New Sectional Assignements
The IHSAA Executive Committee approved the sectional assignments in six team sports for the next two school years at their Monday meeting.
Following a minor adjustment made in boys’ soccer, the Executive Committee accepted the recommendations of the respective realignment committees which determined the sectional groups for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years.
In football, different assignments for Class 5A and 6A were issued for the 2019 and 2020 seasons affecting a handful of schools. In 2019, Elkhart Central and Elkhart Memorial will compete in 5A but consolidate to form a new and larger Elkhart High School which was assigned to compete in 6A in 2020. As a result, the smallest 6A team, Valparaiso, will drop to 5A for the 2020 season. Those two moves will create different groups of teams in Sectionals 2, 9 and 10 from one year to the next.
Three committees consisting of school administrators representing each IHSAA district and class were constructed to realign the sports. The football committee totaled 18 administrators, the basketball and volleyball committee was made up of 12 members and the soccer committee consisted of nine individuals. The baseball and softball realignment committee will meet this summer after both state tournaments conclude in June with their sectional.
FOOTBALL
The new football alignment will put five Wabash River Conference teams in Sectional 45, Class A: Parke Heritage, Riverton Parke, North Vermillion, Covington and Fountain Central. They will be joined by South Putnam, Cloverdale and Traders’ Point Academy. Attica, meanwhile, will be sent north to Sectional 42 with Carroll (Flora), Clinton Central, Clinton Prairie, Frontier, North White, Lafayette Central Catholic and Tri-County.
Seeger and South Vermillion will play in Class 2A, Sectional 37, along with Cascade, Monrovia, North Putnam, Southmont, Speedway and Western Boone.
Northview, meanwhile, will play in Class 4A, Sectional 24 along with Boonville, Evansville Central, Evansville Reitz, Evansville Harrison, Evansville Memorial and Jasper.
BASKETBALL
Despite some slight differences between the boys’ and girls’ Sectional pairings, both Parke County schools will now play in Class 2A. The boys are assigned to Sectional 43 and the girls to Sectional 44. Both groups also include Cloverdale, North Putnam, South Putnam and Southmont; the boys’ Sectional also includes Cascade.
Also in Class 2A, Fountain Central and Seeger will be in Sectional 38 with Clinton Prairie and Rossville; the girls’ tourney will also include Sheridan, while the boys’ tourney will add Carroll and Western Boone without Sheridan.
In Class 1A, North Vermillion, Covington and Attica will be joined by Clinton Central, Faith Christian and Lafayette Central Catholic in both gender tourneys.
Class 3A will pit South Vermillion and Northview in Sectional 26 along with Brown County, Brownstown Central, Edgewood, Owen Valley and West Vigo.
VOLLEYBALL
The volleyball pairings, also in four classes like basketball, mirrors the winter roundball assignments pretty close. Parke Heritage and Riverton Parke will be in Sectional 44, Class 2A along with Cascade, Cloverdale, North Putnam, South Putnam and Southmont. Fountain Central and Seeger will be in Sectional 37 with Carroll, Clinton Prairie, Delphi, Lewis Cass and Rossville.
In Class 1A, Sectional 54 will include North Vermillion, Covington, Attica, Lafayette Central Catholic, Traders’ Point Christian Academy and Bethesda Christian. In Class 3A, Northview and South Vermillion will play in Sectional 26 along with West Vigo, Owen Valley, Edgewood, Brown County and Brownstown Central.
