Draft proposal for 3-division volleyball heard by NDHSAA

The implementation of a three-division basketball plan by the North Dakota High School Activities Association (NDHSAA) on February 8 has spurred momentum on adopting a similar plan for volleyball.

At the regular meeting of the NDHSAA Board of Directors on June 6, the governing body accepted a draft proposal for a three-division volleyball plan, which would take effect no earlier than the 2024-25 season.

The proposal retains the cutoffs from the basketball plan, with Division AA featuring schools with enrollments of 650 students and above, Division A from 162.5 to 649, and Division B below 162.5. Enrollment numbers for each school/co-op were calculated using the average of grades 9-12 enrollment in the fall of 2022 and 2023.

Any public or non-public school within a Division AA district with enrollments from 100-399 students is automatically placed in Division A. Teams may "opt up" a division higher than enrollment placement for a minimum of two seasons.

If a team initially placed in one division at the start of the plan has enrollment numbers that would place them in another division's cutoffs for two consecutive seasons, the team may then move to the new division.

Division AA would keep the same post-season tournament structure as the current Class A. Division A would consist of four regions, two in the East and two in the West, and Division B would have eight districts and four regions.

Like the basketball plan, the region champions in Divisions A and B would earn automatic state tournament berths, and state qualifying games would pit the Region 1 runner up against the Region 2 third place team; Region 2 runner up against Region 1 third place; Region 3 runner up against Region 4 third place; and Region 4 runner up against Region 3 third place for the other four slots.

The Division B deadline for district tournaments is November 6, 2024. The region tournaments for Divisions A and B would be held November 11, 12 and 14 of that year, and the Division AA West Region and East Region November 14-16.

State qualifying games would be held on Saturday, November 16, 2024.

In the volleyball proposal, all three divisions would share the same state tournament dates and venue, November 21-23 in this case. Currently, Class A and B play in a combined state volleyball tournament, and plan ratification would add a third court to the mix.

Carrington is in Division A, Region 2 for both this plan and the approved basketball plan. Division B local teams and their district assignments are M-P-B (Region 1, District 2), Griggs/Midkota and NR-S (Region 2, District 4), and HWC (Region 4, District 8).

The NDHSAA board will review the proposal throughout the summer, and more information will be shared with member schools next fall.

A link to information on the proposal is available at https://bit.ly/3-Div_Volleyball_Proposal

In other news...

Another recent change pertaining to the sport of girls' wrestling, of which Carrington is a part, is the reduction of weight classes statewide from 14 to 13.

Starting in the 2023-24 season and effective July 1, the new weight classes begin at 100 pounds, followed by 106, 112, 118, 124, 130, 136, 142, 148, 155, 170, 190 and 235.

Other notable changes:

• One additional alternate to the state dual roster (17 total members)

• A one-year extension of the rule allowing unlimited entries into regional tournaments

• JV/exhibition wrestlers are allowed to wrestle in more than one match in regular season duals only. This does not include any tournaments.