03/14/13 IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox has announced the new classifications for IHSAA member schools in several sports for the next two school years.

The enrollment figures, the total of boys and girls in grades 9-12, were submitted by the schools to the Indiana Department of Education last fall and are used to determine the classifications in the sports of baseball, boys and girls basketball, football, boys and girls soccer, softball and volleyball.

Four schools that have joined the IHSAA membership in the last two years but are not yet eligible to compete in IHSAA tournaments are not listed in the listing of schools. Anderson Preparatory Academy will be eligible beginning in 2015-16 while Christel House Academy, Hammond Academy of Science and Technology and South Bend Career Academy will be eligible in 2016-17.

Also, per IHSAA By-Law, C-2-3c, any school has the option to play up one or more classes in any sport for the two-year classification period by notifying the Association Office. Guerin Catholic’s girls soccer team has again opted to play in Class 2A instead of Class A, while Brebeuf Jesuit’s boys and girls soccer teams have both opted to play in Class 2A instead of 1A.

Please note that Tournament Success Factor points will still be accumulated in boys basketball, baseball and softball and any necessary updated versions in those sports will be released in the days following the end of those respective state tournaments.

Sectional groupings for each sport will be announced this spring following approval of the IHSAA Executive Committee.

In three major sports Plymouth will move to Class 4A (Boys & Girls Basketball and Baseball).  Ironically, football is the only major sport that stays Class 4A.

In Baseball, Plymouth was one of  four Indiana High Schools to move up to 4A.

In Boys Basketball, Plymouth was one of three schools to be bumped up to 4A.

In Girls Basketball, Plymouth was also one of three school to move up to 4A.

In Boys and Girls Soccer, Plymouth will stay in 2A in the two class system.

In Volleyball, Plymouth moved up to 4A.  They were one of five schools to go to 4A.

PHS Softball also were bumped up to 4A class.  Three other schools moved up to this classification.

 

The Plymouth Athletic Department had this statement on the move:

“Yesterday the IHSAA announced the realignment of classes for the next two years starting in the fall of 2013.  Over the last four years, Plymouth High School enrollment has increased.  We have escalated from the 104th largest high school in Indiana up to the 97th largest high school with an enrollment of 1112 students.  As a result of this increase, Plymouth has moved from 3A to 4A in softball, volleyball, girl’s basketball, baseball, and boy’s basketball.

Plymouth High School athletes have never backed away from a challenge.  Evidence of this was shown in 1982 when the Plymouth Boy’s Basketball Team won a single class state championship.  At that time, the Plymouth High School enrollment was less than 900 students.

The Plymouth High School Athletic Department welcomes this challenge.  We look forward to many more successes on the courts and in the fields.”