Loggers headed back to Class A?

The Libby School District is debating whether to move up from Class B to Class A for high school sports.

The school district has gone from being Class AA in the 1980s, to Class B this year––.

The Montana High School Association is adjusting the qualifying numbers for each class.

The current enrollment at Libby High School is 367, which is above the new threshold for Class B, which now sits in a range of 108 to 306. Before, under the 10-percent rule and the two-year average enrollment that the MHSA ultimately looks for, the school was in the 120 to 339 range.

The 10-percent rule allows schools 10 percent above the deciding number to stay within their chosen class. With the 10-percent rule, Libby High School will be within the expanded range for schools that can petition to stay in Class B: 372.

At the Oct. 10 school board meeting, the school board seemed in agreement to move up to Class A, concurring with Libby Vice Principal Jim Germany, who recommends they move up. Germany believes that moving up in divisions would make more sense for the school, in terms of organization and being traditionally in the same league.

“We’re pretty firm believers that we need to be in one conference, and that’s what’s driving us,” Germany said.

Some believe that since the football team hasn’t competed well in Class B, where they were a big fish in a small pond, they would have a more difficult time competing in Class A.

However, Germany disagrees.

“It’s a numbers game ... what we found out is, it doesn’t matter if you’re A, B ... those athletes are who are going to win it.”

Since the varsity football team’s numbers were so low, and many of the players were so young, the team didn’t have a “regular” year, Germany said.

“We just haven’t been real competitive because we haven’t had the manpower,” Germany said, noting that the eighth-grade football team, which went undefeated this year (see story), will be moving up, giving them more manpower in the coming years.

Germany speculated that another apprehension of going from Class B to A is the cost of travel. But he said that, while some of the schools are farther away, they won’t see much difference in cost.

“Maybe it’s a false belief that our travel costs will go down (in Class B), because it seems that our conference is smaller ... but if you really take a look at the number of games and where we’re going, we could swap Thompson Falls with Polson.”

Germany said that scheduling is currently out of their control for the most part in Class B. With regionalized scheduling, Germany said, football has less of a say.

Varsity Football Coach Neil Fuller could not be reached for comment.