Realignment?

[Allazallstars]

New divisions and sections are posted on aia online.

Looks like a bunch of 5A schools are bumped up to division 1.

Like Sunnyside, Horizon, Millennium, Marana etc.....

 

[FamousLie]

The sections are a mess. They have Page grouped with a bunch of valley schools? I get they're trying for a competitive balance, but nobody is gonna drive 4-5 hours for a few duals. They should just got straight to using geography to sort this out. I'm glad they put 48 schools in DI, but they need to break up the sections along neighborhood lines honestly. Some of them make no sense.

 

[Coachdoerr]

The sections are a mess. They have Page grouped with a bunch of valley schools? I get they're trying for a competitive balance, but nobody is gonna drive 4-5 hours for a few duals. They should just got straight to using geography to sort this out. I'm glad they put 48 schools in DI, but they need to break up the sections along neighborhood lines honestly. Some of them make no sense.

Not true. Is schools in Yuma have no choice we travel everywhere with no complaints. We just want to wrestle We do not cry about traveling

 

[FamousLie]

Not true. Is schools in Yuma have no choice we travel everywhere with no complaints. We just want to wrestle We do not cry about traveling

Yeah but there are schools nearby to wrestle. There's nobody near Page, the nearest school to compete against is at least 2 hours away. You have Cibola, San Luis, YC, Kofa, plus CA schools that are close, and also smaller schools like Antelope and Parker. Putting Page in a region with a bunch of valley schools is idiotic. They should have just left them with the Flagstaff schools, Mingus and anyone else nearby. Having those other schools nearby at least mitigates some of that, plus it isn't like you're surrounded by lousy teams. Hopefully they realign the regions so that it minimizes people having to drive across the state.

 

[Coachdoerr]

We wrestle those schools a couple times each year but it gets old. We are not really allowed to wrestle those Cali schools. So I’m saying that we have no problem with traveling. In fact we travel close to 10k miles during the summer. The only way to get better is to travel and see different kids all the time.

 

[Laveen]

Regarding Page. Page’s representative on the wrestling committee requested this alignment and voted for it. Page is remote and has to drive for hours no matter which section it is placed. The thought is that in the winter it is better to have a drive on I-17 to Phoenix rather than drive for hours in the White Mountains to reach Show Low or Payson, which would take longer and face far worse road conditions.

 

[Laveen]

We wrestle those schools a couple times each year but it gets old. We are not really allowed to wrestle those Cali schools. So I’m saying that we have no problem with traveling. In fact we travel close to 10k miles during the summer. The only way to get better is to travel and see different kids all the time.

 

[Laveen]

That was the exact reasoning applied in D1. If you look at the last 5 years, the strongest section was the west, with Liberty, Cibola, Kofa, and Boulder Creek. All four of these schools finished in the top 10 on average. The Yuma schools have great programs. Besides the two mentioned above, Gila Ridge is going to be strong in D2. The Criminals two state championships speak for themselves. Jeff Welsing is one of the hardest working coaches in AZ, in all sports. He will continue to grow his own kids, but I’m surprised more local youth studs (is their parents) don’t recognize how well Jeff develops wrestlers.

 

[FamousLie]

Regarding Page. Page’s representative on the wrestling committee requested this alignment and voted for it. Page is remote and has to drive for hours no matter which section it is placed. The thought is that in the winter it is better to have a drive on I-17 to Phoenix rather than drive for hours in the White Mountains to reach Show Low or Payson, which would take longer and face far worse road conditions.

That's weird their AD or whoever their rep was would want to drive 5+ hours instead of 2-3. I get that we're about wrestling and everything, but what about loss of class time just to go wrestle some duals on a Wednesday? I get that people travel for tournaments, Page has theirs and they go to others, that's unavoidable, but purposely making it so you have to travel even further for routine duals seems a little odd. I think Page had been D4 the last few years so they wrestled a lot of schools on the rez, which makes it easier. I don't think any of the schools there are D3, which is a shame because then you could group them with Flagstaff schools, Mingus and some others in that area. I'm just more about minimizing travel and making things more efficient so you're not traveling 10+ hours round trip.

 

[Coachdoerr]

That was the exact reasoning applied in D1. If you look at the last 5 years, the strongest section was the west, with Liberty, Cibola, Kofa, and Boulder Creek. All four of these schools finished in the top 10 on average. The Yuma schools have great programs. Besides the two mentioned above, Gila Ridge is going to be strong in D2. The Criminals two state championships speak for themselves. Jeff Welsing is one of the hardest working coaches in AZ, in all sports. He will continue to grow his own kids, but I’m surprised more local youth studs (is their parents) don’t recognize how well Jeff develops wrestlers.

I coach along side with Jeff. Last few years the numbers with our kids program have declined for many reasons but we will get the numbers back. I am with you. We have brought back 4 team trophies in the past 4 years but still don’t get the recognition like we should. We put in 1000’s of countless hours for these kids. We love doing it.

 

[FamousLie]

I coach along side with Jeff. Last few years the numbers with our kids program have declined for many reasons but we will get the numbers back. I am with you. We have brought back 4 team trophies in the past 4 years but still don’t get the recognition like we should. We put in 1000’s of countless hours for these kids. We love doing it.

Respect for having a program in a place like Yuma. So many other non school problems that get in the way of school and sports. It's why the guys at Chavez do a great job, the guy at Alhambra is trying to build and other schools in similar situations. It's hard to coach at those kinds of places, so respect for anyone who does and can build a winning team.

 

[Laveen]

Agreed. Over the past 5 years, here are the schools who finish in the top 3 on average:
Sunnyside - 1
Liberty - 2
Morenci - 2
St Johns - 2
Yuma - 3
Marana MV - 3
Cibola - 3
Safford - 4
Mesa MV - 4
Show Low - 5
Walden Grove - 5
Desert Vista - 5
Division 3 has 4 of the states most successful programs and Yuma is leading that pack. Next year D 1 has Sunnyside, Liberty, Cibola, and Desert Vista. It now is the premier division, which it should be. D 2 will have Marana MV and some schools not on the list that will make pushes, notably Casteel. Similarly, in D4 the best team not on the list is Santa Cruz and the should win their third championship in a row, but Morenci is very good and have some incoming freshmen who are lights out tough. Honestly, I think the AIA got it right.

 

[homerdindon]

Here are the new D1 sections, not sure about other divisions:

Section 1
Basha
Corona del Sol
Highland
Kofa
Marana
Maricopa
Perry
Red Mountain
Rincon/University
Skyline
Sunnyside
Tucson

Section 2
Alhambra
Carl Hayden
Cesar Chavez
Desert Vista
Millennium
Hamilton
Maryvale
Mountain Pointe
Mesa Mountain View
North
South Mountain
Trevor Browne

Section 3
Brophy
Chaparral
Cibola
Desert Ridge
Dobson
Horizon
Independence
Mesa
Pinnacle
Queen Creek
Sunnyslope
Westwood

Section 4
Boulder Creek
Chandler
Copper Canyon
Liberty
Mountain Ridge
San Luis
Sandra Day O'Connor
Shadow Ridge
Tolleson Union
Valley Vista
West Point
Westview

 

[FamousLie]

I understand why they created some of these sections, but honestly it just takes away from some of the tradition of high school athletics. The Mesa schools are all kind of separated, so now they don't have any kind of bragging rights in the district since they are all in different sections now. Personally I liked the idea of the Mesa schools combined with some of the Phoenix Union schools. The economics of some of the Mesa schools aren't too dissimilar to the Phoenix schools honestly. Combining the Tempe Union schools with Chandler/Gilbert schools seems like a good pairing since it's geographically together. Throw in Queen Creek and Desert Ridge with them and that's not a bad section to be in. Instead of trying to balance it out, because programs have up and down cycles, why not just stick to who's area is better or tougher than the others? It just makes more sense to me honestly.

 

[FamousLie]

Here's what I would have gone with.

Mesa
Mesa Mountain View
Skyline
Red Mountain
Westwood
Dobson
North
Alhambra
Chavez
South Mountain
Highland
Desert Ridge

Liberty
Independence
Mountain Ridge
Brophy
SDO
Shadow Ridge
Sunnyslope
Pinnacle
Chaparral
Valley Vista
Horizon
Boulder Creek

Tolleson
Westview
West Point
Cibola
Kofa
San Luis
Copper Canyon
Maryvale
Trevor Browne
Millennium
Carl Hayden

Desert Vista
Sunnyside
Rincon
Tucson
Marana
Maricopa
Queen Creek
Chandler
Perry
Basha
Hamilton
Corona del Sol