MONTGOMERY — The Alabama High School Athletic Association Central Board of Control met in a virtual meeting on Thursday, March 16, and unanimously approved the winter sports alignments for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.

For the first time in its history, the AHSAA will officially crown state champions on the girls’ wrestling circuit after it was tabbed for sanctioning alongside girls’ flag football at the Central Board of Control’s annual summer meeting last July. Thanks to growing participation, 76 girls’ wrestling teams will now join the fight for Blue Map trophies.

Other winter classification alignments were set for the sports of boys’ and girls’ basketball, boys’ and girls’ bowling, boys’ and girls’ indoor track and boys’ wrestling.

Revisiting reclassification

In accordance with the AHSAA constitution and by-laws, the AHSAA Central Board of Control manages championship play and classification. Member schools are reclassified every two years and after the most recent one on Dec. 18, 2023, Bayside Academy dropped from Class 4A to Class 3A while Gulf Shores stepped up from Class 5A to Class 6A and Robertsdale was moved up from Class 6A to Class 7A due to enrollment.

The high schools are currently divided into seven classifications (1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A and 7A) for competition in championship programs.

Baldwin County’s enrollment numbers

Out of the 32 largest member schools in the AHSAA, four of them are in Baldwin County at Nos. 15 (Daphne), 21 (Foley), 23 (Fairhope) and 28 (Robertsdale).

According to average daily enrollment numbers issued by the State Department of Education, Daphne is the local leader with an enrollment of 1,389.8, followed by Foley’s 1,262.35, Fairhope’s 1,224.55 and Robertsdale’s 1,143.5.

Baldwin County will have three schools in Class 6A, including Spanish Fort (902.25), Baldwin County High (791.35) and Gulf Shores (683.45). Elberta remains the largest school in Class 5A with an enrollment of 597.45.

St. Michael Catholic came in as the 15th-largest in Class 4A at 365.38 and Orange Beach was No. 35 at 326.1. Bayside Academy (253.8) and Bayshore Christian (159.03) will now serve as the lone local representatives in Class 3A and Class 2A, respectively.

Local alignments

Many of Baldwin County’s winter sports area alignments resemble the ones made following the fall’s biennial reclassification where Gulf Shores and Robertsdale each moved up a class.

Bayside Academy is heading down due to enrollment but thanks to previous indoor track promotions due to the Competitive Balance Factor, the Admirals will be taking a step back from Class 6A to Class 4A-5A.

Basketball areas

Bayside Academy will now battle with Cottage Hill Christian and Mobile Christian for top spots in Class 3A Area 1 on the hardwood. Orange Beach and St. Michael Catholic will now take on Satsuma and ACCEL Academy in Class 4A Area 1.

The new Class 6A Area 2 will feature Baldwin County High, Gulf Shores, McGill-Toolen and Spanish Fort while Class 7A Area 2 will have all-Baldwin teams in Daphne, Fairhope, Foley and Robertsdale.

Indoor track and field sections

Class 4A-5A will be locally represented on the indoor track circuit by Bayside Academy, Elberta and Orange Beach. The enrollment changes will leave the familiar faces to compete in Class 6A (Baldwin County High, Gulf Shores and Spanish Fort) and Class 7A (Daphne, Fairhope, Foley and Robertsdale).

Bowling regions

Similarly on the bowling stage, Class 1A-5A’s Region 2 features Bayshore Christian, Elberta, Orange Beach and St. Michael Catholic against Houston Academy and Slocomb. For Class 6A-7A’s Region 2, Baldwin County High, Daphne, Fairhope, Foley, Gulf Shores, Robertsdale and Spanish Fort will also have Dothan in the group.

Wrestling sections

In its first year of sanctioning, girls’ wrestling was split into two classification groups, Class 1A-5A and Class 6A-7A.

The smaller schools will be represented locally by Bayshore Christian and Orange Beach in Section 1. Baldwin County High, Daphne, Foley, Gulf Shores, Robertsdale and Spanish Fort are the local schools fielding girls’ wrestling teams to help fill out Class 6A-7A’s Section 1.

Boys’ wrestling features one small school class, 1A-4A, and has the three larger classes on their own. Bayshore Christian, Orange Beach and St. Michael Catholic will compete in Class 1A-4A’s Section 1 with Elberta as the lone representative in Class 5A Section 1.

Fresh off four consecutive trips to the final four of the duals state tournament, Gulf Shores steps up to Class 6A Section 1 to compete locally alongside Baldwin County High and Spanish Fort. Baldwin County’s largest (Daphne, Fairhope, Foley and Robertsdale) will join the battle in Class 7A Section 1.

Competitive Balance Factor, explained

The CBF tallies points for top postseason finishes where teams get more points the deeper into the playoffs they go. If the team’s point total, including an applicable 1.35 enrollment multiplier for private schools, exceeds a certain threshold then the team will move up a classification in just that sport while the rest of the school’s athletic programs will remain at the regular enrollment alignment.

An aligned timeline

Alignments for fall sports were released during December’s reclassification following completion of championship play for all fall sports. Like the fall sports alignments, the winter sports alignments are based on the number of schools declaring to participate in a sport for the upcoming 2024-25 school year. Alignments for spring sports will be determined following completion of all spring sports’ championship playoffs.

While most alignments are for seven classes, some sports programs may include two or more classes in a division. The alignments for each sport in a class are published in the online AHSAA Sports Book each year.

Officials’ comments

Central Board of Control president Mike Welsh, also the Superintendent of Cherokee County Schools, expressed his appreciation to the Central Board members and AHSAA staff for their work in determining the classification alignments for the new classification, which begins next fall.

“On behalf of the Central Board of Control and our member schools, I want to thank AHSAA staff for their hard work,” he said. “I also want to thank our Central Board for their commitment to making decisions that are best for all our member schools.”

AHSAA Executive Director Alvin Briggs expressed his appreciation as well.

“More than 190,000 student-athletes are expected to participate in AHSAA sports activities during the upcoming 2024-25 and 2025-26 classification period,” Briggs said. “I want to thank the Central Board and AHSAA staff. As always, it was a complex task. Everyone worked together to find the best solution as we move forward.”