by Scott Sacry
At their April meeting, the Montana High School Association Executive Board announced some classification realignments. Darby High School was the only Bitterroot Valley school affected, and will move from Class C to Class B starting in the 2023-2024 school year. They will be tentatively assigned to District 6B for basketball, volleyball, and track, division 3 for girls’ and boys’ golf, and Class B for girls’ and boys’ cross country. They will remain in the Southwest division for tennis and the Western division for Eight-Player football.
“We anticipated the move might happen,” said Darby Athletic Director J.P McCrossin. “We were holding out hope that the Montana High School Association would recognize that our enrollment numbers do not compare with that of the schools that make up the Western B district, and grant our petition to remain in Class C. They didn’t, based on the fact we will be over the mark of 100 for the next few years.”
McCrossin continued, “The redistricting did increase our travel for games, but it provides our athletes and fans an opportunity to play new teams in gyms that they have not been in before.”
There may be some challenges ahead, but for now McCrossin and Darby are concentrating on finishing out Spring sports and getting things ready for the 2022-2023 season in Class C.