Sports class changes bring new foes to Northwest A

Competition for the Whitefish Bulldogs just got a bit bigger after three new schools were recently added to the Northwest A conference.

The change comes after the Montana High School Association executive board last week approved changes for the state’s sport classes. The board approved new enrollment ranges for all classifications that will shift the conferences.

Browning, Libby and Ronan will join the Northwest A conference, while Frenchtown moves to Southwest A. All changes to MHSA classes will take effect at the start of the 2017-2018 school year next fall.

Whitefish High School activities director Aric Harris said he’s happy to see the changes to the Bulldogs’ conference.

“I think it’s going to be a great thing for Northwest A,” he said.

He pointed out that the conference went from four teams to potentially three teams and now will have six teams.

“There’s a lot of movement going on in Class A,” he said.

The Northwest A conference will now include, Browning, Columbia Falls, Libby, Polson, Ronan and Whitefish.

“It has a lot of positives, obviously our travel will get cut down a little bit,” Harris added. “Our longest bus trip is now two hours so that’s great.”

Harris said one challenge will be for athletic directors to draw up new postseason tournament brackets and remap divisional tournaments.

“Luckily we have really good athletic directors that we work with to try to find the best solution and what’s best for kids in Montana and our sports programs,” he said.

The enrollment ranges for the different classes are being adjusted as part of the change. Class AA now includes all schools with a two-year enrollment average of more than 779 students, which is down from the precious 826. Class A schools will have an average of between 307-778 students, which is down from the previous 340-825 range. Class B is between 108-306 students, which is down from 120-339, and Class C with 107 or fewer students, which is down from 119.

Also as part of these changes, Class B and C schools with enrollment between 65 and 130 students are also eligible to play eight-player football and schools with fewer than 65 students can play six-player football.

Both Libby and Ronan are moving back to Class A competition after moving to Class B in 2015 and 2011, respectively. Ronan had requested to remain in Class B, but the board denied the request, placing it back in Class A.

For more information visit http://www.mhsa.org/.