How good has the move three years ago back down to Class AA been for Bridgeport High School? Even the most pessimistic of individuals would be hard pressed to say that it’s worked out well for Bridgeport.

 

Over the last two years alone, the Indians have captured nine state titles. How impressive is that? That’s more than every other school in Harrison County combined and it would be a complete whitewash if not for the recent three-year dominance of Robert C. Byrd’s cheerleading program in ‘AA’ competition.

 

That said, the 2015-16 school year will be the last of the most recent four-year period where existing classifications will stay in place. In about four months, the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission will take the upcoming year’s enrollment numbers and reclassify schools as either being Class AAA, Class AA or Class A. The state will use each school’s second month enrollment figures to determine how things will shake out.

 

Before going further and anyone suggests that Bridgeport or any other public school is “fixing” numbers, nothing could be further from the truth. The same enrollment numbers are used for determining how many teachers are at each school through funding from the state so fudging number, which would also be caught by someone at the county office almost certainly, is highly unlikely.

 

Here is one certainty for the Tribe sports’ programs: They will not be in Class A in the next four-year cycle. Whether they jump back up to Class AAA as the Indians were for an eight-year stretch prior to the current four-year period is not nearly as much as a certainty.

 

“Where will we end up? That’s a good question,” said Bridgeport High School Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Matt DeMotto. “What we’re being told is that we’re to get 220 kids from the middle school for next year’s freshman class, which is about the same as last year’s projection, and we ended up with 200. The reason for that is that you have kids transfer out to other schools or enroll at schools such as Notre Dame.

 

“I think if you take this year’s graduating class and the incoming class, you’re going to see a jump of about 50 kids,” said DeMotto. “What that will translate, from my projection, is an enrollment here next year at the high end of 775 students and 755 students at the low end.”

 

Under the current classification standings, Class AA schools are those with enrollments in four grades of 429 to 777 students, which DeMotto says is four grades 9 through 12 as opposed to using three years in the past. Based on that, even at the high end of DeMotto’s projection Bridgeport would remain a Class AA school starting in 2016-17 and the three years after that.

 

However, that’s not necessarily the case even if DeMotto is spot on.

 

“That number break isn’t something set in stone. The question becomes how the WVSSAC decides where to draw the lines between classes. Do they break at a specified number or do they break at a number based on having, say, 40 schools in Class AAA and then 40 more in Class AA and the remainder in Class A? They make that decision and then you live with where your numbers place you,” said DeMotto.

 

The current classification, which goes from 2012 through next year, had 38 schools in Class AAA, which as listed above is all schools with 778 or more students. In Class AA, there were 39 schools going from 777 students down to 429. The rest of the schools – 47 in all – were part of Class A.

 

“I think we’ll end up Class AA, but that’s just an opinion. It depends a lot on everyone else’s numbers and just how the SSAC decides to break things up. I have no idea and I don’t think any other administrators do either,” said DeMotto.

 

DeMotto did say he recently contacted one statewide writer who listed Bridgeport as having a projected enrollment of 834 students, which would be well above the current AAA entry point. However, he said through email exchanges that it was determined the numbers were several years old and incorrect.

 

That doesn’t mean Bridgeport will remain in Class AA. In fact, many Harrison County and Big 10 among the main schools figuring to be in the mix for jumping from one classification to the other. Robert C. Byrd will join Bridgeport on the fence along with the Marion County schools in Fairmont Senior, North Marion and East Fairmont. In the past, Lewis County has also went back and forth and has spent the last several years as one of the smallest 'AAA' schools in West Virginia.

 

“Whatever happens, we’ll compete because the reality is that the rules for the games don’t change when you go up or down in a class. While you may have an edge in a school with a larger population, there are a lot of really big schools that struggle to compete and a lot of smaller ones that do quite well,” said DeMotto. “During our most recent run in Class AAA, we had some pretty successful teams. We’ll just sit back and see what happens. There’s no reason to be concerned about it because there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Wherever you fall, you fall.”

 

Click HERE to read last week's blog if you want to know about what could be the best season in BHS sports history.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows BHS Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Matt DeMotto.