By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Clover Garden and River Mill charter schools could be part of a 10-school super conference based on the latest version of proposed conference assignments for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.
The first draft had those two Alamance County schools in a Class 1-A league that had six total schools. But last week’s second draft listed those schools with eight other schools.
The new version of that Class 1-A league, which is comprised of schools without football, adds Ascend Leadership (in Sanford), Central Carolina Academy (in Sanford), Neuse Charter (in Smithfield) and Southern Wake Academy (in Holly Springs). Those four schools had been listed in a league with two Chatham County schools.
School officials from Clover Garden and River Mill didn’t respond to requests for comment regarding the latest proposal.
Feedback from schools to the NCHSAA was due this week on the latest version. The realignment committee meets again February 3-4. There were reportedly about 175 response forms submitted following the release of the first draft in December.
There’s also a change in the proposed conference that includes Cummings and Graham. They could be part of an eight-team league if the addition of Walkertown is approved.
Walkertown, which is located in Forsyth County (northeast of Winston-Salem), had been listed in a Class 3-A/4-A split conference with schools to the west.
There were no changes in the second draft involving Alamance County’s other five football-playing schools.
The NCHSAA is expanding from four classifications to eight classifications beginning with the next school year.
Here are lists of updated proposed conferences that include Alamance County schools:
Class 1-A: Clover Garden, River Mill, Ascend Leadership, Central Carolina Academy, Discovery Charter, Excelsior Classical, Falls Lake Academy, Neuse Charter, Southern Wake, Woods Charter.
Class 3-A/4-A: Bartlett Yancey (3-A), McMichael (3-A), Winston-Salem Carver (3-A), Walkertown (3-A), Cummings (4-A), Graham (4-A), Eden Morehead (4-A), Reidsville (4-A).
Class 5-A/6-A: Eastern Alamance (5-A), Southeast Alamance (5-A), Rockingham County (5-A), Roxboro Person (5-A) Western Alamance (5-A), Southern Alamance (6-A), Williams (6-A).
