Following the Oregon School Activities Association’s decision to redesign its classification system last week, all I could say was: It’s about time.
The previous classification model (only four divisions) was the worst imbalance of power I had seen since the 1994 San Francisco 49ers’ Super Bowl champion team smoked the rest of the NFL with Jerry Rice, Steve Young, Ricky Watters and “Neon” Deion Sanders.
OK, I might be just holding on to the quickly fading glory days of a has-been dynasty, but that’s a different column for a different day.
My real focus here is to applaud the OSAA’s decision to change to six classifications structured around enrollment figures for Oregon’s high school athletics and activities.
Coming from semi-rural Silverton High School, enrollment 1,091, we competed in the 4A division, making us one of the smallest schools in terms of population in that division.
Silverton’s former conference (the Pac-9) consisted of six teams with enrollments of more than 1,500. There’s a reason that Silverton’s conference titles were few and far between.
I’m not implying that small schools don’t have talent. They do. There is just much more of it at larger schools. Does it make sense to have a school with an enrollment of slightly more than 1,000 compete with schools that draw considerably more?
I liken this example to a non-league game earlier this season between the Ducks and Montana Grizzlies, a game Oregon won handily, 47-14.
There’s good reason why Montana, a Division I-AA team, does not routinely play Oregon.
The number of Montana’s athletes and scholarships simply is not equal to the numbers allowed to college football’s major conferences like the Pacific-10.
While high schools can’t give scholarships (Jesuit might argue this) enrollment numbers undeniably translate directly to on-field success.
Larger schools have a luxury that smaller schools don’t – the benefit of more athletes who, because of numbers, can focus on offense or defense instead of being forced to play both sides of the ball. This is why the reclassification decision was such a necessary one.
The one major gripe about the OSAA’s verdict may be the travel forced upon certain teams, namely the Salem-area schools, that now must travel to Redmond and vice versa, crossing the Cascade Mountains in the process – a disconcerting task, especially during the winter sports season. A few Eugene-area schools, Roseburg, South and North Medford and Grants Pass, are others that will incur more undesired time on the bus, but I guess this is another example that you can’t please everyone all the time.
While I can’t speak for the majority of the current high school athletes, I know I’d rather endure a few additional miles and be competitive than play in my back yard and get thumped.
It’s about time the OSAA woke up and realized this as well.

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