Trevor Wilson, the associate commissioner for the Wyoming High School Activities Association called in from his office in Casper to talk to Duke Dance about some scheduling issues weather has brought upon us this winter and classification realignment going into next year. “it’s a combination of things” Trevor said about the struggle to balance what to factor in for class alignment every year in a state like Wyoming where school size difference and of course travel distance are huge factors.
Some changes appear to be on the horizon with the new proposal turning the classifications into very strict numbers-based divisions in which if you have over 700 students you will be 4A moving forward, if your school has 210-699 students you are 3A, 110-209 makes you 2A, and anything under 109 students is 1A starting 2025 season. The old model had the top 16 schools at 4A, the next 16 at 3A, and the next 16 at 2A with everyone under that being 1A but no more of that model should this proposal pass.
There appears to be a lot of support from coaches and schools that have made their voices heard in regards to the new alignment model which is a good sign for the change taking effect and the proposal passing for the 2025 season and beyond. The only sport that will not be impacted by these changes will be football as most people seem to be content and supportive of the current format with the fall’s biggest sport so while every other sport will take these changes into effect in 2 years football should be entirely untouched and keep all current classification alignments completely in tact.
Some people have even suggested in the past making a special reclassification for wrestling as well to simply split the schools into 2 classifications and no further but the momentum for that movement appears to have died down in recent years according to Wilson so wrestling should stay subject to the new format or it’s current one based on the vote for the new proposal but no 2 class split appears to be on the table at this time. Another interesting proposal that was shot down in the most recent vote was for instant replay in football for the postseason to allow reviews of debatable calls on the field and while all but 1 school was opposed to this institution last go-around Trevor Wilson seems to believe that it is only a matter of time before that happens in the near future.
You can catch the full interview with Wilson just below:
