The Montana High School Association held its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, November 23. Among the topics being discussed, a few had major implications for two Blaine County Schools. The first being a move to Eight man football from Class B for the Harlem Wildcat Football team and the second being significant changes being made to the boys and girls qualifying standards for Class C State Golf as well as the implementation of a Divisional tournament.

The Harlem Wildcats have played in the Northern B Division of Montana State High School Football for decades. Up until 2005 the Wildcats and the Chinook Sugarbeeters were division rivals. Starting in the fall of 2021 the two schools will renew their rivalry, but this time in the ranks of Eight Man Class C Football.

At the November 23 meeting the MHSA Executive Board took action on a number of issues, including the approval of the preliminary budget for the 2021-22 season, while also approving the 2022-23 calendar.

The Board also addressed several reclassification requests. First, Great Falls Central Catholic High School was approved to return to Class C following a two year stint at the Class B level for all sports with the exception of Football.

Reclassification

The Mustangs experienced a 25% drop in enrollment leading to the request being made. They will compete in the District 6C for Volleyball, the District 8C for Basketball as well as Track and Field. The Western C for Golf, Eastern Division for B/C Softball, Northwest Division for B/C Tennis and the Eastern Division for B/C Wrestling.

Football Reclassification

The Board also approved the Poplar Indians request to play Eight-Player Football in the Eastern Division and the Harlem Wildcats to play in the Northern Division.

Plains, Thompson Falls, Lodge Grass, Lame Deer and St. Labre were approved to remain in Eight-Player Football

The Board approved the move of West Yellowstone to Six-Player Football (Western Division and approved requests from Box Elder (Northern) and Centerville (Central) to remain in Six-Player Football.

The move to Eight-Player Football comes on the heels of a season that saw the Harlem Wildcats dress just eleven players for each of their four Class B eleven-player games.

The Wildcats went 2-2 in those four games, defeating Poplar and Wolf Point to start the season. Head Coach Derek Azure is happy about the move, "I'm excited to see us play against teams with similar numbers. Harlem hasn't had the 50-60 kids come out for years. With the talent we have here there's no reason why we have such low numbers."

Azure understands what the transition will entail, "Eight-man is fast and exciting. Open field tackling is key because of the speed of the game. I feel like our offense converts very easy to the eight man game and our kids position by position should have good chances to showcase their abilities."

The transition of moving from Class B to Class C Eight-Player has proven more challenging than anticipated since 2000. Teams moving to Eight-Player have only appeared in the title contest twice, losing both.

The only Class B team to move to Eight-Player and win a title is Chinook, five years after the move in 2010 and again in 2015.

One thing is for certain, fans of football in Blaine County will show up in huge numbers next fall when the Sugarbeeters and the Wildcats meet on the grid iron for the first time in 17 years.

Class C Golf

Significant changes were made to Class C Boys and Girls Golf at the November 23 meeting. The Board approved Class C Divisional Golf Meets and new State Qualifying standards for girls and boys.

Following the conclusion of the abruptly shortened spring golf season a committee was formed to put together a proposal to include Divisional Golf meets for Class C.

The four member committee included Luke Kloker (Fairview), Myssie Sanders (Savage), Jeff Bellach (Manhatten Christian) and Shawn Holmes (Seeley).

The number of athletes qualifying for the state tournaments each year have been increasing steadily. Under normal circumstances the most a golf course can handle comfortably for an 18 hole course is 120-130 players.

The steadily rising number of state qualifiers has begun to strain event organizers leading to the need for a divisional round and adjustment of automatic qualifying standards.

A similar scenario played out in Class B several years ago. For example the 2006 Class B state tournament had 272 participants and after implementing a Divisional round that number has remained in the comfortable range of 135.

There would be a Western Division to include 24 teams and a Eastern Division consisting of 22 teams. The Chinook Sugarbeeters and Hays/Lodge Pole Thunderbirds would compete in the Eastern Division.

Automatic regular season state qualifying standards would be reduced for boys from 100 to 85 and for girls 120 to 100.

Divisional Tournaments would have the same number of participants per team (4) as the state tournament. All regular season qualified players must be entered and will count towards the number of players allowed per team of (4).

Any team with players that have regular season qualifying scores, must be entered into the Divisional tournament. A team or individual can elect not to compete at the Divisional and still compete, individually or as a team (if 3 or 4 are qualified) at the State Tournament.

Chinook senior Ethan MacLeod takes a swing during the 2019 Class C State Golf Tournament. To qualify this year he will have to meet stricter qualifying standards than in the past.

Both the Western and Eastern Division will send five teams to state and the top 25 individual placers (Players from the five qualifying teams may be included in the top 25). Each team will be allowed a maximum of four players at the state meet.