By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Teams from Alamance County are mostly bunched together in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s first draft of conference alignments that will begin next summer.
Schools can provide feedback on the draft before it is finalized, likely in January.
The NCHSAA is expanding from four classifications to eight, so there are bound to be different combinations when it comes to conference set-ups. The drafts reveal more split conferences (leagues with schools from more than one classification).
Southern Alamance and Williams will be in Class 6-A. The initial draft shows those two schools in a conference with Class 5-A schools Eastern Alamance, Southeast Alamance, Western Alamance, Rockingham County, and Roxboro Person.
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Cummings and Graham will be in Class 4-A. In the draft, they’re listed with Winston-Salem Carver, Eden Morehead, and Reidsville along with Class 3-A schools Bartlett Yancey and McMichael.
In Class 1-A, Clover Garden and River Mill are listed in a six-team league that also includes Discovery Charter, Excelsior Classical, Falls Lake Academy, and Woods Charter.
If the draft is adopted, it means some significant shifts for Alamance County schools. For instance, they’re currently in conferences that include various schools from Orange, Chatham, and Moore counties – and none of those show up with Alamance County schools on the initial draft.
It also leaves out any conference affiliations with Eastern Guilford, which frequently has been a league rival for Alamance County schools. In the draft, Eastern Guilford is with other Guilford County schools plus Asheboro.
Other than Class 8-A with 32 schools, other classifications have totals at either 58 or 59 schools.
