High school sports: UHSAA draft of new regions would give Northern Utah two 5A leagues
Fremont, Roy, West Field on track to share region in unfinalized draft
BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner
Weber, foreground, and Davis girls soccer teams huddle before a 6A state second-round playoff match Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Kaysville.The next alignment of Utah prep sports is near and the picture is nearly clear — and could bring several strong geographical regions to Northern Utah.
Two weeks ago, the Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA) sorted the state’s high schools into classifications for the 2025-27 school years, based on enrollment and other factors.
After fielding requests from schools to move up or down classifications based on set criteria, the UHSAA announced Wednesday its first consideration — not finalized — of region placements after its Board of Trustees meeting.
The draft of region assignments includes two Northern Utah-based regions shrinking to five schools and the addition of a second area 5A region.
Region 1 contains Davis, Farmington. Layton, Syracuse and Weber in all sports. The 6A classification has just 17 schools.
Fremont slides down to a 31-school 5A and the new Region 5 with old rival Roy and new rival West Field, joining with Bonneville and Box Elder.
Also in 5A, the draft of Region 6 has Clearfield and Northridge in a Davis County-focused league with Bountiful, Viewmont and Woods Cross.
Bear River remains in 4A Region 11 with Cache County schools — except for Logan, which appears to have requested to move down to 3A in all sports where it would compete in Region 14 (non-football) and 3A North (football) with Ben Lomond, Morgan, Ogden and others.
Layton Christian is listed as a 2A football school but all other sports stand to be in 3A Region 14 with the Ogden schools and Morgan.
Utah Military Academy-Hill Field (Riverdale) is in 2A Region 19 for non-football sports, drafted into a region with several Salt Lake-area and Utah County charter schools. Ogden private school Saint Joseph is currently slotted to move down to Class 1A and into Region 24 with schools like Altamont, Manila, Tabiona and Wendover.
Both UMA and Saint Joseph are set to continue playing 1A 8-player football.
Districts and schools can request to present at the next public hearing, scheduled for Dec. 11, to comment on regions. Region assignments for 2025-27 will be finalized by the Board on Dec. 19.
The UHSAA Board is also taking public feedback on the first draft of regions online at uhsaa.org/machform/view.php?id=14359.
The full draft of first region considerations is available online at tinyurl.com/suj4nspm.
