Nothing in baseball can match an ace pitcher, not even the weight of history.
The effect of one closed Fort Wayne school is already being felt, but any future consequences are yet to be determined with the impending closure of another city school.
The IHSAA released its classification for the next two years Monday in football, basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball and the newest classed sport – soccer.
Elmhurst, a Fort Wayne Community school that closed last year, has directly helped Wayne and perhaps indirectly helped South Side move up a class.
Wayne, which got the bulk of the former Elmhurst students, had the biggest jump by going from a midsized Class 4A school to the smallest 5A school in football. Wayne also rose from 3A to 4A in the other class sports (besides soccer).
The enrollment figures, the total of boys and girls in grades 9-12, were submitted by the schools to the Indiana Department of Education last fall and are used to determine the classifications in the sports. Wayne went from the 115th biggest school to 63rd.
Wayne athletic director Steve Townsend said he wasn’t surprised by the move of the Generals’ sports programs.
South Side, which also got some ex-Elmhurst students, jumped up to 5A in football.
Harding, part of East Allen County Schools, will be closed next fall, reorganized and reopened as a magnet school in the fall of 2012. Even without the numbers figured in of where former Harding students will be going in the future, East Allen has one school, Leo, moving up in football, and two, New Haven and Woodlan, moving up in basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball.
Leo will be move from 3A to 4A in football, New Haven will go from 3A to 4A and Woodlan will rise from 2A to 3A in basketball. Woodlan just missed going up in football and will be the largest 2A school.
In football, other area teams going up a class were: Norwell (3A to 4A), Whitko (2A to 3A) and Churubusco (A to 2A). In basketball, Columbia City (3A to 4A) moved up a class.
“We have been very close to the 2A cutoff for the last two reclassifications, so we definitely thought there was a chance,” Churubusco football coach Lee Etzler said. “Our enrollment has not really changed, but I believe the cutoff is a little lower this time.”
Garrett is going up in both basketball and football (2A to 3A), and Central Noble was the lone area school to fall a class, from 2A to A in football.
Sectional groupings for each sport will be announced this spring.
Soccer joins classes
For the first time in IHSAA history, soccer will be a class sport and will be divided into two classes.
Of the 31 northeast Indiana boys and girls soccer teams, 19 will be the largest class of 2A and 12 will be in the smaller class of 1A.
“I have one primary concern and that is the increase in travel that more schools will need to make early in the tournament,” Dwenger girls coach Jason Wisniewski said. “I am pretty sure there will be at least one, but possibly two, 1A Sectionals in Fort Wayne, but the teams that will compete in these will need to drive a considerable distance during the week.”
Wisniewski said that the balance of power will remain with the larger class.
“In 2A, most of the premier teams will still compete for the state title so not much will change,” he said. “There will hopefully be fewer lopsided scores, but I am not convinced of that yet.
“In 1A, there are only a few teams like Bishop Chatard, Guerin Catholic, Concordia, Canterbury, West Lafayette and Mishawaka Marian that really stand out. These are the only teams the pollsters have really discussed the past few years as being a top 20 team in the state (from 1A).”
