As Region Realignment Approaches, Change Needs To Happen

This past March, the UHSAA is holding meetings to realign regions and classifications for the 2017-19 school years. A hearing was held on March 23^rd hoping to get feedback from various groups who have an interest in the format and procedures. In addition to the hearing the UHSAA is accepting input on their website from anyone who is interested and wants to give their opinion. This realignment is much needed because the last time this happened it was done very poorly.

The UHSAA realigns regions and classifications are done every two years and we are currently in the first year of the revision that was made last year. The previous realignment did not respect rivalries, increased travel time for schools and was ignorant of what the schools wanted and also, the competition was unbalanced. Currently, Highland is in Region 5 with East, Woods Cross, Bountiful, Ogden, Box Elder and Bonneville. When these revisions came out a year ago, there were immediate concerns with travel time and the amount of school that would be missed.

Personally, as an athlete, I was most disappointed by the lack of history that we have with Box Elder, Ogden and Bonneville. We only played Box Elder and Bonneville in football this year but in these two games, it felt like a non-region preseason game. Attendance at both of these games was significantly lower than the other region games we had because of the travel. The visiting school struggled to get students to come, especially when our game against Box Elder was on a Thursday. The hosting school struggled to fill seats because the game felt like it was not as important as it should.

“As SBO President, I struggled to get students to go to these events because of the longer travel time and some students just didn’t care about the game or the opponent to go,” Marcus Leone said.

Instead of playing these unfamiliar opponents, it would be of everyone’s interest if the UHSAA considered the history of opponents and rivalries that have been created. This past year we played Olympus in a non-region game and it felt much more important than some of the region games we played. The stands and surrounding area of the field were filled with fans, the competition was very high, and we were playing kids that we grew up playing against and we consider to be our rival.

The baseball team felt one of the biggest impacts on this realignment. After a rain out, the baseball team had to travel to Bonneville on back to back days. This was an hour in travel each way. Both days the team missed last period of school.

“By the second day, we were all worn out and are grades all suffered after missing that school. As well as our performance on the field was not at its best because of the fatigue,” Senior EJ Spence said.

The sports that are affected the most are the sports that play multiple games a week. Girls and Boys soccer, volleyball, Girls and Boys Tennis, Girls and Boys Basketball, Baseball, Softball all play 2-3 games a week in region play. This means lots of time on buses and lots of time out of the class.

Athletic Director Missy Mackay-Whiteurs is still concerned about these regions.

“Now we have to excuse students at one o’clock to get them up to Box Elder, Ogden and Bonneville. Also, the student attendance at these events was severely affected,” Mackay-Whiteurs said.

It is discouraging to me that the UHSAA has not even considered that this is much of a problem. In a recent Twitter exchange with Salt Lake Tribune writer, Trevor Phibbs, he told me that the UHSAA has not considered this issue yet. At this point in the process, they are more worried about changing the classifications of some schools.

If this problem is not fixed in the next realignment, then there should even be more concern. All teams in this region are deeply affected by the ignorance of the UHSAA and action needs to happen now.