The Alabama High School Athletic Association has finalized its two-year classification and alignment plan for winter sports, setting the area, region and section lineups that will govern basketball, indoor track and field, bowling and wrestling competition for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.
The new alignments, which the AHSAA calculates using a combination of school enrollment and a competitive balance factor, touch nearly every public and private school across Mobile, Baldwin, Escambia, Clarke and Washington counties. Private schools are also subject to an additional multiplier under the association’s formula, a step the AHSAA has used in recent cycles to account for enrollment drawn from outside traditional zoning lines.
In basketball, the classification shakeup groups Chickasaw, St. Luke’s, Clarke County, J.U. Blacksher and Washington County together in Class 2A, Area 1. Class 3A, Area 1 pairs Cottage Hill Christian, Mobile Christian and Flomaton, while Class 4A splits the region into two areas: Bayside Academy, Orange Beach, St. Michael and UMS-Wright in Area 1, and Satsuma, Jackson, Escambia County and T.R. Miller in Area 2.
Class 5A basketball is likewise split into two areas, with B.C. Rain, Gulf Shores, Williamson and Elberta forming Area 1 and Faith Academy, LeFlore, St. Paul’s, Vigor and Citronelle rounding out Area 2. In Class 6A, Blount, Murphy, Saraland and Theodore make up Area 1, while Baldwin County, McGill-Toolen, Robertsdale and Spanish Fort will battle in Area 2. The area’s largest schools, competing in Class 7A, are divided into Alma Bryant, Baker, Davidson and Mary G. Montgomery in Area 1, with Daphne, Fairhope and Foley forming Area 2.
Indoor track and field follows a similar but not identical framework. The smallest classification grouping, 1A-3A, brings together Chickasaw, Cottage Hill Christian and St. Luke’s, while the 4A-5A grouping includes Elberta, Faith Academy, Gulf Shores, Mobile Christian, Satsuma, Vigor and Williamson. The Class 6A field spans Baldwin County, Bayside Academy, Blount, McGill-Toolen, Murphy, Robertsdale, Spanish Fort, St. Paul’s, Theodore and UMS-Wright, and the Class 7A field includes Alma Bryant, Baker, Daphne, Fairhope, Foley and Mary G. Montgomery.
Bowling, which the AHSAA organizes by broader multi-classification regions rather than single-class areas, places ACCEL Academy Mobile, LeFlore, Satsuma, UMS-Wright and Vigor together in Class 1A-5A, Region 1. Region 2 in that same grouping brings together Bayshore Christian, Elberta, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, St. Michael, Houston Academy and Slocumb — a lineup that stretches the competition beyond the immediate coastal counties into the Wiregrass area. The larger-school bowling regions pair Alma Bryant, Baker, Davidson, Mary G. Montgomery, Blount, McGill-Toolen, Murphy, Saraland and Theodore in Class 6A-7A, Region 1, while Baldwin County, Daphne, Fairhope, Foley, Spanish Fort and Dothan will compete in Region 2.
Wrestling sections were also finalized under the new cycle. Bayshore Christian, Orange Beach and Satsuma will wrestle in the Class 1A-4A, Section 1 grouping. Elberta and Gulf Shores make up Class 5A, Section 1, while Baldwin County, Saraland, Spanish Fort and Robertsdale are grouped in the Class 6A, Section 1. The area’s Class 7A wrestling section brings together Baker, Daphne, Davidson, Fairhope, Foley and Mary G. Montgomery.
Because the alignments cover two full school years, athletic directors and coaches across the area will use the new area, region and section assignments to build non-region schedules and plan for postseason travel well ahead of the 2022-23 winter sports season. The AHSAA reclassifies its member schools every two years, adjusting groupings as enrollment shifts and new members join the association, and the winter sports plan follows similar realignments the association has already released for football, volleyball and cross country as well as spring sports such as baseball, softball and track.
School administrators in the affected counties said the new lineups will factor into travel budgets and scheduling decisions in the coming months, particularly for smaller schools now grouped with programs a greater distance away. Postseason tournament sites and seeding procedures will be set separately by the AHSAA closer to each season based on the final area, region and section standings under the new alignments.