Class A sports shift to two divisions

Most state Class A sports will have a different look next season, dropping from four divisions to two.

The Montana High School Association recently approved realignment for the class, after Libby and Anaconda decided to drop to class B. Ronan also recently moved to Class B, as most Class A schools are seeing drops in enrollment.

Class A is now at 20 schools statewide. The proposal would combine the Northwestern and Southwestern conferences and the Eastern and Central conferences into Eastern and Western divisions. The divisions would hold a combined divisional tournament in volleyball, basketball, wrestling and track and field, remaining in conferences for football.

The final move to the two-division class will likely be approved in the board’s January meeting, pending comments from the schools.

Whitefish would join Frenchtown, Polson, Columbia Falls, Dillon, Butte Central, Corvallis, Hamilton and Stevensville. While the new conference should be more competitive, it will also likely mean more travel for all schools.

In addition, the board also approved the dissolution of divisional tournaments in speech and debate. Instead students would seed directly into the state tournament based on regular season results.

The board also allowed schools to live stream their own games during the post season if they are members of the NFHS Network.