As expected when school enrollments were announced in March, New Palestine will be moving from Class 4A to Class 3A in a number of sports.
The Indiana High School Athletic Association announced Tuesday the new classifications for IHSAA member schools in the sports of boys and girls basketball, football, boys and girls soccer, and girls volleyball for the next two school years.
The enrollment figures — the total of boys and girls in grades 9‐12 — were submitted by the schools to the Indiana Department of Education last fall and are used to determine the classifications in all team sports.
Tournament Success Factor points have been totaled over the last two years and specific teams placed in their appropriate class in each sport.
In girls and boys basketball and in girls volleyball, New Palestine will be one of the largest schools in Class 3A instead of one of the smallest in Class 4A.
Mt. Vernon and Greenfield-Central remain in Class 4A for all three of those sports, while Eastern Hancock will still be in Class 2A.
The four-class sports of baseball, basketball, softball, and volleyball are being classified using a new 20-25-25-30 ratio that was approved by the IHSAA Executive Committee last June. That plan places the largest 20 percent of schools in Class 4A, the next 25 percent in Class 3A, the next 25 percent in 2A and the smallest 30 percent in Class 1A.
Additionally, classifying the four-class sports will be based on the entire membership total and not only those schools participating in each sport effectively keeping sectional alignments similar across each sport.
Football (six classes) and soccer (three classes) are not affected and will continue as they have in previous years.
For both basketball classifications and volleyball, Greenwood, Cathedral, Crispus Attucks, Shelbyville and Roncalli all made the move along with the Dragons down from 4A to 3A.
Mt. Vernon’s total enrollment number was the highest in the county at 1,455, Greenfield-Central is 1,430. New Palestine is 1,209 and Eastern Hancock had a total of 377.
County soccer teams (Eastern Hancock does not currently offer soccer) all remain in Class 3A.
For football, Mt. Vernon, Greenfield-Central and New Palestine remain in 4A and Eastern Hancock stays in 2A.
Mt. Vernon and Greenfield-Central are two of the largest 4A schools in football, which is broken down into six classifications.
The Marauders and Cougars rank No. 2 and No. 3 in Class 4A football enrollment, trailing only Fort Wayne South Side (1,459).
Eastern Hancock just missed the move down to 1A in football. The Royals are the third smallest class 2A school, with the two schools below it moved up due to the IHSAA Success Factor.
The only two smaller enrollments are Lafayette Central Catholic, which remains in 2A because of the Success Factor, and Indianapolis Lutheran, which is moving up due to the Success Factor.
Sectional groupings for each sport (except for softball and baseball) will be announced later this spring following approval of the IHSAA Executive Committee. Softball and baseball sectional groupings will be released in August following the committee’s first meeting of the new school year.
