BY CHAD DARE CNHI
DANVILLE — Longer bus trips are on the horizon for the Danville athletic programs.
On Monday, the Illinois High School Association tentatively released the classification cut-offs for the 2010-11 school year and 35 schools will be changing for next year.
Among those making the move are the Vikings, who will move up to Class 4A.
“We already compete with schools like Normal Community and Normal West, so I don’t think it will be a big change,’’ said Danville athletics director B.J. Luke, who was a little surprised by the move.
The biggest change for the Vikings will be the sites of next year’s regionals and sectionals.
This past season, the longest trip for Danville was to Mahomet for the boys regional golf tournament and the girls sectional track meet.
The closest schools in Class 4A to Danville are Normal Community, Normal West and Bradley-Bourbonnais.
Those three schools along with Minooka were in the same regional for volleyball, boys basketball, girls basketball, baseball and softball.
“It will be a change, but I don’t think it will be a huge issue because our kids are used to traveling in the Big 12 Conference,’’ Luke said. “They could also send us up into the southern suburbs of Chicago.’’
In addition to moving up to Class 4A in sports like baseball, basketball, softball and volleyball, Danville will move up to Class 3A in the three-class sports like cross country, golf, track and wrestling.
That could be significant as the Vikings took third in the Class 2A girls state track meet and the boys tied for seventh.
“Moving up in class in the three-class sports isn’t that surprising,’’ Luke said. “When you are close to that cut-off line, you have to be prepared for either scenario.
“Our track teams are going to be competing against teams like East St. Louis and some of the best in Chicago,’’ Luke said. “We already schedule ourselves against those teams during the season. It’s going to be a little different, but I think our kids can handle it.’’
Another school that seems to live on the cut-off line is the Westville Tigers, who are back in Class 2A next year after just one year in Class 1A.
Westville’s Coal Bucket rival, the Georgetown-Ridge Farm Buffaloes, are set to drop from Class 2A to Class 1A in the sports where they do not co-op with Chrisman.
Other class changes of note include the Rantoul Eagles moving down to Class 2A and the Peoria Manual Rams will move up to Class 3A.
Recent Comments