Some find new IHSAA sports reclassification a little confusing

Weiser High School sports teams in 2024-25 will compete within the IHSAA’s (Idaho High School Activities Association) newly reorganized classification system.

 Following the move in September 2023, Weiser will now compete as a 4A school, bumped up from 3A where it has competed for the better part of 40 years.

 Some find it a bit confusing, with many asking why it happened and whether all WHS teams will compete as 4A or if some are petitioning to continue as 3A.

 First, the IHSAA adjusted enrollment numbers for each classification creating a new “6A” classification as the largest and eliminating the previous 1A split, represented by 1A Division I and 1A Division II.

 It is the first time any significant change to IHSAA’s classification rules have been made in 20 years, according to the Idaho Statesman. It increases the size of schools in each classification and renames the divisions.

 “The superintendents across the state voted in a two-thirds majority to put the new system in place, which changes the name of each class and enrollment numbers. That overrode a vote from the IHSAA Board of Directors in August (2023) that struck down the proposal,” according to LocalNews8 in Idaho Falls.

 Tol Gropp, athletic director at Timberline High School in Boise, led the classification committee. He said the goal was to accommodate growing enrollment numbers in Idaho schools and to rebalance the number of teams in each classification.

 “It’s planning for what inevitably happens at the 5A level and the 4A level,” he told the Statesman. “For the lower levels, it doesn’t change a whole lot right away, but it could. But we have seen 5A blow up to 28 schools next year, and potentially even more after that.”

 Weiser Athletic Director Bowe von Brethorst said the new classification system was mostly designed to address enrollment at bigger schools.

 “There needed to be a new classification for the big teams,” he told the Signal American. “So, we are talking Eagle High School and some of the other big teams down there. What was going on is that these big, dominant schools were just 5A and they were playing teams like Nampa that didn’t have the enrollment, and it wasn’t very competitive. There was a max number for enrollment, and they surpassed that max number, so they had to make another classification up top.”

 For the most part, according to von Brethorst, WHS sports teams will face the same league opponents as always. What is now 4A District III mirrors very closely the list of teams in the previous 3A District III, with the exception of Parma bumping down to 3A and Cole Valley Christian bumping up to 4A. Also included in the mix is Renaissance Charter, which bumps down to 4A and is now a WHS league opponent.

 Take time to look at the IHSAA graphic included with this story to get a clearer understanding.

 District III 4A now consists of Cole Valley, Fruitland, Homedale, McCall-Donnelly, Payette, Renaissance and Weiser.

 Renaissance and other private or charter schools, von Brethorst said, must be included somewhere in the mix if they are to compete in sports.

 “They are just speech and debate,” he said of Renaissance. “Some of these academies and other schools, they aren’t really sports or they compete in one sport, but if you want to have a sport and compete, you have to be sanctioned and classified somewhere,” even if it’s simply speech and debate.

 Von Brethorst said that individual teams can petition to compete in a different classification.

 “Any team can petition down or up, and it can be any sport,” he said. “What they look at is competitive effectiveness. So, if you haven’t been competitive for several years, you can actually petition to go down and play.”

 As an example, Emmett petitioned to go down to 4A District III for soccer and volleyball, which means the Huskies are now a WHS league opponent in those sports.

 When asked if that was fair to the league receiving the new team, von Brethorst said that the decision to accept a new team from a higher classification sits in the hands of school superintendents of the specific league who vote whether to allow the move. It all has to be fair and make sense from a competitive standpoint.

 “That’s exactly what they are trying to stop, larger schools coming down and dominating the league. There are checks and balances with IHSAA,” he said. “They set it up so that if a team wants to make a move up or down, the superintendents can vote by majority vote to say yes or no.”

 Von Brethorst added that all WHS teams will compete in 4A. Weiser’s current enrollment is 532.

 The previous and new enrollment numbers are as follow:

Previous New

5A: 1,281+ 6A: 1,400+

4A: 640-1,280 5A: 700-1,399

3A: 320-639 4A: 350-699

2A: 160-319 3A: 175-349

1ADI: 85-159 2A: 90-174

1ADII: 0-84 1A: 0-89