MPA’s vote on realignment set today

The Maine Principals Association will vote today on a proposal that it claims would realign Maine high schools, switch some from Western Maine to Eastern Maine, and could change the way postseason byes are distributed.

Members of the MPA classification committee hope realigning the teams would cut down on travel.

Sumner of East Sullivan athletic director Dennis Harmon, a member of the classification committee, said the main reasons for the realignment proposal are to eliminate some travel time and even out some classifications that have more teams in Western Maine than in Eastern Maine, especially considering the population growth in the southern half of the state.

“We’re hoping it will cut down a lot on travel time,” he said. “… We’re trying to keep an even amount of teams [in each division].”

The classification committee met Wednesday in Augusta to clarify today’s presentation to the general body.

If the realignment passes at the MPA’s fall meeting in Portland it would take effect in the 2001-2002 season. The various sports committees would decide how postseason byes will be doled out.

The MPA can conduct business with a quorum of 40 schools or more. A simple majority is needed for approval of any proposals, with each member school counting as one vote. The MPA has approximately 150 members.

All Heal Point sports would be affected. Those sports are soccer, field hockey, basketball, baseball, softball, and tennis.

It remains to be seen if volleyball and ice hockey would undergo the same realignment. There are only 11 volleyball teams in the entire state; ice hockey underwent a realignment in March, with the 23 teams in Class A splitting into North and South divisions. One of the reasons for that split, MPA assistant executive director Larry LaBrie said at the time, was to cut down the time it would take for preliminary games in the open tournament.

According to the current proposal, each classification would have four divisions based on geographic location. Current Eastern Maine teams would be split into Northeast and Southeast divisions and Western Maine would be Northwest and Southwest.

Northeast teams would be from approximately Fairfield north to Fort Kent and Madawaska, which covers the Penobscot Valley Conference, Downeast Athletic Conference, and Aroostook League.

The Southeast would cover the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference (approximately Waterville south to the Brunswick area).

In Eastern Maine Class A basketball, for example, the current Big East Conference teams would be joined by Lawrence of Fairfield, which currently plays in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference, to form the Northeast.

The Southeast would be made up of the rest of the KVAC teams, plus Leavitt of Turner and Oxford Hills of South Paris, which are in Western Maine under the present alignment.

Eastern Maine Class B would add Maranacook of Readfield to its ranks.

Realigning Leavitt and Oxford Hills drops the number of teams in the West from 22 to 20, and bumps the East up to 19 from 17.

As for the tournament, one idea calls for the top two teams in each division based on Heal Point rankings to receive a bye for the first two rounds of the postseason. That would net four teams each for Eastern Maine and Western Maine in each classification, which is the current number of byes.

The sticking point with that plan is the top four teams in one division may be ranked higher than the top two in another – which could cause some schools to balk at a lower-ranked school receiving a bye.

But it’s all in the idea stage.

“Each sport committee would decide how they get their top eight,” Harmon said.