LANCASTER, N.Y. — High school athletes in three fall sports are wrapping up their regular season and heading into the unknown, so to speak, with a playoff picture no one has seen before, thanks to a new Class AAA designation.
It's the first season the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, or NYSPHSAA, has implemented its plan to create a sixth class for seven high school sports (three fall, two winter, and two spring).
The classes are used to group and figure out which high schools compete against each other in which sports leading to the state championships. They are based on enrollment starting with the smallest schools in Class D, followed by Class C, B, A, and AA, which used to include the state's largest schools.
However, in boys and girls soccer, boys and girls basketball, girls volleyball, softball, and baseball, a Class AAA was added to increase competition, according to NYPHSAA assistance director Todd Nelson.
"Those sports wanted to expand their championships based on the number of teams that they had competing," Nelson said.
The enrollment number for Class AAA varies slightly from sport to sport but is roughly 1,100, which Western New York's Section VI Executive Director Mark DiFilippo told 2 On Your Side is a high bar for local schools and others upstate to hit.
"It's limited our highest classification. You know our AA Class was always smaller than our As and Bs, but now it's even smaller," DiFilippo said.
Only Lancaster and Niagara Falls qualify for Class AAA in all seven sports. Orchard Park, Jamestown, and West Seneca are "bubble teams," where in some sports they are Class AAA, and in others they're not.
For example, because West Seneca Central Schools has a soccer program that combines both East and West high schools, they qualify for Class AAA.
"It's just going to be a different look for people," DiFilippo said.
For the Lancaster girls volleyball team, the new designation means they will only have one playoff game against Niagara Falls, and the winner will head to Section V for the regional championship. There will be no local quarterfinal, semifinal, etc.
DiFilippo said when the plan was approved (Section VI voted against the NYPHSAA proposal), he expected some growing pains, as well as some questions and confusion.
"Once we go through this one time, is it better to have a big gap between the regular season and that sectional championship? Or is it better to have a big gap between that sectional championship and the next step of the regionals?" he said.
Todd Nelson from NYSPHSAA said fall schedule changes for volleyball and soccer championships, which are coming up in November, have already been made to accommodate the new class. He added that the same will happen for basketball, baseball, and softball when those come up.
Section VI playoffs have also been reorganized.
"We feel that adding a classification to the state championship format is going to help and increase participation...and now we get to provide that positive experience to more communities more schools and more student-athletes," Nelson said.
And come November the state will crown its first-ever Class AAA champions.