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Jan. 24—The high school sports landscape for the 2026-28 school years was drastically altered Friday morning.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association released its biennial reclassification and realignment on Friday, and with it came sweeping changes, the biggest being a split between public and private schools for postseason and region/area play.
Private schools will now be split into two divisions, A and AA, for postseason play. AA will be the largest 17 private schools, while A will be filled with the rest. Public schools will be split into six classifications with Class 6A holding 32 teams while the rest will be balanced out between Classes 1A-5A. The AHSAA cut out Class 7A, which was created prior to the 2014-15 school year.
For local coaches, the split between public and private schools came as a surprise.
"It's pretty shocking; I don't really know how to take it. I definitely have mixed emotions," Decatur Heritage football coach Rich Dutton said. "The question I have if we're doing this is what is the benefit of us being a part of the AHSAA anymore?"
Since the split will only affect postseason play, private schools will still be able to play public schools in the regular season. Still, coaches feel the split wasn't something that needed to happen.
"I know city and county schools think we have an advantage, but I've been in both and I think there's a misconception of what private schools are really like," Decatur Heritage basketball coach Jason Marshall said. "Private schools have this reputation for being able to recruit kids and someone pay their tuition, but our system isn't built that way. We don't have athletic scholarship funds; very few private schools do."
It'll be a few weeks before it's revealed how postseason play for private schools will work. Marshall said it will have to be a wait-and-see process but in the meantime his team is focused on winning a state championship. The Eagles recently claimed the No. 1 ranking in Class 2A.
"That's been the goal all year long. After we reached the Final Four last year and came up short, our guys have been hungry to get back," Marshall said. "Now that all this is happening, it's going to be even more motivating to try and go out on top."
—
New classifications
Private schools aren't the only ones that will be making changes going forward.
By cutting Class 7A and keeping 32 schools in Class 6A, 6A becomes the new 7A, which has a ripple effect on the other classifications.
Austin, Hartselle, Decatur and Athens all drop to Class 5A with East Limestone. Ardmore, Brewer, Lawrence County and Priceville drop to Class 4A with West Morgan. Danville, East Lawrence and West Limestone drop to Class 3A with Clements and Elkmont. Falkville and Tanner remain in Class 2A.
Possibly the biggest benefactor of the changes is the Austin Black Bears. Austin has spent the last eight seasons in Class 7A, and while the Black Bears won three region championships in football, they failed to win a playoff game as they usually came up against significantly larger schools from Birmingham.
Now Austin will join a region that is virtually identical to its final seasons in Class 6A, when it enjoyed some of its best successes in school history. From 2015-17, Austin's final three years in 6A, the Black Bears won two region championships in football, reached the quarterfinals once and the semifinals twice. In its final season in 6A in 2017, Austin finished the regular season ranked No. 1 before losing to eventual state champion Pinson Valley 51-50 in the quarterfinals. Pinson Valley was led by current NFL quarterback Bo Nix that season.
"We're pretty excited about the new challenges that we have. A lot of the teams in our new region are teams we've been playing regularly for a long time," Austin football coach Jeremy Perkins said. "The big thing is we're going to be playing teams that are closer to us in size and resources."
New regions and areas for all fall sports can be found on the AHSAA's website, while winter and spring sports will be released in the coming months. Here are the new football regions for local teams:
Class 5A, Region 7: Athens, Austin, Decatur, East Limestone, Florence, Hartselle, Muscle Shoals and Russellville.
Class 4A, Region 8: Brewer, Cherokee County, Crossville, Fairview, Good Hope, Guntersville, Hayden, Sardis.
Class 4A, Region 7: Ardmore, Brooks, Deshler, Hamilton, Lawrence County, Priceville, West Morgan and West Point.
Class 3A, Region 7: Central-Florence, Clements, Colbert Heights, Elkmont, Lauderdale County, Rogers, West Limestone and Wilson.
Class 3A, Region 5: Curry, Danville, East Lawrence, Fayette County, Haleyville, Hatton, Oakman and Winfield.
Class 2A, Region 7: Colbert County, Falkville, J.B. Pennington, Lexington, Phil Campbell, Sheffield, Tanner and Winston County.
Private school A, Region 4: Coosa Christian, Decatur Heritage, Lindsay Lane, Mars Hills, Shoals Christian, Westbrook Christian and Whitesburg Christian.
— [email protected] or 256-340-2395. Twitter @CalebSuggs2
Continue reading...
The Alabama High School Athletic Association released its biennial reclassification and realignment on Friday, and with it came sweeping changes, the biggest being a split between public and private schools for postseason and region/area play.
Private schools will now be split into two divisions, A and AA, for postseason play. AA will be the largest 17 private schools, while A will be filled with the rest. Public schools will be split into six classifications with Class 6A holding 32 teams while the rest will be balanced out between Classes 1A-5A. The AHSAA cut out Class 7A, which was created prior to the 2014-15 school year.
For local coaches, the split between public and private schools came as a surprise.
"It's pretty shocking; I don't really know how to take it. I definitely have mixed emotions," Decatur Heritage football coach Rich Dutton said. "The question I have if we're doing this is what is the benefit of us being a part of the AHSAA anymore?"
Since the split will only affect postseason play, private schools will still be able to play public schools in the regular season. Still, coaches feel the split wasn't something that needed to happen.
"I know city and county schools think we have an advantage, but I've been in both and I think there's a misconception of what private schools are really like," Decatur Heritage basketball coach Jason Marshall said. "Private schools have this reputation for being able to recruit kids and someone pay their tuition, but our system isn't built that way. We don't have athletic scholarship funds; very few private schools do."
It'll be a few weeks before it's revealed how postseason play for private schools will work. Marshall said it will have to be a wait-and-see process but in the meantime his team is focused on winning a state championship. The Eagles recently claimed the No. 1 ranking in Class 2A.
"That's been the goal all year long. After we reached the Final Four last year and came up short, our guys have been hungry to get back," Marshall said. "Now that all this is happening, it's going to be even more motivating to try and go out on top."
—
New classifications
Private schools aren't the only ones that will be making changes going forward.
By cutting Class 7A and keeping 32 schools in Class 6A, 6A becomes the new 7A, which has a ripple effect on the other classifications.
Austin, Hartselle, Decatur and Athens all drop to Class 5A with East Limestone. Ardmore, Brewer, Lawrence County and Priceville drop to Class 4A with West Morgan. Danville, East Lawrence and West Limestone drop to Class 3A with Clements and Elkmont. Falkville and Tanner remain in Class 2A.
Possibly the biggest benefactor of the changes is the Austin Black Bears. Austin has spent the last eight seasons in Class 7A, and while the Black Bears won three region championships in football, they failed to win a playoff game as they usually came up against significantly larger schools from Birmingham.
Now Austin will join a region that is virtually identical to its final seasons in Class 6A, when it enjoyed some of its best successes in school history. From 2015-17, Austin's final three years in 6A, the Black Bears won two region championships in football, reached the quarterfinals once and the semifinals twice. In its final season in 6A in 2017, Austin finished the regular season ranked No. 1 before losing to eventual state champion Pinson Valley 51-50 in the quarterfinals. Pinson Valley was led by current NFL quarterback Bo Nix that season.
"We're pretty excited about the new challenges that we have. A lot of the teams in our new region are teams we've been playing regularly for a long time," Austin football coach Jeremy Perkins said. "The big thing is we're going to be playing teams that are closer to us in size and resources."
New regions and areas for all fall sports can be found on the AHSAA's website, while winter and spring sports will be released in the coming months. Here are the new football regions for local teams:
Class 5A, Region 7: Athens, Austin, Decatur, East Limestone, Florence, Hartselle, Muscle Shoals and Russellville.
Class 4A, Region 8: Brewer, Cherokee County, Crossville, Fairview, Good Hope, Guntersville, Hayden, Sardis.
Class 4A, Region 7: Ardmore, Brooks, Deshler, Hamilton, Lawrence County, Priceville, West Morgan and West Point.
Class 3A, Region 7: Central-Florence, Clements, Colbert Heights, Elkmont, Lauderdale County, Rogers, West Limestone and Wilson.
Class 3A, Region 5: Curry, Danville, East Lawrence, Fayette County, Haleyville, Hatton, Oakman and Winfield.
Class 2A, Region 7: Colbert County, Falkville, J.B. Pennington, Lexington, Phil Campbell, Sheffield, Tanner and Winston County.
Private school A, Region 4: Coosa Christian, Decatur Heritage, Lindsay Lane, Mars Hills, Shoals Christian, Westbrook Christian and Whitesburg Christian.
— [email protected] or 256-340-2395. Twitter @CalebSuggs2
Continue reading...
