By: Mike Glesinger
News coming out of Lincoln from the Nebraska School Activities Association Wednesday. The NSAA has released it's latest enrollment numbers, the new enrollments determine the classifications for football in the 2022 and 2023 seasons and all other activities for the 2022-23 school year. It appears that longtime Class B teams...McCook...Aurora...Roncalli and Alliance will be dropping to Class C-1, for football.
According to the NSAA, the enrollment numbers for Alliance, for grades 9-10-11, will be below the 160-boys threshold for Class B football. The new figures project Alliance with 149 boys and 153 girls with total enrollment of 302. Alliance Superintendent Dr. Troy Unzicker says each sport is classified differently, but with football, which runs on a 2-year schedule cycle, the NSAA will use these latest numbers to set those schedules for the next 2 seasons. Putting the Bulldogs in Class C1. District assignments and classifications for C1, C2, D1,D2 and D6 football, will be set within the next week. Dr. Unzicker says classifications for other sports/activities will be determined in next year, but will be done using the latest numbers.
Five new schools will be opening in Nebraska. Omaha Buena Vista and Westview, Lincoln Northwest and Standing Bear and Gretna East. The two Omaha schools along with Gretna East and Lincoln Northwest will open in the 2022-23 school year. Lincoln Standing Bear is scheduled to open in the 2023 school year. These schools will be classified either Class A or B. How that impacts Alliance is still uncertain. The Bulldogs could remain in Class B in other activities depending on how the new schools are classified, and if other schools decide to option up or down a Class.
Dr. Unzicker says scheduling for other sports and activities probably won't be affected much. AHS will continue to compete against area teams. Being in the western part of the state, it is difficult to schedule games against only teams your size, without traveling long distances.
Looking at what football schedules could look like in the next 2 years, Dr. Unzicker says the NSAA is changing the breakdown for 11-man football. Class A and B is 160 boys and above. Class C will be made up of the rest of the schools playing 11-man football. They will be split evenly between Class C1 and C2. Districts will be set on a regional basis, as much as possible. This will make traveling easier. Dr. Unzicker says in the next month or so, Activity Directors will be submitting lists of schools they would like to have on their schedules. The NSAA will then put the football schedules together for the next 2 years. They will be released in early February.
The complete interview with Dr. Unzicker can be heard under post podcast at panhandlepost.com