Jayhawk-Linn, Pleasanton each drop one classification

While Fort Scott and Uniontown will remain in their classes for this school year, both Jayhawk-Linn and Pleasanton will each drop one classification after the Kansas State High School Activities Association released 2009-10 assignments Tuesday.

Football classes for the 2010 and 2011 seasons were also released. Those will be reviewed in Thursday's edition.

The KSHSAA determines classifications for its member schools in every sport other than football around this time each year. Classification is assigned based on enrollment figures for each school's 10th through 12th graders.

The 32 largest schools in the KSHSAA are assigned to Class 6A. The next 32 are put in Class 5A. Classes 4A, 3A and 2A each have 64 schools while Class 1A has the remaining 101.

Every school in the Southeast Kansas League except Independence and Pittsburg showed a drop in their numbers from last year. Independence actually reported 32 more students while Pittsburg reported the exact same number of students, 550, as last year.

Despite the drop in numbers for so many schools, all nine SEK schools will remain in their current classes -- Pittsburg in 5A, Chanute, Coffeyville, Columbus, Fort Scott, Indy, Iola, Labette County and Parsons in 4A.

Fort Scott reported 415 10-12 graders this year compared to 458 last year. Columbus is the smallest SEK school with 272 students in 10-12.

The Three Rivers League also did not see change for the most part except to Pleasanton. Uniontown reported 117 students this season, seven more than last year, and will remain in Class 2A. Also in 2A are Marmaton Valley and Oswego.

Pleasanton drops from 93 students in last year's count to 75 this year and falls from Class 2A to Class 1A. The drop will affect Pleasanton's basketball schedules as 1A begins its playoffs one week earlier than all the other classes due to its larger number of schools. Pleasanton also experienced a brief drop into Class 1A a few years ago. Altoona-Midway, Chetopa, Crest and St. Paul all remained in Class 1A.

Uniontown, Crest and Oswego all reported a slight rise in students while St. Paul stayed the same as last year. Of the schools that lost students, none other than Pleasanton lost more than two.

Jayhawk-Linn also experienced a steep drop in numbers, falling from 136 students in last year's count to 119 this year. This makes Jayhawk-Linn the only Class 2A school in the Pioneer League. The last time Jayhawk-Linn was a Class 2A school was during the early 1990's according to what the Tribune was able to find in its records.

Pioneer League mates Anderson County, Osawatomie and Prairie View all remain in Class 4A while Central Heights and Wellsville stay in Class 3A. Osawatomie and Wellsville both reported higher counts. Oz has 35 more than last year while Wellsville gained 15. Anderson County lost nearly 20 students.

The numbers released by the KSHSAA also confirm the continued exodus of rural students and the increase in metro-area schools. Maize South opened this school year and was placed in Class 4A. Blue Valley Southwest will open next year and it is presumed that it will also be a 4A school.

Every school in Class 6A has at least 1,000 students with Wichita East the largest school in the state with 1,558 students. But there are large gaps between the largest and smallest school in each of the top three classes. The largest 5A school has 977 students while the smallest has 521. And the largest school in Class 4A, Valley Center, has 506 students while the smallest, Pleasant Ridge and Russel, each have just 190.

Because these numbers have just been released, Regional assignments have been made in just two sports so far: Girls' golf and girls' tennis. The other assignments will be made in the coming weeks.

Fort Scott's golf team will be at Girard's Class 4A Regional on Oct. 12. Uniontown will go to Fredonia's 3-2-1A Regional the same day. Those classes are combined because Classes 2A and 1A have fewer than the minimum 24 schools required to have their own post-season.

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2009-10 All Sports

These classicifation numbers are based on enrollments in grades 10-12 for the school year listed. The 2009-10 numbers and classes are for all sports except football for this school year only.