The winter basketball landscape will have a new look next season.
The MIAA basketball committee announced earlier this week that several teams will compete in new divisions come tournament time. Beginning next season, three local teams have been realigned from Division III to Division IV, and those realignments are scheduled to remain in effect through the 2020-21 season.
“I think what they did in the end was try and make the divisions as equal as possible, numbers-wise,” said Athol High School athletic director and president of the MIAA Board of Directors Dave King. “It seems that almost 100 percent of the committee’s rational is based on enrollment.”
Athol was one of the three teams that will see a shift beginning next winter. The school’s girls’ basketball team will slide down from Division III to Division IV, where it will join fellow Recorder-area schools Pioneer Valley Regional School, Mohawk Trail Regional High School, Franklin County Technical School and Turners Falls High School.
King said enrollment was indeed a factor in that decision. Athol will remain in Division III on the boys’ side, but the girls’ team will move to D-IV due to a lower enrollment.
“Our boys (enrollment) number was 203 and the girls was about 170 or so. It was just a matter of the population there,” he said. “It wasn’t a reflection of where the programs are or anything.”
Athol could be a factor come D-IV tournament season in years to come. The Raiders have been a successful D-III program, including a trip to the Curry Hicks Cage for a semifinal appearance just two years ago. That team fell to Granby High School in the semis after an 18-5 season.
Greenfield High School, Frontier Regional School and Mahar Regional School will remain in Division III on the girls’ side.
Although Athol was the lone girls’ team in the area to switch divisions, there was another big shift in D-IV. That would be Quaboag Regional High School, the four-time defending WMass champions, which has been realigned back to central Mass. after dominating the postseason in its four years since being realigned into WMass for the 2013-14 season. The departure of the Cougars should open things up for several programs knocking on the door in years past.
“That was all based on their request,” explained King of Quaboag’s move. “Of those central Mass. teams that were (in WMass tournaments), some made requests to go back (to central Mass.). I know Quaboag had a lot of success in the tournament here but they felt they belonged back in central Mass.”
On the boys’ side, a pair of local schools are on the move for next winter. Pioneer and Mohawk will both shift from D-III to D-IV, joining Franklin Tech and Turners Falls in the tournament mix.
Athol, Frontier, Greenfield and Mahar will remain in D-III, though there are more moving pieces at play with other schools. Central Mass. school Murdock High School of Winchendon, a team that Turners beat in the D-IV quarterfinals this winter, will jump to D-III.
The biggest movement will take place at the D-I and II levels. Several D-I programs, including East Longmeadow High School, Chicopee High School and Northampton High School were shifted to D-II, balancing out the four divisions as evenly as possible.
“Obviously we aren’t able to split it right down the middle but we wanted to be as fair as possible,” King offered. “We wanted to make sure D-III schools weren’t going to D-II where they don’t belong. In the end, the numbers were pretty equal, all things considered.”