State Opens Its A-4 Door

The State A-4 boys and girls basketball tournaments will double in size beginning this winter.

The Idaho High School Activities Association board members voted last month to expand the eight-team state tournaments to 16. Under the new format, two of the five North Star League teams will earn berths to state.

“A-4 is the largest classification in the state and one of the real problems we’ve had is representation to state,” IHSAA executive director Bill Young said. “For example, every three years District I (North Idaho) would receive a half berth and have to playoff with another district to go to state.”

Kootenai School District superintendent Ron Hill spearheaded the drive to expand the state tourney fields.

Hill sent a questionnaire in January to the 49 A-4 superintendents asking if they supported or would be against a proposal to expand the tournament. He received 36 replies and 25 superintendents supported the proposal and 10 were against it. One was undecided.

“It was hard for the IHSAA to say no when 71 percent of the A-4 superintendents favored it,” said Hill, who represents District I on the IHSAA board.

The 16-team format is in place for one year. The IHSAA will review it and decide whether to permanently adopt it.

Young doesn’t expect any major problems, though.

“The most important thing is it’s good for kids,” Young said. “There will probably be some stumbling blocks, but overall it should be positive.”

The new format will require that the tournaments begin one day earlier than the other three state tourneys. The number of games the first two days will double, requiring that the tournaments be held at two sites.

“We’ll hold the upper bracket at one site and the lower bracket at another site for the first two days,” Young said. Six games will be played the third day at the same site, he said.

This is how the berths will be determined to state by district: District I goes from 1 (and every three years a half) to two, District II (Lewiston/Moscow area) doubles from one to two, District III (Boise area) goes from 2 to 5, District IV (Twin Falls area) goes from 2 to 5 and District V-IV (Idaho Falls and Pocatello area) goes from one to two.

“By expanding it gives the A-4 schools the same ratio of opportunity to go to state as the other classifications,” Hill said. “I feel pretty good about it.”

Hill also played a key role two years ago in the A-4 division receiving its own state track meet.

“There’s an argument out there that will say we’ll have a hard time finding 16 good basketball teams,” Hill said. “But look at last year. Lakeside (boys) finished second at state and Mullan beat them in the district tournament. There will be some down years, I’m sure, but this will give kids more opportunities to go to state and that’s significant.”

A-4 consists of 49 schools, nearly double the two largest classifications in the state (A-1 27, A-2 26). A-3 has 34 schools.

Young didn’t rule out the possibility that other divisions could expand to 16 teams in the future. But it’s not likely in the immediate future.

Reclassification evaluation

The 1996-97 school year is the second of a two-year process in which enrollment numbers are collected toward reclassification.

Several schools in each division appear on the bubble of possible reclassifications after last year.

Lakeland, which is the largest A-2 school in the state, appears destined for the A-1 ranks. All schools that are tabbed for reclassification will have a transition year before moving into the new division. Which means any schools that are reclassified won’t do so until the 1998-99 year.

Other A-2 schools that are looking at a move to A-1 include: Vallivue, Moscow, Jerome, Snake River and possibly Shelley.

While the A-2 division could lose as many as five schools it could also gain as many as nine schools from A-3.

And A-4 Lakeside is presently three students over the limit for the state’s smallest division. Nampa Christian, which faced Lakeside in the boys basketball state title game, is definitely moving up to A-3.

On schedule

The gym under construction in Nampa that will play host to the girls and boys state basketball tournaments for the next five years is on schedule, Young said.

The facility, recently named the Idaho Center, will seat 13,500. Young said it will feature many state-of-the-art amenities.

Construction is expected to be finished by Dec. 15.

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