Elkmont's Ty Roberts runs for a touchdown against Clements in a game last season. The Red Devils and Colts will be region opponents for the next two seasons after Elkmont moved down to Class 3A with the AHSAA's new realignment, which was released Tuesday.

Christmas isn’t for another week, but Elkmont football coach Duane Wales got an early Christmas present Tuesday when the Alabama High School Athletic Association released the classifications for the 2020-2022 school years.

Elkmont, which had struggled mightily in Class 4A the past two years, will move back down to Class 3A and be in a much more manageable region. The Red Devils are trading in a 4A region that featured Deshler, West Limestone, Rogers, Wilson, Central-Florence and Brooks, and replacing it with a region that now has Carbon Hill, Clements, Colbert Heights, Danville, Lauderdale County, Phil Campbell and Winfield.

“There’s no doubt, we’re more comfortable in 3A,” Wales said. “When you’re one of the bottom six teams (by enrollment) in 4A and you’re playing teams that have 60 or more players on their roster and we have around 30, there’s a huge difference in depth. Now we’re in the top 15 schools (by enrollment) in 3A, so that’s going to even the playing field for us quite a bit.”

Elkmont was the only school to move classifications in the newest realignment, although Clements barely hung on to its 3A status. The Colts are now the smallest school in 3A, with a listed enrollment of 221.55. The AHSAA used the State Department of Education’s average daily enrollment numbers, which take an average of the enrollment for the first 20 days of school after Labor Day. By comparison, Elkmont’s listed enrollment is 267.05.

“There ain’t nothing you can do about it,” Clements football coach Michael Parker said of being 3A’s smallest school. “I knew it was going to be close, but I didn’t know it would be that close. It is what it is. We’ve still got to strap it up and play.”

Athens (enrollment 814.65) remained in Class 6A, and will play in an eight team region, after spending the last two years in a six-team region. The Golden Eagles will play the same five teams it played in last year’s region, and will also face Hazel Green and Buckhorn.

This means Athens will only have to play three non-region games the next two seasons after playing five non-region games the previous two seasons.

Gross said he had some non-region opponents penciled in before Tuesday, but it is always wait and see until the new classifications and regions are released.

“Everybody has their theories as to how it’s going to be, but we’re all anxious to see how it shakes out,” Gross said. “We’ve talked with some teams, and they have said they have games penciled in with other teams, but if it works out that they are in the same region, those will be open dates and we may be able to play them. So it’s kind of an anxious time. It’s always fun though.”

East Limestone coach Jeff Pugh might disagree with the fun part, as he said he was on the phone all Tuesday morning trying to find another non-region game after he was thrown a curveball by the AHSAA, which placed the Indians (enrollment 509.95) in a seven-team region. East had been in an eight-team region for years, which meant they only needed to play three non-region games. Now, they will need to play four non-region games to fill out a full 10-game schedule.

“This is the first time in my career we’ve had a seven-team region,” Pugh said. “I already had two (non-region games) penciled in, and now trying to get these two other games set after a lot of teams have got stuff set is pretty tough. With a seven-team region, you don’t know what week you’re going to have off. So we’re trying to find a Week 0 and a Week 10 game in case we can’t find anything for the off week. We sure don’t want to play an eight-game season. We want to make sure we get 10. It’s going to be tough, but that’s just part of it.”

Ardmore (enrollment 419.7) is also in East Limestone’s Class 5A region, while West Limestone (enrollment 344.15) stays in Class 4A in a region that stays mostly the same as the last two years, with Elkmont moving out and West Morgan and East Lawrence moving in.

Tanner (enrollment 176.15) remains in Class 2A, but will have a brand new region to play in, with six different region opponents than the Rattlers had last season.

Lindsay Lane Christian Academy (enrollment 119.07) and Athens Bible School (enrollment 91.13) don’t participate in football, but with the AHSAA releasing classifications and region for all fall sports, the ABS volleyball team found out it will be moving up to Class 2A due to the competitive balance equation.

Private schools can be moved up or down classifications based on how well they do in a particular sport. Since Athens Bible has made the state tournament the past four seasons, advancing to the 1A championship game in 2018, they accrued enough points in the competitive balance formula to move up to Class 2A. The Trojans will be in a region with Falkville, Tanner and Whitesburg Christian.

Lindsay Lane will stay in Class 1A in volleyball.

“We were kind of expecting to move up,” Athens Bible volleyball coach EA Winland said. “So when it came out today, it wasn’t a huge shock. But now it’s on paper and I feel like I can start scheduling. I had been holding off on that because of not knowing exactly where we were going to sit.”

Athens Bible has always played in Class 1A in every sport, so Winland said the volleyball program is entering new territory.

“It’s definitely exciting to see what this change brings,” she said. “It’s hard because we are a very small school, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out. We’re excited about the competition we’ll get, but we don’t know really what to expect.”