2013-14 School Enrollments Released

The IHSAA released its tally of school enrollments that will be used to figure out the new reclassification of sporting tiers. Nothing is set in stone yet, but preliminary indications seem pretty clear that Westfield will be a 5A (out of 6) school. This does NOT (necessarily) change our conference affiliations. (To be clear, I just wanted to point out that it is entirely fine to have schools of different classification levels within the same conference. The levels only really matter with respect to the state tournament.)

Now, I'm not an expert on exactly how this is all going to shake out, but I wanted to engage in some idle speculation. Pretend we're on ESPN for a moment... so I can be completely wrong in my breakdown, but I'm going throw some stuff out there in a confident fashion anyway. Read at your own peril.

I believe they said basically the top 32 teams enrollment-wise will be 6A. After that, a second set of 32 comprises the 5A bracket, and then things continue down from there in usual fashion. This means both the 5A and 6A tournaments will have a bye week where "semi-state" used to be.

There's the "tradition" component, as well. This is something completely new, enabling schools to jump classes on a sport-by-sport basis based on previous tournament success. One point is awarded for a sectional title. Two for regional. Three for semi-state. Four for a state championship. Any school amassing six or more points within a two-year span will be bumped up a class for two years. Continued success would mean more bumping. Lack of success would reset you to the previous classification with 0 points. You can only fall as far as your enrollment allows (rising as high as, well, 6A).

In my opinion, it's an elegant solution to the old public vs private school enrollment debate. It's not a straight modifier or anything, so it doesn't particularly "punish" anyone. I would say that it actual enables "tradition-heavy" programs such as Cathedral a chance to play for the big 6A title. (Having amassed more than 6 points in the last two years, Cathedral should end up in 6A this year. So yes, the point calculations are somewhat retrospective.) I think Cathedral's coaching staff will be excited to pit their teams against the very best the state has to offer.

Perhaps the lone downside I can see is if you simply have a very good class for a couple of years, but then have "rebuilding" years afterward. I'm not sure how you could account for that, however, as it seems a bit of an outlier to the norm. It is likely that no system can achieve perfection, and I think this is better than how things were.

So, how does Westfield shake out under this system? Enrollment wise, we're sitting at 40... 7 slots higher than we ranked last year (Shamrocks are growing!). Even so, our slot would appear to be outside of the top 32, and I'm pretty sure at least Cathedral is going to get bumped up (meaning someone gets bumped down?). Thus, we can say with pretty high confidence that Westfield will fall firmly in the 5A bracket. Our conference looks to be mostly made up of 6A teams. (In a similar situation is Zionsville, while most of the other area teams would figure to be in 6A, such as Fishers and HSE.)

What does Coach Gilbert have to say about this? Well, I snagged y'all a quotation:

I am excited to see our sectional. I believe that anyone would agree that we will be a major force in 5A. We are pumped to compete for a State Championship right away. Our conference is predominately filled with 6A teams and will prepare us to play with anyone who is in 5A. 

What do you think? I think it looks like a great year to be a Shamrock...

Shamrock Star Power

Have a couple of quick announcements to share:

1. Congratulations to Deryion Sturdivant and Dani Hartnett for making the Region 8 All-Star team. They are one step away from the Indiana team!

2. Coach Gilbert passed along a link for the new uniforms we're purchasing. I figured some of you just might be interested in seeing them...

It's a great day to be a Shamrock.