 3A, and so forth.

This time around, where a school ranks in terms of enrollment no longer matters, rather a school’s actual enrollment numbers will determine what class that school will compete in.

In this new example, for volleyball, basketball and outdoor track and field, schools with an enrollment of 700 or more is Class 4A, those between 210-699 are Class 3A, between 110-209 is Class 2A and all others are Class 1A.

There are some minor changes in the sports not mentioned.

The exception is football which will stay on the old system.

The top 10 enrolled schools are 4A, the next 12 are 3A, the next 14 are 2A, the next 14 are 9-man, and the remaining are 6-man.

Schools always have the option to move up or down a class for the 2-year cycle, but if the school moves down, it is automatically disqualified from regional and state tournaments.

As far as the Sheridan and Johnson County schools go, they will all remain in the classes they’ve been in for the past few years in their various sports.

Wyoming High School Activities Association Commissioner Trevor Wilson says there is some correlation between enrollment and the level of talent and competition a school can provide in a sporting contest.

“When we talk about cut lines, which is, if you want define a cut line, it’s like gaps between enrollment and we talked about that for 20 years and finally it just started gained some traction, 3 or 4 years ago with our reclass committee and the WIAAA, which is our athletic directors group, just started putting this proposal together.”

For 4A volleyball, basketball and outdoor track and field, there will be a total of 15 teams.

Cody drops down to 3A.

There will be 7 teams in the East and 8 in the West, and that means both Casper schools will be in the west and not split up as in past years.

There will not be quadrants in the East, meaning from Sheridan’s perspective, the Broncs and Lady Broncs have to play home and away volleyball and basketball matches, with all 4A East teams.

That would be both Gillette schools, all 3 Cheyenne schools and Laramie.

The only change in the 1A Northeast for Arvada-Clearmont, is that Casper Christian has joined the ranks in basketball.

Those schools that are in Class 2A for volleyball and basketball are in an unusual situation.

There will be 14 teams in Class 2A, both this school year and next, but it will be unbalanced, with 8 teams in the west and only 6 in the east.

Further complicating things in the East is the location of one of the schools.

Tongue River, Big Horn, Wright, Moorcroft and Sundance are in the northeast part of the state geographically, but Pine Bluffs is in the southeast and is the only 2A school in that part of the Cowboy State.

The 5 northeast teams have normally played a home and home series almost every year vs. each other in volleyball and basketball, but having PB in the mix creates a travel and scheduling issue for all 6 2A East teams.

Big Horn High School Activities Director Mike Daley says because of the way the 2A East is, teams will not play conference or quadrant games, and it will be a 6-team regional tournament in volleyball and basketball, with 4 of the 6 teams qualifying for the state tournament.

How the regional tournament will be seeded is still to be determined.

Daley says right now BH is trying to figure out how to put together its annual volleyball invitational that takes place in mid-September.

“One of the things in volleyball is trying to put together a 2-day volleyball tournament at Big Horn for all of the 2A schools to come and for the East to try to play everybody in the West. That turns out to a lot of games in a short period of time for the East teams, where the West is looking at 2 less than we are, so we’re going to see how that plays out for a year, and some of this stuff is going to work itself out and some of its not.”

As for the 2A West, there will be 8 teams on that side, split up into 2 quadrants.

The Northwest has Rocky Mountain, Greybull, Thermopolis and Shoshoni.

The Southwest has Big Piney, Kemmerer, Wind River and Wyoming Indian.