Travis Jones may be known as the “Voice of the Indians” for his role calling Bridgeport High School football games and being involved with the sports programs at the school on Johnson Avenue. However, in his role as an employee of the MetroNews system he also has a pretty good grasp on prep sports statewide.

 

Well before Thursday’s announcement of the reclassification of high schools, Jones had already called it on the air. He was certain that Bridgeport would be Class AAA starting next year. The only thing he wasn’t sure of was whether they would be the smallest or whether the WVSSAC would add a few additional teams to the ‘AAA’ mix.

 

As it turned out, the Indians are now the smallest Class AAA team in the state. With 820 students, the Tribe is the last of the 32 teams in the new big school classification in West Virginia that begins next school year.

 

Now, the question becomes can the Indians be competitive? Jones, along with BHS Principal Matt DeMotto said the answer is yes.

 

“There’s some fallacy that Bridgeport can’t compete, but I don’t believe that to be the case. All you have to do is go back to the last time the Indians were Class AAA and there’s more than enough evidence that Bridgeport was competitive,” said Jones. “That’s an error in thinking. It’s going to be successful with the support of the community and how the program operates no matter what the classification.”

 

DeMotto echoed that.

 

“The goal is to be competitive regardless of classification. In the last run in Class AAA, Bridgeport High School held its own on multiple fronts,” said DeMotto.

 

The titles may not have arrived but there was plenty of dominating teams. The baseball team played for a Class AAA title as did the girls basketball team. The football team made it more than once to the semifinals including losing 28-25 to eventual champion South Charleston and 21-14 to a Ryan Switzer-led George Washington squad. The football team qualified for the postseason every year as a Class AAA school.

 

The boys basketball team may have had the best team in the state, but fell to a Huntington team that had two future NBA players on the roster and five college players – three of which were Division I – in a year they may have won it all otherwise. Cheerleading, swimming, track and other sports were also competitive at high levels, said Jones.

 

“I may have left some programs out, but they were all competitive,” said Jones.

 

While reclassification impacts all sports, it impacts football the most. The reason for that is that football teams are required to play six teams in their own classification in order to be playoff eligible. What that will mean is a lot more road trips of up to an hour or more. Visiting teams will also have to do the same thing.

 

There is a one-year grace period for BHS if it is unable to find enough Class AAA foes or is unable to mutually agree with an opponent on a contract to get out of it. By 2021-22, however, the six schools portion of the program becomes mandatory.

 

“My biggest concern is cost. It’s simple in that if you travel further the cost is greater,” said DeMotto. “The other fear is the gates (which are largest for football games and help fund many programs) are less if you are bringing in teams that have to drive two to three hours to get here. That hurts the entire program."

 

Jones believes the WVSSAC may have determined that the goal was to get to 32 teams and that left Bridgeport at the bottom. He said it would have been helpful scheduling wise had the WVSSAC added two to three more teams closer to Bridgeport in enrollment than the school in front, which is Ripley at 867.

 

Had that happened, Big 10 partners Fairmont Senior (799) and Elkins (798) would have joined them along with Winfield (790) if three more were added. The two Big 10 schools would have made the transition, much easier.

 

That didn’t happen. Instead, there are three new schools in Class AAA. Along with Bridgeport is Oak Hill with 1,102 students as the school absorbed students from the now defunct Fayetteville High School, and Lincoln County at 882.

 

As for moving up, the enrollment gap experienced by many Class AAA teams is now an issue for Bridgeport. And that also lends itself to an age-old question.

 

Is it fair if these schools move up and have a game of more than 1,000 students between themselves and the state’s largest school – Morgantown? MHS currently has an enrollment of 1,851 students. While that may be unfair, BHS currently sits as one of the biggest Class AA schools with an enrollment advantage of several hundred students.

 

“If we move up is it fair to our kids who will be playing schools with over 1,000 more students? Probably not, but we already play some of them so it’s not anything we can’t compete with,” said DeMotto. “Would we rather be ‘AA?’ Absolutely, most of the schools near us are ‘AA.’ But life isn’t fair.

 

“You can be a victim, or you can go to work. Is playing us fair to the smallest ‘AA?’ Probably not, but it is what it is,” he continued. “A parent recently said to me that you guys may have to start playing with us big boys. Since that’s now the case, then I guess we’ll just have to pack a bigger lunch.”

 

Jones still said he believes the ultimate solution, particularly in football where classification seems to be the most talked about issue and Jones insists it’s the driving force in all considerations, would be to do what the WVSSAC is experimenting with in basketball. And that’s a four-classification system that will have 12-team playoff formats at state tournaments as opposed to 16-teams in the three classes. The top four seeded teams would receive byes.

 

“The word the SSAC talks about is competitive balance. They’ve preached that with the basketball proposal. I’d like to see it in all sports because it would help narrow the enrollment gap from smallest to the largest,” said Jones. “The one thing people have to realize is that no matter what is done if anything, there’s no magic bullet to make it equal.

 

“Regardless of the cutoff line and how things shake out into the future, Bridgeport appears to be in ‘AAA’ for a long time,” Jones continued. “There are a lot of large classes behind this class, so things have probably changed for good unless the WVSSAC opts for the four-class experiment in other or all sports like it’s doing with basketball.”

 

The last time Bridgeport started in Class AAA in the mid-2000’s, things were easier. There were multiple local teams that were Class AAA.

 

“When Bridgeport jumped up the last time, the Big 10 Conference had plenty of teams in Class AAA that made it easier. The landscape with enrollment has changed and now Bridgeport is an outlier,” Jones said. “Someone has to be the last team in Class AAA, and I get that. I just don’t understand why the line was drawn at 32 if football is the primary reason for setting the numbers.”

 

Jones said there has been talk about having teams in the most recent ‘AAA’ field in football make the postseason with losing records. He said adding three more teams likely won’t remedy that.

 

“It’s still a very real possibility you’ll have a team or two with a losing record back in the field next year,” said Jones. “If that was a concern, I’m not sure this fixes anything.”

Class AAA Schools

Morgantown (1851), Cabell Midland (1825), Parkersburg (1674), Musselman (1654), Huntington (1606), Wheeling Park (1529), Parkersburg South (1466), Jefferson (1457), Martinsburg (1415), Spring Mills (1380), University (1310), Washington (1309), Hurricane (1279), Riverside (1278), Woodrow Wilson (1267), Hedgesville (1257), Capital (1218), Preston (1202), George Washington (1107), Oak Hill (1102),

 

Buckhannon-Upshur (1058), St. Albans (1053), John Marshall (1042), Greenbrier East (1025), Spring Valley (996), South Charleston (938), Princeton Senior (914), Hampshire (894), Brooke (891), Lincoln County (799), Ripley (867), Bridgeport (822)

 

Class AA Schools

Fairmont Senior (799), Elkins (798), Winfield (790), Nitro (769), Shady Spring (764), Herbert Hoover (758), North Marion (744), Point Pleasant (713), Mingo Central (710), Chapmanville Regional (703), Robert C. Byrd (693), East Fairmont (678), Lewis County (677), Grafton (673), Keyser (672), Nicholas County (664), Weir (659), PikeView (659), Scott (648), Philip Barbour (646), Berkeley Springs (642), Logan (641), Westside (613), Roane County (610), Lincoln (600), Wayne (595), Sissonville (587), Bluefield (584), Independence (574), Braxton County (553), Oak Glen (548), Liberty (517), Liberty (515), Clay County (503), Wyoming East (503), Frankfort (488), Poca (486)

 

Class A Schools

Ravenswood (450), James Monroe (449), Moorefield (447), River View (444), Ritchie County (436), Petersburg (432), Summers County (428), Man (420), Williamstown (414), Sherman (401), Midland Trail (385), Tolsia (381), Mount View (378), Magnolia (375), Greenbrier West (367), Richwood (361), Tug Valley (360), Tyler Consolidated (351), Webster County (351), Buffalo (350), St. Marys (338), South Harrison (331), Doddridge County (310), Tucker County (299), Wirt County (285), Pocahontas County (282), Calhoun County (277), Pendleton County (267), Wheeling Central (266), Tygarts Valley (254), Charleston Catholic (254), Wahama (240), Clay-Battelle (234), Gilmer County (226), East Hardy (218), Cameron (185), Montcalm (178), Hannan (173), Valley (145), St. Joseph (141), Meadow Bridge (138), Paden City (133), Madonna (125), Notre Dame (120), Van (108), Hundred (101), Parkersburg Catholic (93), Greater Beckley Christian (91), Trinity (72), Wood County Christian (70), Harman (51), Union (46), Paw Paw (44), West Virginia School for the Blind (21), West Virginia School for the Deaf (17), Pickens (8)