Class B Football to realign

Last November the Montana High School Association took its’ last votes that will impact Class B football tremendously. Due to low enrollment numbers mainly in small Class B schools, the MHSA voted to allow smaller Class B schools to play Class C 8-man football. Class B lost a total of 11 school due to a couple of schools moving to Class A football and others moving down to Class C 8-man. The changes will take place in the 2017-18 season.

“They are allowing small Class B schools to play Class C 8 man football,” Malta Principal Scott King told the PCN. They will remain and continue to play Class B activities including basketball, volleyball, track and field and things like that.”

According to King, the Class B association approached the MHSA board with a similar plan several years ago.

“We have lost a number of traditionally Class B schools to the Class C ranks,” he said.

Schools like Plentywood, Fairview and Chinook were a few of the examples he gave that have transitioned into Class C over the past couple of decades.

The realignment will affect all divisions of Class B football, including the Northern B, which at the moment has not been divided into 1B or 2B. Class B will consist of four divisions named by location of the schools that comprise their division; North, South, East and West.

The North B will consist of seven teams, including Malta, Conrad, Cut Bank, Fairfield, Glasgow (formerly from 2B), Harlem (formerly from 2B), and Shelby.

The South will consist of Jefferson, Columbus, Townsend, Manhattan, Red Lodge, Big Timber, Three Forks and Whitehall.

The East will consist of Baker, Colstrip, Huntley Project, Poplar (formerly from 2B), Roundup, Shepherd, and Wolf Point (formerly from 2B).

The West will consist of Anaconda, Bigfork, Florence, Eureka, Missoula Loyola, Deer Lodge and Thompson Falls.

According to Montanasports.com, the teams moving from Class B to Class A include Libby and Ronan. Choteau, Forsyth, Joliet, Lame Deer, Lodge Grass, Rocky Boy, St. Ignatius, St. Labre and Troy, will be fielding 8-Man teams, though they will remain in Class B for other sports.

“Football because it is a numbers game was the driving force in the decision to drop to Class C,” King said. “This is unchartered territory for them; they (the MHSA) have not allowed this type of movement for one specific sport in the past.”

With the numbers being an issue, King believes it will benefit Class B schools.

“I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “It will keep traditionally Class B schools in Class B ranks. We are looking at schools right now with declaring enrollments that honestly would qualify for Class C athletics.”

King went on to say that Malta High School doesn’t fit the description of a school with a Class C enrollment number, with Malta High School’s enrollment being at 146.

At this point we are in the bottom half,” he said. “We are a smaller Class B school.”

Though Malta High is in the lower percentile, King doesn’t believe Malta is in danger of dropping below the 108 student minimum for Class B anytime soon.

“Our enrollment at this point all the way down to the grade school the classes are in the thirty-five to forty range,” King said. “So while it has dropped significantly over the last ten years, it’s holding pretty solid where it is right now.”

Malta hasn’t reclassified since changing from Class A in the late seventies, when it was a part of the Northern A division. The Northern A included Malta, Chinook, Shelby, Cut Bank, Conrad, Choteau and Fort Benton.

“Of course that was some time ago but it was at the height of school enrollment for those school districts,” King said. “Malta’s for sure.”

Malta High School’s vote went towards the changes.

“We support this,” King said. “We just know that unless some thought, kind of outside the box came about that Class B over the next two to four years is going to lose schools to declining enrollment.”