Significant changes to Maine high school basketball classifications approved

By Larry Mahoney, Bangor Daily News Staff

The high school basketball reclassification proposal from the Maine Principals’ Association was approved by MPA membership in a vote on April 3.

The membership voted on a variety of other sports as well, and those reclassifications were also approved according to Mike Bisson, the MPA’s assistant executive director.

There were a few minor tweaks to the initial proposals in some sports but not basketball, he said.

Under the new basketball classifications, Class AA will become Class A and will be for schools with more than 670 students. Class B will be for schools with 450-669; C will be for schools with 225-449 and D will include institutions with 100-224 students.

A new basketball class for schools with fewer than 100 students will be called Class S, Bisson noted.

The new classification model will be good for two years.

The reclassification process began with individual sport committees, then the proposals for each sport went to the classification committee, next to the interscholastic management committee before being voted on by the full MPA membership.

During the process, schools were given the opportunity to appeal and Bisson said there were several appeals.

“But none of them were granted,” said Bisson.

Bisson said all the committees were thorough and digested a lot of input from school administrators.

With the new classifications, the two most noteworthy changes to the basketball landscape involve the state’s largest and smallest schools, enrollment-wise.

This season, there were seven boys teams in AA North and AA South and seven girls teams in AA North with eight in AA South.

Next season, there will be 16 teams in each A South bracket, boys and girls, and 12 in each A North group.

In the new Class A North, current Class AA North schools Lewiston, Bangor, Oxford Hills of South Paris and Edward Little of Auburn will be joined by current A North schools Hampden Academy, Brewer, Camden Hills of Rockport, Messalonskee of Oakland, Skowhegan and Mt. Blue of Farmington along with A South schools Mt. Ararat of Topsham and Brunswick.

Class A South will be comprised of current AA South teams Thornton Academy of Saco, Sanford, Bonny Eagle of Buxton, South Portland, Deering of Portland, Scarborough and Gorham along with current Class A schools Noble High of North Berwick, Massabesic of Waterboro, Westbrook, Biddeford, Falmouth and Kennebunk.

Class D had been for schools that had up to 129 students. The newly formed Class S is just for schools with under 100 students.