Chapel Hill – The N.C. High School Athletic Association released final Average Daily Membership numbers last week that determine each school’s athletics classification will be determined – and Murphy is going up.
Based on ADM, Murphy will be moving up to 2A. Meanwhile, Andrews, Hiwassee Dam and Tri-County Early College will remain in 1A.
The way the numbers broke out will have major changes coming for the Smoky Mountain Conference. As the numbers stand, the SMC will be a split 1A/2A conference with Cherokee, Hayesville, Murphy and Swain being the four 2A members, and Andrews and Robbinsville being 1A members for football. The conference’s other 1A members do not field a football team.
There might be a new non-football playing member in the SMC, as Summit Charter in Cashiers will likely join the SMC. They would join Highlands, Nantahala and Blue Ridge Early College to round out the conference.
In past seasons, Summit Charter has been a mainstay opponent for SMC teams.
It’s also likely that 1A school Rosman will rejoin the SMC. If that happens, you will have Andrews, Robbinsville and Rosman in the 1A division, with Cherokee, Hayesville, Murphy and Swain in 2A.
The 1A playoffs will probably be a shortened schedule for football because there are only about 16 schools in 1A division that even field a team. The 2A playoffs will be about the same as today.
Gone from the 2A division are Mount Airy,, Mountain Heritage, Polk County and Thomasville, which are heading up to 3A. Mitchell and Starmount are the schools in the west that SMC teams will probably have to get past to reach the state finals in 2A, while in the east Tarboro will be the powerhouse left in 2A.
The final draft should be available for schools to see their final conference and classification in early December. Schools will have a chance to voice their concerns about the alignment in early spring. In past realignment years, few changes have been made from the draft proposal.
Hayesville fell into the 2A division when other smaller schools were added into the formula. The Yellow Jackets were the next-to-last school into 2A with current ADM numbers.
“I just wish they would hurry and finalize it so we can start scheduling our games for next year,” Hayesville head football coach Chad McClure said about realignment. “We had a hard time filling our schedule last year, and the longer this thing takes will mean the less time we have to get our schedules done.”
That sentiment was echoed by other SMC coaches.
Nobody knows what the final draft by the NCHSAA will look like yet. Although it would be unlikely, what if the new SMC included Madison and Mitchell along with Rosman? The likelier scenario is for Rosman to rejoin the SMC, and Madison and Mitchell o stay put in the new 2A/3A Western Highlands Conference.
The plan the NCHSAA Board of Directors approved will classify the largest 32 schools in the 8A classification, then subdivide the remaining schools into seven different classifications using ADM numbers. They expected to be finished before Christmas.