The Indiana High School Athletic Association unveiled the new sectional alignments in six team sports — boys basketball, girls basketball, football, boys and girls soccer and girls volleyball — at its executive committee meeting Tuesday for the next two-year period.
The baseball and softball sectional realignment committee will meet in the summer and those recommendations will be presented to the IHSAA executive committee at its Aug. 27 meeting.
More:Girls wrestling, boys volleyball approved as fully recognized sports by IHSAA
There are some significant changes in the four-class sports due to the new classification metrics approved by the IHSAA with top 20% of schools in 4A, next 25% in 3A, next 25% in 2A and smallest 30% in Class A. Here are some of my initial major takeaways from the realignment:
>> Sectional 8 in basketball will remain unchanged. Fishers, the defending state champion in boys basketball in Class 4A, will stay with Carmel, Hamilton Southeastern, Noblesville, Westfield and Zionsville in a six-team sectional.
>> Sectional 9 will also be a six-team sectional. New Palestine, which had been in Sectional 9, moves down to Class 3A. The rest of the sectional remains the same with Anderson, Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon, Muncie Central, Pendleton Heights and Richmond.
>> The familiar Sectional 10 gauntlet of recent years will look much different without Cathedral and Crispus Attucks (now in 3A). Sectional 10 will be Tech, Lawrence Central, Lawrence North, North Central and Warren Central.
>> One of the major changes is the Terre Haute schools now going in with Bloomington North, Bloomington South and Martinsville to form a five-team Sectional 13. That means the schools that had previous been aligned with Terre Haute North and South — Avon, Brownsburg and Plainfield — are now in a five-team Sectional 11 with Ben Davis and Pike. That is one of the biggest differences in the 4A realignment.
>> Sectional 12 will also look different with Center Grove, Decatur Central, Franklin Central, Mooresville, Perry Meridian and Southport making up a six-team field.
>> There are more six-team sectionals and four-team sectionals than I expected. In 4A basketball, there are five six-teamers and four four-teamers. The remaining seven are five-team sectionals. I expected more of the five-teamers.
>> Class 3A basketball is wildly different. Sectional 25 will now be Brebeuf Jesuit, Crawfordsville, Danville, Frankfort, Guerin Catholic, Lebanon and Tri-West. Sectional 26 will have Herron, Bishop Chatard, Cathedral, Crispus Attucks, Shortridge and Purdue Poly. Sectional 27 will have Cascade, Edgewood, Washington, Northview, Owen Valley and Speedway. And Sectional 28 will be Beech Grove, Greenwood, Indian Creek, New Palestine, Roncalli, Rushville and Shelbyville.
>> Class 2A looks different, too. Park Tudor will be aligned with Covenant Christian, Cardinal Ritter, Monrovia, Riverside and University in Sectional 42. In Sectional 43: Christel House, Eastern Hancock, Heritage Christian, Scecina, Irvington and Triton Central.
>> Class 6A football has some minor changes. One north sectional will now have Carmel, Harrison (West Lafayette), Westfield and Zionsville. Harrison replaces Noblesville, which now moves to another north sectional with Fishers, Hamilton Southeastern and Homestead. The south in 6A remains the same as it has been.
>> In 5A, Whiteland is now in the same sectional with Decatur Central and Plainfield. Anderson is the fourth team in that group. Franklin will be with Columbus East, East Central and Seymour.
>> Bishop Chatard moves into a Class 4A football sectional with Brebeuf Jesuit, Danville, Crispus Attucks, Shortridge, Mooresville, Northview and Roncalli.
>> Lutheran, moving up to 2A in football, will be in a sectional group with Christel House, Covenant Christian, Heritage Christian, Cardinal Ritter, Scecina, Monrovia and Park Tudor. That is a loaded sectional.
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.
