This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Three petitions involving four schools were filed with the Utah High School Activities Association before the deadline to appeal placement in the recent regional realignment for the 2015-17 school years.
East and Highland want to be placed in a Salt Lake County-based league for all sports but football instead of playing in northern-based Region Five against Weber, Davis and Box Elder County teams. In football, the schools want to each have one season in the northern league and one season against Salt Lake rivals such as Skyline, Olympus and Murray.
Roy is asking to be moved from 5A to 4A, where it has been competing. Ogden, citing concerns about the size and skill level of its players compared to other 4A schools, is asking to be dropped to 3AA for football only.
According to UHSAA assistant director Bart Thompson, the group's board of trustees will consider the arguments at its January 22 meeting. Petitions have been given to schools and board members throughout Utah.
In a letter signed by two principals, the Salt Lake City school superintendent and a board member, East and Highland cite concerns about fans and students traveling 60 miles to Brigham City to play against Box Elder.
That argument may not gain much sympathy from Class 3A, 2A and 1A schools who regularly travel hundreds of miles in their leagues.
The proposal to put non football sports in a league with Cyprus, Hillcrest, Kearns, Murray, Olympus and Skyline would also send Judge Memorial to the northern league instead, a fact that seems curious since Judge is located just blocks away from East and a short distance from Highland.
The novel football approach assumes that the board will grant Roy's request to drop from 5A to 4A. East would play in the northern league in 2015 and Highland would play in that league in 2016. That move could dilute the rivalry game between the two Salt Lake City east side schools who would not play a league game in football against each other.
Roy, which played for the 4A football title this fall, is arguing that many of its sports teams struggle to compete in 4A and that when the school played in 5A, participation in all sports dropped due to lack of success. The Royals are on the "bubble", which means their student numbers could place them in either 5A or 4A.
Ogden, on the other hand, is solidly a 4A school in terms of student numbers. It argues, though, that its football players are much smaller and less skilled that those they are competing against and the school could begin to rebuild its program in Class 3AA.
Board members did not seem sympathetic the first go around to arguments that schools should be placed into regions or classifications based on their competitiveness. They also rejected a proposal earlier this year, which would have taken into consideration success is recent football playoffs in realignment criteria.
— Tom Wharton