Looking over the LHSAA’s new districts for 2017-19
This being a reclassification/redistricting cycle year in the LHSAA means it’s time for some upheaval in our status quo. Those new districts and teams in different classifications you’re just now getting used to? Yep, some of those are gone. That’s…
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Continue ReadingThis being a reclassification/redistricting cycle year in the LHSAA means it’s time for some upheaval in our status quo. Those new districts and teams in different classifications you’re just now getting used to? Yep, some of those are gone. That’s OK, though, because I’ve marked down the notable changes and gave them a look for you.
To see the new districts in their entirety, the LHSAA posted them on their site.
5A
The following districts are unchanged: 1, 2, 5 and 6. Really, 5A is the only classification that remained calm in this reclassification cycle, so even the changes listed below are rather minor.
Lagrange elected to play up to 5A and adds itself to District 3; otherwise, the district is unchanged: Acadiana, Barbe, Comeaux, Sam Houston, Lafayette, New Iberia and Sulphur.
District 4 is unchanged with the exception of adding Belaire to the lineup of Central (BR), Denham Springs, Live Oak, Scotlandville, Walker and Zachary.
The only change is District 8 is the end of Helen Cox’s two-year experiment in 5A: it goes back down to 4A to restore the district to its form from 2013-14/2014-15.
4A
The only district that took on no changes is District 1: The location of those schools combined with the concentration there and lack thereof in District 2 (which we’ll get to later) makes for the unfortunate result of a 9-team district in Shreveport and a 4-team district in Monroe, but such is life sometimes.
District 2 is down to 4 team after losing Grant and Tioga to District 3. District 2 is now just Bastrop, Franklin Parish, Neville and West Ouachita while District 3 will be Buckeye, DeRidder, Grant, Leesville and Tioga. (Crowley and Washington-Marion moved down to 3A, Lagrange moved to 5A and Rayne moved to District 4.)
Beau Chene and Opelousas moved from District 4 to District 5; Westgate made the opposite move, going from 5 to 4. There’s a lot of tossling in those two districts tat make it difficult to explain, so I’d suggest taking a look at them for yourself.
Lutcher is moving up in class and Parkview Baptist is deciding to do the same, placing both in District 6. They join Lee Magnet as the new guys in the district replacing Belaire and Livonia.
District 7’s only change is adding E.D. White and District 8 loses Loranger to go down to a 5-team district. The new Districts 9 and 10 are quite new: 9 is Belle Chasse, Helen Cox, Warren Easton, Edna Karr and Eleanor McMain while 10 is Carver, Ben Franklin, Lake Area New Tech, McDonogh 35, New Orleans Military and Maritime and Riverdale.
3A
Districts 1 and 2 were pretty calm: 1’s only change was losing Mansfield to 2A and 2’s only change was swapping Caldwell for Sterlington. I don’t see either move doing too much to tilt the natural balance of power in those respective districts.
Caldwell makes District 3 a 6-team group after Buckeye, Winnfield and Vidalia all leave the district by reclassification. District 4 trades Iota for Lake Charles College Prep while adding Washington-Marion, who should step in and immediately run that district.
District 5 balloons from six to eight teams, losing Ville Platte but adding Crowley, Mamou and Iota. District 6 loses Donaldsonville, Parkview Baptist and Port Allen while adding Madison Prep and Mentorship Academy. Madison Prep and University Lab in the same district? Yes please. District 7 also had a pretty clean trade-off, trading Amite and Independence for Archbishop Hannan and Loranger.
Really, the most notable changes in District 10 are Donaldsonville, Haynes Academy and St. Charles popping up in District 10. Districts 8 and 9 take on some changes, but nothing of serious note.
2A
There’s a significant amount of movement in the northern half of the state in terms of teams moving up to 2A or down from 1A, so Districts 1 and 2 have taken on some upheaval. In those two districts, D’Arbonne Woods and Mansfield move up to 2A and join District 1 while Beekman Charter, Delhi Charter and Vidalia join District 2 in moving up from 1A.
If you thought that was a lot to take in, you just need to look at these districts. If I tried to outline every single change in these districts, this post would be longer than most interstates. The amount of teams staying put has to be fewer than 25 percent.
1A
District 1 lost D’Arbonne Woods to 2A and lost Cedar Creek to District 2 but added Jonesboro-Hodge. Cedar Creek and Ouachita Christian are the two new additions to District 2, balancing out the losses of Beekman Charter and Delhi Charter to 2A.
District 3’s only change is adding University Academy and District 4 lost East Beauregard and Lake Charles College Prep while adding Basile and St. Edmund from District 5; District 5 looks like it strengthens itself in losing Basile but adding Opelousas Catholic and Sacred Heart.
District 6 remains unchanged and the only change in District 7 is losing Ascension Episcopal to 2A. District 8 loses Crescent City to Class B but adds West St. John and J.S. Clark.
Class B/Class C
There seems to be pretty minimal shuffling of districts, the only changes are the new teams. They are, in Class B: FCCS (District 2), Elizabeth (District 4), JS Leadership Academy (District 6) and a trio in District 7 of Algiers Technical Academy, Crescent City and Maurepas.
Class C only gains Christ Episcopal, which works out since most of those new teams in Class B weren’t stolen from the Class C ranks.