On Wednesday, Dec. 4, the UHSAA board of trustees had a meeting about the realignment and new regions for the 2025-27 seasons. During the meeting, the board finally came to a consensus on the second draft of the realignment and passed the plans.
Although nothing is officially set in stone yet, as the board still has one more meeting on Dec. 19 to finalize the changes in store for the next couple of years, it appears that Highland will be dropping to the 4A classification for athletics.
But after Highland athletics director Swede Robinson attended the latest meeting, he seems to think that the renderings are essentially official.
“The likelihood of it happening is like 99 percent,” Robinson said. “We’re there. We’ve done the hard parts and now were just finalizing some small details.”
As of Dec.19, the realignment will be complete and become official. In that time, it will be the responsibility of the schools affected to make necessary changes to schedules for the next two years.
As for Highland athletics, the list of benefits is a long one.
“We’d be more aligned with schools of similar demographics and populations,” Robinson said. “It would create more balance in the competitive world.”
In recent years, many sports at Highland have struggled to compete at a high level in 5A, especially in a tough region 7 that is composed of some of the most talented and competitive schools in all of 5A. Making the transition down to 4A could give Highland athletics an edge that has been lacking.
“I think that we will be able to compete at a higher level,” Robinson said. “In my opinion, that’s what students care about a lot.”
The proposal is that Highland would leave 5A region 7 and join 4A region 10. Region 10 is made up of Cottonwood, Murray, Jordan, Judge Memorial, and potentially Highland. For all those worried about the loss of Highland’s biggest rival, East High School will also be moving into the same region.
All the Salt Lake City School District schools will probably be in a new place at the start of the next couple of seasons, with Highland and East moving to 4A, and West leaving 5A region 7 to join 5A region 4. East and Highland are being replaced by SPA, Wasatch, and Pleasant Grove.
The only teams at Highland that could potentially want to stay at 5A are boys Basketball and boys Tennis. Basketball is already petitioning to stay at 5A and tennis is still in the process of verifying whether or not they also want to stay 5A. Both teams have good reason to stay 5A after such successful seasons last year, with basketball making it to state semi-finals and tennis winning the state championship.
Although moving down to 4A could bring some potential drawbacks in some people’s opinions – such as having to travel to places like St. George to compete – Robinson believes the pros far outweigh the cons.
“In my opinion the drawbacks are minor,” Robinson said. “For the current students we have and the types of athletes and abilities we have, I see it as very positive.”
Although everything is still in the “concept” phase, the changes could make a lot of people at Highland really excited about the passing of the change and seeing a different brand of competition, along with potentially making Highland a competitive player in athletics.
