Next year will be very different for Wayland High School’s athletic schedule. Not only are the Wildcats lining up in a new division in the O-K Gold Conference, they are being moved in classification from Class B to Class A.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association posted this week, “Classifications for the upcoming school year are based on a second semester count date, which for MHSAA purposes was Feb. 14. All sports’ tournaments are conducted with schools assigned to equal or nearly equal divisions, with lines dependent on how many schools participate in those respective sports.
“For 2024-25, there are 753 tournament-qualified member schools. Schools recently were notified of their classification, and sport-by-sport divisions were posted to the MHSAA Website today (April 5).”
Traditional classes (A, B, C, D) – formerly used to establish tournament classifications – are used only for MHSAA elections. For 2024-25, there are 188 member schools in Class A, Class B and Class D, and 189 member schools in Class C.
Effective with the 2024-25 school year, schools with 793 or more students are in Class A. The enrollment limits for Class B are 378-792, Class C is 169-377, and schools with enrollments of 168 and fewer are Class D. The break between Classes A and B decreased 14 students from 2023-24, the break between Classes B and C decreased two students, and the break between Classes C and D is eight students fewer than for the 2023-24 school year.
Though Plainwell also is being moved from Class B to Class A, there are no more area schools that will face similar changes.
Wayland was moved to Class A in 2009 and 2010, which some argue was the reason the 23-0 Wayland basketball team lost in the regional finals in 2010. Some insist that team could have won the Class B state title.
Another huge change facing Wayland this fall in athletics will be it will be in a seven-member O-K Gold division with South Christian, Grand Rapids Union, Wyoming, GR Northview, Thornapple Kellogg, and Grand Rapids West Caholic.
A separate White Division for football only will include Wayland, Spring Lake, Hamilton, Forest Hills Eastern, Grand Rapids Christian and West Catholic.
The moves are the result of the secession of Sparta, Coopersville, Kenowa Hills, Lowell, Cedar Springs, Allendale who made an early exit after this 2023-24 season, with 41 schools remaining. The seven runaway schools will form the River Cities Alliance, citing long travel distances in the O-K Conference as the reason.
Hopkins has only one runaway school, Sparta, currently competing in the O-K Silver Division, but things changed nonetheless.
With Sparta among the seven that seceded, the O-K Silver now will include Hopkins, Fruitport, Comstock Park, Godwin Heights, Belding, NorthPointe Christian, Calvin Christian and Kelloggsville. In the football only Silver Division, it’ll be Hopkins, Belding, Comstock Park, Godwin, Kelloggsville, Fruitport and Holland. Calvin Christian and NorthPointe Christian won’t go along with that change.
Change may be on the way for the OK Silver. Fruitport has applied to become part of the West Michigan Conference. A vote is not likely until August, so there will be at least one year in the OK Silver.