Effective Monday, Dec. 7, all sports at Camp Verde, Mingus Union and Sedona Red Rock high schools will be realigned by the Arizona Interscholastic Association into new conferences and regions for the next two years.
Didn’t we just leave this party?
With cost-cutting measures and power rankings virtually ending sectional tournaments for playoff seeding, teams instead competed against the teams closest to them for a high enough ranking.
This approach had its issues, such as when SRRHS football shut out Hopi High School, 43-0, on Oct. 30, only to see Hopi, by the dubious virtue of one fewer loss, edge out the Scorpions for the final Division V playoff spot the very next day.
But at least for the next two full seasons, the names are going back to how they were before, as neither Camp Verde nor SRRHS is expected to appeal their placement with four other teams in the Central Region of the 2A Conference by the Thursday, Dec. 3, deadline.
While eight sports await finalization of the regions Dec. 7, the Cowboys and Scorpions would be the only public schools in their region and compete against Paradise Honors High School, Glendale and Northland Preparatory academies and, in its first season in 2016, Mingus Mountain Academy — an all-girls private school in Prescott Valley.
As part of a modified eight-region proposal, one of three submitted by the 4A Conference committee, the majority of Mingus sports will share the conference’s Grand Canyon Region with six other schools beginning next school year and continuing through May 2018.
That means the Marauders football team will play Lee Williams High School, of Kingman, Bullhead City Mohave High School and the four public schools they all beat to win the Section VIII title — yet still open the state playoffs in Buckeye, where they would lose by six at Division III semifinalist Verrado High School.
Public schools competing against charter and private schools for the same goals is a non-level playing field in many ways, including to many Camp Verde and Sedona coaches, which I will explain in a later column.
Still, here’s hoping everybody sticks with this alignment. Here’s also hoping the AIA can come up with a better system for seeding playoff teams than one that favors charters or private schools — or even that team your team just beat, 43-0.
