The 4A and 3A Greater St. Helens League will remain unchanged, and Fort Vancouver will drop down to 1A to join a growing Trico League as the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association announced the classification breakdowns for the next cycle.
Prairie and Mountain View had been on the cusp of possibly moving up to 4A after the preliminary enrollment numbers release in November. But the WIAA executive board opted not to lower the threshold between 4A and 3A again, leaving Prairie and Mountain View in 3A.
“The board decided not to move schools to balance (classifications),” WIAA executive director Mick Hoffman said. “The concern is a school being moved without the opportunity to appeal as well as other changes it would cause for the impacted schools.”
Fort Vancouver won its appeal to drop down from 2A to 1A. For years, the Trappers played in the state’s largest classification until moving to 3A in 2003.
In the last reclassification process, Fort moved to 2A in 2020, with the football program allowed to move to 1A and join the Trico League.
Now all of the Trappers’ programs will compete at 1A and playing in the Trico League, despite having an adjustment enrollment of 845 – almost twice as large as the next largest 1A school.
In addition to adding Fort, the Trico also add back two former members – Kalama and Stevenson – making the league an eight-team league.
After four years of playing at 2B, Stevenson decided to opt-up again to 1A to rejoin the Trico. Kalama’s enrollment number moved the Chinooks back to 1A for the first time since 2015.
With Fort dropping to 1A, the 2A GSHL will be an eight-team league in the next classification cycle.
An amendment passed last spring allowed the WIAA to lower the boundary between 4A and 3A in an effort to balance the number of schools in each classification. The primary goal of this move was to eliminate the 20-team state tournament brackets that have become unpopular among 3A schools.
The threshold was dropped from 1,300 to 1,225 last June. Last fall, it was lowered to 1,201. That left Prairie (1,187) with the second-largest enrollment in Class 3A, and Mountain View (1,171) with the fifth-largest enrollment in 3A.
After opt-ups were declared last month, it also left 3A with 72 schools in the classification, four above the threshold of 68 that requires a 20-team state tournament bracket according to WIAA rules.
Over the weekend, the WIAA heard appeals from schools to move down in classification. Lindbergh High School of Renton was granted its appeal to move from 3A to 2A, lowering 3A’s schools to 72.
However, two other schools – Ballard of Seattle and Kent-Meridian – were granted moves from 4A and 3A, leaving 3A with 73 schools. Class 4A has 60 schools.
Hoffman said he anticipates 20-team state tournaments continuing for Class 3A.
Many 3A schools had become unhappy with the 20-team bracket, which leaves some teams out of the full state-tournament experience by having to play an opening-round elimination game. The extra round of games also causes scheduling headaches.
The WIAA executive board had the authority to lower the threshold between to 1,170, which would have led the 3A to have 68 schools and 4A to have 65. Then both classifications would have 16-team state tournaments.
But the Executive Board decided against dropping the threshold again, and that left Prairie and Mountain View in 3A.
Prairie has played at Class 3A since moving down from 4A in 2008. Mountain View has been in 3A since 2016.
These classifications level will take effect next fall and run from fall 2024 through spring 2028.
2024-28 WIAA classifications for Southwest Washington schools.
Class 4A (60 schools)
Enrollment 1,201 or more
Union (1,486)
Camas (1,477)
Battle Ground (1,375)
Skyview (1,366)
Class 3A (73 schools)
Enrollment 900-1,200
Prairie (1,187)
Mountain View (1,172)
Heritage (1,065)
Evergreen (1,024)
Kelso (962)
Class 2A (63 schools)
Enrollment 450-899
Ridgefield (887)
Columbia River (843)
Hudson’s Bay (816)
Washougal (719)
Mark Morris (656)
R.A. Long (599)
Hockinson (498)
Woodland (487)
Class 1A (55 schools)
Enrollment 225-449
x-Fort Vancouver (845)
La Center (418)
Castle Rock (321)
Columbia-White Salmon (287)
Kalama (257)
y-Seton Catholic (210)
y-King’s Way Christian (205)
y-Stevenson (194)
x-won appeal to move down in classification
y-opted up from 2B
