Scrap realignment plan.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Mess with tradition and you're messing with the heart and soul of high school athletics.

That doesn't mean the Oregon School Activities Association should never make substantive changes in high school sports. The organization previously has shifted schools to different leagues and classifications - and, yes, ended a few long-standing rivalries - to effectively address enrollment shifts and competitive imbalances.

But the OSAA executive board should reject the recommendation of its classification and districting committee, which last week called for a new six-classification format for high school sports. It would take effect in the 2006-07 school year.

The new arrangement would replace the existing four-classification system, and would mix and match current 4A teams and districts with scant regard for traditional rivalries or travel distances.

The proposal would wreak particular havoc with the Midwestern League, sending South Eugene and Sheldon into a new classification. Both would play in a new 6A league (for schools with enrollments of 1,521 or higher) along with Roseburg, North Medford, Grants Pass and South Medford. Meanwhile, Churchill, Springfield, Thurston, Willamette, Marshfield and North Eugene would be put into a new 5A league (for schools with enrollments of between 851 and 1,520), while Lebanon would move into a league with Albany and Corvallis schools.

Except for inconsequential nonconference games, this arrangement would zap treasured rivalries (think Churchill and Thurston in basketball). It would require Sheldon and South players and students to travel long distances, boosting transportation costs at a time when gas prices are a major concern. Athletes would also lose more classroom time.

Future enrollment changes and the ability of schools to "play up" to higher classifications could cause further complications. Springfield and Willamette could end up with 6A-level enrollments as early as next year, while Thurston and Churchill, both with successful athletics programs, could opt to move up to play at the highest competitive level. That could have a destabilizing effect on leagues, create new competitive imbalances and result in superconferences that would keep interstates filled with yellow buses.

Somewhere along the line, the OSAA's task force lost track of its primary goals, which were to improve competitive balance, preserve existing leagues and rivalries when possible and keep travel costs down. The proposed alignment might improve competitive balance, but it fails, at least at the current 4A level, to meet the other two goals.

The OSAA executive board should scrap this plan, which is opposed by many 4A coaches, athletic directors and school district superintendents. It should take a cue from its coaches: When they realize their game plan is a stinker, they get out a clipboard and draw up a new one.