JOHNSTOWN - Several sports teams in the Greater Johnstown School District will be taking their play to the next level for the 2011-12 school year.
Pending approval from the New York State Public High School Athletic Association at its December meeting, the Johnstown basketball, soccer, baseball and softball teams will move from the Class B level of play up to Class A competition.
The move is based on a projected increase in the Basic Education Data System (BEDS) count that shows Johnstown's numbers increasing from 488 for the 2010-11 school year to 536 in 2011-12. The 48-student swing at the high school level, coupled with revamped numbers used to determine sports classifications, contributed to Johnstown's move to Class A.
"I wish I could tell you our enrollment is up, but it is not. It obviously is in the high school, but it is not overall," said Greater Johnstown School District Superintendent Kathleen Sullivan. "It is kind of fluky. Our elementary numbers continue to decrease but for whatever reason, our high school has increased. We do have tuition people who come in and that may be part of the reason. Are we gaining students in the district? No. In fact, we closed a school last year. For some reason our high school showed an increase in enrollment and when they changed the numbers, it was kind of a perfect storm. We gained students and they changed the numbers, which put us in Class A by 11 students."
The BEDS count, in regards to athletics is based on the enrollment of students in the ninth, 10th and 11th grades and ungraded students.
"Johnstown showed 207 kids in ninth grade, 176 in grade 10 and 153 in Grade 11 and two ungraded students for a total of 536," Section II Executive Director Doug Kenyon said. "It looks like their numbers are up, but that is not uncommon. If you look at the figures, in many cases, like in the As, it fluctuates. It is common among the schools who are on the border [in classifications] to bounce back-and-forth."
The revamped numbers for sports with five classifications, Class AA, A, B, C and D, show schools with a BEDS count of 325-549 as Class B in 2009-10. The 2010-11 numbers were adjusted to 305-524 for the Bs. The Class A numbers were adjusted from 550-949 to 525-924.
The Johnstown boys and girls track teams also may be affected by the increase in BEDS. The teams may be moved from Class B to Class BB competition when the official classification breakdown is announced for track and field. The remainder of the sports programs offered by Johnstown High School remains unchanged in their classifications.
"What the association has been trying to do in recent years is to create an equal playing field, dependent upon the number of programs around the state," Kenyon said. "Therefore the variations by sports. You might be an A in one sport and a B in another and even a C in yet another. The philosophy, particularly in the team sports, is to try to get [the dividing line] as close to 20 percent as possible. Like in the five class classification system. In the four class, they are shooting for 25 percent. That is the goal."
Johnstown athletic director Jim Robare said the teams would adjust to the change.
"We play in the Foothills Council," he said. "A good example is the boys soccer team. We play a tough schedule all year and have a solid .500 record in the Foothills. Then we go to sectionals and we are good because we compete with those bigger schools. Now that we have to make this transition in basketball, baseball, softball and soccer. It will be a little bit tougher going into the A bracket. But we are totally familiar with playing against the A schools because of the Foothills Council. The disadvantage for us is that we are now one of the smaller A schools. In a couple of years, we will probably go back down to the Bs. Our sports programs right now are very solid. They are in the weight room, doing speed training and are doing what they need to right now to be competitive. It is going to be a little tougher for us to be in the As, but what we are going to do it the right way."
This year the Foothills Council is made up of Class A teams from Gloversville, Glens Falls, South Glens Falls, Hudson Falls, Scotia-Glenville and Queensbury, along with Class B Broadalbin-Perth and Johnstown. In 2011-12, Broadalbin-Perth will be the lone B school in the league.