New Regions Bring Back Familiar Rivalries

On November 29th it was announced that the Utah high school regions would be getting a huge revamping for the 2017-2018 school year.  This involved moving several teams up and down from various classifications, and is the first year that there will be a “6A” division in the state of Utah.  This new region realignment is particularly significant for Highland students, as it marks the renewal of region rivalries with schools like Skyline, Olympus, and previous Salt Lake City School District outcast, West.  This comes as a welcome change to many students who were extremely opposed to the current region that includes teams like Box Elder and Bonneville where travel times have been killer.

“It will make the long bus rides for Cross Country a lot more manageable,” freshman Eli Adams said.  “And we won’t have to miss as much school.”

For the last two years missing school for region events has been brutal for athletes with travel times to some of the northern schools totaling over an hour, leading to 7th period having to be skipped every time there is an event.  This has also created a disconnect between student attendance at games, as the large majority of students do not want to travel that far for events and then face the possibility of coming home very late.

But besides cutting down travel time, these new regions add an element of rivalry that currently Highland does not have with the other teams in region besides ultimate rival East.  Preseason games against Skyline and Olympus have been some of the highest attended and most passionate games in recent history, (the 2014 double OT football game vs Skyline, and the 2015 football game at Olympus just to name a few) and adding them to the region where every game against them potentially decides a post season spot, will only make them more intense.

“It’ll be a lot more convenient because we won’t miss as much school and they’re a lot closer,” sophomore Emily Roderick said.  “It’s going to be very hard at the same time because every game is like you’re playing against your biggest rival.  It’ll be fun though to see all the people we know from the different schools more often.”

The addition of West to the region is also an interesting development to the story has West in recent history has always been in 5A, a classification above Highland.  This brings back a rivalry against the one of the other two Salt Lake District high schools that, for the Rams, has been lost in recent years as scheduling against West has not been commonplace.

One final thing to take note of when looking over these new regions, is the fact that East will not be in Region 6 in football.  While the Leopards will still be in the Rams’ region for every other sport, but the football rivalry that dates back to the very earliest days of the two schools will be put on hiatus for now.

For returning underclassmen at Highland, prepare for region games full of excitement in the coming years.