Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Realignment redo? NIAA hearing more comments after open meeting concerns

Prep Sports Now

Hopping to hoops

Ray Brewer and Case Keefer turn their focus to basketball, with a quick discussion through each of the 4A divisions.

The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association’s realignment committee may not be done with its work after all.

The group last week met for more than five hours to hash out realignment details to be forwarded to the NIAA’s Board of Control for approval in mid-January but realized in the days after that there were loose ends that needed to be tied up, said Donnie Nelson, the NIAA’s assistant director.

They will reconvene the meeting at 11 a.m. Friday at Chaparral.

The procedure of last week’s open meeting came into question when a final public comment portion was skipped, Nelson said. Also, one last vote cementing the committee’s recommendation needs to happen.

“Someone feels like a possible violation occurred because there wasn’t a true close with a comment period,” Nelson said. “Legal is concerned.”

Friday’s meeting will take one of two paths. The comments heard could sway the committee to rethink its recommendation, or regardless of what’s said, it won’t budge on its decision.

The committee was tasked with creating a new class 5A league for larger enrollment, high-achieving schools — a process that went mostly smoothly for football, which is aligned separately from other sports.

However, there was much debate as to which teams — Chaparral, Eldorado, Mojave, Rancho and Valley — took three spots in the 3A. The teams mirror one another and each feel a chance to play in the 3A, against the likes of Boulder City and Pahrump Valley, would help develop their programs.

For non-football, officials at Rancho and Silverado weren’t pleased with being placed in the 5A. And smaller schools on the outskirts, such as Moapa Valley and Virgin Valley, with enrollments of about 500 students, feel forgotten for having to compete against high-enrollment schools in Las Vegas.

The committee on Friday will also determine division and playoff formats.

Below is the proposal, which may need to be updated after Friday:

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21

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