North Dakota High School Activities Association denies four programs from basketball reclassification
Jan. 22—VALLEY CITY, N.D. — Four North Dakota high school basketball programs requested to move to a lower classification in the state's new three-class system and all four were denied by the North Dakota High School Activities Association.
At a NDHSAA meeting Jan. 16 in Valley City, representatives from the Grand Forks Central girls, Hillsboro-Central Valley girls, Four Winds-Minnewaukan girls and Carrington boys presented information to a reclassification committee.
Hillsboro-Central Valley, Four Winds-Minnewaukan and Carrington were seeking to drop from the middle Division A to the low Division B, while Central was searching to drop from the high Division AA to middle Division A.
The reclassification committee features 11 members.
"As we discussed as a group, the major component was we needed more data being as this is the first year of the three-class system," committee chair Patti Aanenson said. "We wanted to give more time. They could all reapply next year. That was our feeling as a group. We need more data. How does the season end? How does their competition against schools in other divisions go and that sort of thing. We're waiting to see how the season finishes.
"It's not something we want to jump in to lightly, and we want to do diligence for those requesting changes and those affected by the changes. We have to look at picture as a whole."
Teams requesting a move needed documentation submitted to the NDHSAA by Jan. 1. Each school was allotted 30 minutes to speak to the committee and all four programs did so in person at the NDHSAA offices.
Central is 2-9 this season with wins over Fargo South and East Grand Forks Senior High. The Knights have lopsided losses to Fargo Davies (103-28) and West Fargo Horace (91-45).
Central was 4-18 in 2022-23 and 0-22 in 2021-22.
The Hillsboro-Central Valley girls are 5-9 overall this season but the Burros are 0-3 in the region.
The Four Winds-Minnewaukan girls are 5-8 overall and 2-4 in the region.
The Carrington boys are 1-9.
