AIA
changes coming for 2006‑07 season
The
end of the school year always brings
about changes, and that is especially
true when it comes to sports.
The
Arizona Interscholastic Association,
which governs prep sports in the state,
will begin another two‑year scheduling
block this fall, meaning another region
realignment. That juggle of regions
and conferences will affect two teams
in our coverage area.
After
two years playing in the 4A‑Division
II level, Cactus Shadows will make the
jump up to Division I, where it will
find tougher competition in just about
every sport. Sandra Day O’Connor, meanwhile,
will drop down a classification from
5A‑Division II to 4A‑Division
I where Cactus Shadows will be.
The
two schools, however, won’t be in the
same region next year. Cactus Shadows
moves from the relative ease of the
Wells Fargo 2 Region–where it faces
only four other opponents–and joins
the reconfigured Desert Sky Region,
which things will never be easy.
The
new region will be comprised of (in
order of enrollment) McClintock (1,912
students as of last October), Chaparral
(1,911), Shadow Mountain (1,841), Apache
Junction (1,810), Paradise Valley (1,745),
Cactus Shadows (1,711) and Saguaro (1,647).
O’Connor,
meanwhile, saw a drop in enrollment
to 1,868 as the school’s boundaries
were settled with the opening of Boulder
Creek. The Eagles’ teams will now compete
in the Western Sky Region against Prescott
(1,930), Independence (1,854), Apollo
(1,849), Thunderbird (1,801) and Sunnyslope
(1,758).
Conference
leaders decided to keep the division
split in both divisions to help lower‑level
teams in each conference compete for
state championships. While many critics
felt the split–and subsequent separate
state tournaments–watered down state
competition, the system was kept for
at least another two years.
It
seems it would have just been easier
to add a 6A and 7A and call the conferences
what they really are. If you’re a longtime
Arizona resident (and really, there
aren’t too many of us), you may remember
that up until the late 1980s, AIA’s
top conference was called AAA‑I
and AAA‑II.
To
help reduce confusion, the AIA switched
the current 5A through 1A format for
the 1989‑90 school year and have
stayed with that for almost 20 years.
The division split then returned two
years ago to put us in the exact spot
we were in the 1980s.
It’s
been no secret that schools like Cactus
Shadows and O’Connor need a competitive
edge with enrollments that are neither
big enough to battle the big boys nor
small enough to move down to dominate
the little guys.
Mesa
schools, however, should take their
big enrollments and compete in their
own conference and let schools like
Cactus Shadows and O’Connor compete
for championships that aren’t considered
watered‑down by anybody.
CAVE
CREEK BASEBALL player Brian Matusz
is hoping to lead the University of
San Diego into next month’s College
World Series. The Toreros learned over
the weekend that they will be seeded
eighth in the NCAA regionals and will
host one of them.
If
San Diego wins its four‑team bracket,
Matusz, a sophomore left‑hander
who once played at Phoenix’s St. Mary’s
High School, will then get a shot against
the winner of a regional at Long Beach
State in a Super Regional.
The
College World Series, as always, will
be held in Omaha, Neb., and will feature
eight winners of the Super Regionals.
