MHSA rule changes

There are a few changes on the horizon for high school sports in the state of Montana and a few of those changes affect sports at Malta High School.

Per their meeting in late January, the Montana High School Association executive board has added a pair of sports in the 2020-2021 calendar year including girls wrestling and boys powerlifting.

The executive board also passed an alignment that will affect many wrestling teams around the state, dissolving the Northern B-C, and Southern B-C divisions. There will now be two wrestling divisions within the state B and C Schools, the Eastern B-C, and the Western B-C.

“We are now in the Eastern Division and that stretches from Great Falls to Baker,” Malta Activities Director Travis Somerfeld said. “The purpose of the change is to fill out the divisional tournament and have fuller brackets.”

The Eastern B-C will consist of 23 teams including Baker, Belt, Chester-Joplin-Inverness (CJI), Chinook, Circle, Colstrip, Columbus-Absarokee-Park City, Forsyth, Fort Benton-Big Sandy, Glasgow, Great Falls Central, Harlem, Hays-Lodgepole, Highwood, Huntley Project (Worden), Lame Deer, Malta-Whitewater, Poplar, Powder River (Broadus), Red Lodge, Shepherd, White Sulfur Springs, and Wolf Point.

The Western B-C will also consist of 23 teams including Anaconda, Arlee, Bigfork, Broadwater (Townsend), Cascade, Choteau, Conrad, Cut Bank, Fairfield, Florence-Carlton, Jefferson (Boulder County), Lincoln County (Eureka), Manhattan, Plains-Hot Springs, Powell County (Deer Lodge), Shelby, Simms, Saint Ignatius-Charlo, Superior-Alberton, Thompson Falls/Noxon, Three Forks, Valier, and Whitehall.

According to Somerfeld, Malta’s wrestling schedule will be similar to years past, but it may be slightly affected in order to let Malta see more eastern opponents.

“We may move a meet (or two),” Coach Somerfeld said.

Malta will likely be unaffected by the Power Lifting season, because the proposed season if only a few weeks long, begins close to the end of wrestling season and ends at the start of track and field. Powerlifting was added primarily so that larger schools could counterbalance the girls wrestling season, with another sport for male athletes for equal sports opportunities.

Another rule that was passed allows golf coaches to coach players from the tee to the green, whereas in years past, coaches were not allowed to leave their golf carts.

Being Malta’s former golf coach, Somerfeld believes that this will not affect golf meets in terms of slowing things down.

“Once they get to the green and are putting, you can’t coach,” Somerfeld said. “I don’t think it will slow things down because in a high school meet, you typically have five golfers, so the pace of play is pretty good.”

The MHSA allows spectators at meets, so Somerfeld believes that having coaches on the course will allow golfers to stay focused as well as keep spectators where they need to be.

As far as if the Malta-Whitewater wrestling team will have any girls wrestlers next season, the school has not received any feedback from students interested in the sport, though the town’s youth program has been known to have several female wrestlers.

“If we did have a girl or girls interested in wrestling, they would be at practices with the boys, it would be no different than track and field,” Coach Somerfeld said.

Somerfeld went on to say that in the event that girls under the co-op did have an interest in wrestling, the team would continue with one wrestling coach. The only time the team would consider another staff coach is if the numbers in the wrestling program rose significantly.

In the event that there are girls interested in wrestling, Malta would look into a potential counter-sport for male athletes.

According to Somerfeld, there were no changes announced to track and field, football or basketball in the January meeting. More information on the changes above can be found on the MHSA’s webstie.