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Published: Feb 01, 2012 12:00 AM
Modified: Jan 31, 2012 11:50 PM

Schools voice opinions on realignment
Plan to be prepared in February
 
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GREENVILLE - The realignment committee of the N.C. High School Athletic Association heard about 20 schools’ presentations related to realignment at the Murphy Center at East Carolina on Tuesday, but none offered a solution that would please all of the NCHSAA 4A members in eastern North Carolina.

The NCHSAA presented two drafts for the next alignment and schools were invited to give their suggestions and reactions during the session. The NCHSAA realigns member schools into conferences every four years based on school openings, closings and fluctuating enrollments. The realignment committee did not give any feedback during the session.

The biggest puzzle among 4A schools in the East this year is what to do with five members of the PAC 6 4A who still are in the 4A classification. East Chapel Hill and Southern Durham will be 3A schools in the next alignment leaving Northern Durham, Durham Hillside, Durham Jordan, Durham Riverside and Roxboro Person.

A five-team conference is not desirable and finding other 4A schools to join them presents problems.

Panther Creek and Green Hope are grouped with the five PAC 6 schools in the NCHSAA’s drafts, but Panther Creek and Green Hope both asked the realignment committee to remain with the Tri-Nine Conference.

Todd Schuler, the Panther Creek athletics director, said it would create a financial hardship for the schools to leave the rivalries they have in their current league. He noted there are four high schools in Cary – the other two are Middle Creek and Cary – and that pulling Green Hope and Panther Creek would not only affect gate receipts and corporate sponsorships, but also increase travel.

He said the current Tri-Nine teams have a shared community.

Bobby Guthrie, the senior administrator for athletics for Wake County Schools, asked that Green Hope and Panther Creek be allowed to stay as well. He also noted that during the next alignment period Wake County will have 21, 4-A schools.

“We’re asking that they be split among three conferences,” Guthrie said.

Bob Hill, the athletic director at Durham Hillside, represented the PAC 6 schools. He noted a five-team conference would create major difficulties.

In 2011, for example, Hillside played only 10 football games because it could not find opponents. One of the 10 was against a team from South Carolina.

“We have good facilities and we have good competitive teams,” he said. “We’ve had sellouts in basketball and football. I think we could develop new rivalries.”

Broughton asked to remain in the current Cap Eight instead of moving to the Greater Neuse River Conference. Jack Spain, the Caps’ athletics director, suggested a new school opening in 2013 in Rolesville, be placed in the Greater Neuse and that Broughton remain with its traditional rivals.

Other than the five teams remaining from the PAC 6, the other major item of discussion was whether Greenville Rose, South Central Pitt, New Bern and Greenville Conley should be in a 3A-4A combination conference. One draft has the schools playing in a league with teams Clayton and West Johnston, while the other has the combination conference with 3A Pikeville Aycock, Eastern Wayne, Southern Wayne and West Craven.

Rose and New Bern are currently aligned in a conference with Wilmington-area schools. Tommy Peacock, the Rose athletic director, said the conference arrangement has resulted in three-hour road trips for league games and required students to miss school instruction time.

West Craven and Wayne County representatives said that combination conferences are inherently unfair because the smaller schools have to compete with schools with much higher enrollments.

The committee will meet on Feb. 15 and prepare an alignment plan. Schools’ representatives may appeal to the committee in person on March 15. Later that day, the committee will announce the finalized realignment plan.

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