UHSAA establishes 2023-25 Utah prep sports alignment; 8 schools in 5A Region 5, 6 in 6A Region 1
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- Roy’s Bronson Belnap (3) and Clearfield’s Peyton Kotter (4) reach for the basketball in a game Friday, Dec. 9, 2022, in Clearfield.
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- Morgan High’s Brecklee Charlton, left, runs with the ball while being chased by an Ogden defender during a 3A girls soccer state playoff game at Morgan High School on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022.
MIDVALE — Utah’s prep sports alignment for the 2023-25 school years is set.
At its Thursday meeting, the UHSAA Board of Trustees approved the new alignment, which more than doubles the size of the 4A classification, reduces the 6A classification from four regions to three and puts eight schools into the Northern Utah-based 5A Region 5.
Several schools in 5A and 4A found themselves in different regions Thursday than where they were initially placed in last week’s first draft. None of the moves directly affected northern schools, which essentially all got their wishes in this round of realignment.
Roy and Clearfield are moving from 6A to 5A to join Region 5, where they feel they will be a better competitive fit.
For the next two years, 6A Region 1 will be composed of Weber, Fremont, Layton, Davis, Syracuse and Farmington.
Region 5 has Bonneville, Roy, Clearfield, Northridge, Box Elder, Viewmont, Bountiful and Woods Cross.
Region 13 in 3A will have Ben Lomond, Ogden, Morgan, Grantsville, Union and South Summit. The 3A North football region contains five of the same six teams, with South Summit (2A for football) being swapped for Juan Diego.
Enrollment at Ben Lomond and Ogden initially placed them in 4A but since their student population has a free-and-reduced lunch rate greater than 50%, they were both able to remain in 3A where they are in the current alignment.
There was a lengthy discussion during Wednesday night’s public hearing and at Thursday’s board meeting about whether to grant Logan High’s request to move down from 4A to 3A and join Region 13. The request was denied.
Layton Christian remains in 3A but moves from Region 13 to Region 14 with Judge Memorial, Juan Diego, Providence Hall and Summit Academy.
LCA football is in 2A North. LCA boys basketball and boys soccer are currently playing as unattached schools in 4A and are expected to apply in January to be unattached schools in 4A (or higher) for the next alignment as well.
One big sticking point is how Region 14 will operate with just three teams that play boys basketball and four that play boys soccer in the region.
The board indicated it would ensure the other three boys basketball and soccer teams in Region 14 would be able to find games to fill the scheduling void left by LCA and Juan Diego.
Ogden’s St. Joseph Catholic will be in 2A Region 17 but is no longer paired with Weber County compatriot Utah Military Academy (in Riverdale), which will be in Region 16. St. Joseph is among nine teams currently expected to play eight-player football in 2023.
The 2023-25 alignment isn’t 100% finalized. Schools can go to the board during its Jan. 19, 2023, board meeting and apply to move a specific sport or activity to a higher classification for the 2023-25.
It’s a new rule put in place by the board after LCA and Juan Diego successfully petitioned to move their boys basketball teams (and LCA boys soccer) to higher classifications earlier this year.
WEST FIELD HIGH
West Field High, the new Weber County school in Taylor, opens for the 2024-25 school year in the middle of the upcoming alignment period.
UHSAA executive director Rob Cuff said the board will decide where to place the school in January 2024 once Weber School District has completed a boundary study and has a solid idea of how many students will attend West Field.
Depending on how much Fremont High’s enrollment will drop as a result of West Field opening, Fremont may apply to move down to 5A, which schools can do if their enrollment drops 40% year over year.
WSD has previously indicated it wants West Field to open with around 1,400-1,500 students, which in theory would slot the school in 5A and, logically, would place the school in Region 5.
Cuff has previously indicated that a new school opening mid-alignment doesn’t necessarily have to go straight to a region. Rather, it can open as an unattached school, play who it wants, build its programs and then go to a region in the next alignment.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE TENSION
Tension between public and private schools (as well as public charter schools) bubbles daily underneath the surface of Utah high school sports.
UHSAA board member Larry Bergeson asked that the UHSAA and its executive committee “thoroughly evaluate” the impact of private and charter schools on Utah’s prep sports landscape as a whole to see if any tensions between public and private schools can be alleviated.
Public school officials and parents, mostly from rural schools in classifications 3A-1A, sometimes bemoan being in the same classifications as private and charter schools.
Private and charter schools are typically accused of having unfair advantages and of recruiting student-athletes (concrete evidence is rarely, if ever, made public to support the latter accusation).
REGIONS VERSUS RPI DISCUSSION
As the UHSAA board and staff sorted through regions, classifications, schools’ preferences and more, discussions kept veering to one topic: the possibility that the UHSAA ditches the current setup where schools are sorted into regions and qualify for the state tournament based on their RPI ranking.
The UHSAA proposed the idea in 2020 of getting rid of regions and classifying by sport using the RPI. Schools wanted to keep the regions, so the idea fell flat.
At the very least, it appears the board and staff expressed a desire to talk in detail about getting rid of regions and completely pivoting to using RPI.
They’ve had plenty of such discussions in years past, but the tenor of Thursday’s discussion implied that the purely RPI idea is gaining speed. The board is expected to further discuss the RPI-versus-region issue at its March meeting.
Below are lists of regions for the 2023-25 alignment that include schools in the Standard-Examiner coverage area. For a complete breakdown of the 2023-25 alignment, read online at uhsaa.org/news.
2023-25 NON-FOOTBALL ALIGNMENT
6A Region 1: Weber, Fremont, Davis, Farmington, Layton, Syracuse
5A Region 5: Bonneville, Roy, Box Elder, Clearfield, Northridge, Bountiful, Viewmont, Woods Cross
4A Region 11: Bear River, Sky View, Green Canyon, Mountain Crest, Ridgeline, Logan
3A Region 13: Ben Lomond, Ogden, Morgan, Grantsville, South Summit, Union
3A Region 14: Layton Christian, Judge Memorial, Juan Diego, Providence Hall, Summit Academy
2A Region 16: Utah Military Academy, APA-West Valley, Freedom Prep, Intermountain Christian, Merit Prep, Rockwell, Real Salt Lake Academy, UMA-Camp Williams, Wasatch Academy
2A Region 17: St. Joseph Catholic, American Heritage, American Leadership, APA-Draper, Maeser Prep, Rowland Hall, Waterford
FOOTBALL ALIGNMENT
6A Region 1: Weber, Fremont, Davis, Farmington, Layton, Syracuse
5A Region 5: Bonneville, Roy, Box Elder, Clearfield, Northridge, Bountiful, Viewmont, Woods Cross
4A Region 11: Bear River, Sky View, Green Canyon, Mountain Crest, Ridgeline, Logan
3A North: Ben Lomond, Ogden, Morgan, Grantsville, Juan Diego, Union
2A North: Layton Christian, Judge Memorial, South Summit, Summit Academy, Providence Hall
8-Player League: St. Joseph, Utah Schools for the Deaf & Blind, Altamont, Diamond Ranch, Monticello, Rich, Monument Valley, Water Canyon, Whitehorse
