OSAA Executive Board approves final districting recommendations; Banks to 3A among late changes

By René Ferrán| Photo by Leon Neuschwander

The OSAA Executive Board approved the final recommendations of the Classification & Districting Committee on Monday, with only two slight modifications when Banks and Columbia Christian withdrew petitions to play up for the 2022-26 cycle.

Banks instead will drop to Class 3A starting next fall and play in the Coastal Range League, while Columbia Christian of Northeast Portland will be in the Class 1A Valley 10 League.

With reclassification complete, the Football Ad Hoc Committee will begin its work in earnest to develop the league framework for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Schools can petition for their football programs to drop a classification based on several criteria. The committee also will discuss the option of Class 2A schools playing 9-man football.

Starting in fall 2022, there will be 50 schools in Class 6A, down from the 55 schools currently in the state’s largest classification. Bend, Caldera, Canby, Centennial, McKay, Mountain View and Summit all drop to Class 5A, with North Salem and Willamette the only schools moving up from 5A to 6A.

Class 5A remains at 32 schools, while Class 4A drops from 34 to 31 schools. 

Class 3A sees the largest increase in numbers, going from 35 schools in the current cycle to 45, while Class 2A drops from 47 to 38. Class 1A also goes up, from 91 to 96 schools.

The new districting framework eliminates the Mountain Valley Conference, with the four Bend schools joining Redmond and Ridgeview to form the 5A Intermountain Conference and the five Salem schools — McNary, North Salem, South Salem, Sprague and West Salem — making up the 6A Central Valley Conference.

Canby (Three Rivers) and Centennial (Mt. Hood) move to the 5A Northwest Oregon Conference, while McKay (Mountain Valley) moves to the Mid-Willamette Conference. Willamette (Midwestern) rejoins the 6A Southwest Conference.

Among the schools dropping from 5A to 4A are Scappoose and St. Helens (NWOC to Cowapa), Crook County (Intermountain to Tri-Valley), North Bend (Midwestern to Sky-Em), The Dalles (Intermountain to Tri-Valley) and Pendleton (Intermountain to Greater Oregon).

The other big change comes in Class 2A, which condenses from six districts to four, combining the remaining members of the Central Valley, Southern Cascade and Sunset conferences into a 12-member Central Valley Conference.