2021 spring sports alignments announced

Published 1:00 pm Monday, May 11, 2020

The final piece of the 2020-2022 alignment puzzle came together Thursday, as the Alabama High School Athletic Association released the area alignments for spring sports.

The AHSAA has been releasing region and area alignments in a step-by-step process. In December, it released the football regions for the 2020 and 2021 seasons, while also releasing the area alignments for other fall sports.

Football and small-school soccer are the only team sports that have regions, consisting of six to eight teams. All other team sports compete in areas, which consist of three to five teams. Individual sports, such as golf, tennis and track and field, compete in sections, which could have up to 20 teams.

The AHSAA released area alignments for winter sports in March, before releasing the spring sports area alignments Thursday.

The AHSAA sports that compete in the spring are baseball, softball, soccer, golf, track and field and tennis.

Classifications and area alignments are done every two years, and are based off the enrollment numbers at each high school. Schools in the same classification are put in areas based on their proximity to each other.

This is the first year the AHSAA did not release all the alignments at one time. For that reason, there weren’t many surprises among local coaches, because area alignments in winter sports are usually the same or very similar to the alignments for spring sports.

In Class 6A, Athens moved from Area 15 to Area 16 in all team sports and has the same opponents in baseball, softball and soccer. Athens is in a four-team area with Buckhorn, Columbia and Hazel Green.

In Class 5A, East Limestone and Ardmore will once again be in the same area, with both competing in Area 16, along with Madison Academy, Lee-Huntsville and Mae Jemison. Lee and Mae Jemison are moving back down to Class 5A after spending the previous two years in Class 6A.

Athens baseball coach Chuck Smith said the Golden Eagles might be dropping an area rival with Muscle Shoals, but are replacing them with an old area rival in Hazel Green. The Trojans spent the past two seasons in a different area, but are moving back into the same area with Athens.

“It’s always been a battle against Muscle Shoals,” Smith said. “We always went into it knowing it was going to be a good weekend of playing against them. Now we go back to adding Hazel Green to our area, like it was three years ago. That rivalry with Hazel Green has started back up again like it was the previous years. Always a good series with Hazel Green. Tensions are always high because games are usually close.”

In soccer, Class 4A and 5A compete together due to the fewer number of schools that sponsor soccer as a sport. Ardmore, East Limestone and West Limestone will all compete together in Class 4A-5A, Area 16, along with Madison Academy and St. John Paul II.

West Limestone’s baseball and softball teams will both play in three-team areas, but will have one different opponent from each other. The Wildcats baseball team will compete in Area 15 against Brooks and West Morgan. West’s softball team will also compete in Area 15, but will oppose West Morgan and Priceville.

With Elkmont dropping from Class 4A to Class 3A, the Red Devils will be in the same area as returning Class 3A team Clements. The Limestone County foes will be in Area 16 along with Lauderdale County and Colbert Heights in both baseball and softball.

In Class 2A, Tanner’s softball team will compete in Area 13 along with Falkville and Whitesburg Christian. The Rattlers’ baseball team will be in Area 14, competing against Decatur Heritage, Hatton, Tharptown and Whitesburg Christian.

Cross-town rivals will be matched up against each other in the same area in Class 1A, as Athens Bible and Lindsay Lane Christian will both compete in Area 14, although the baseball and softball areas have different teams.

The baseball area consists of Athens Bible, Lindsay Lane, R.A. Hubbard and St. Bernard. The softball area includes the two Athens schools along with Decatur Heritage, Skyline and Woodville.

In soccer, Classes 1A-3A compete together, which means they play a region system with between six and eight schools.

Region 8 has seven teams, with more than half of them from Limestone County. Athens Bible, Tanner, Clements and Elkmont will each compete in Region 8, along with Mars Hill Bible, Oakwood Adventist and Whitesburg Christian.

Visit www.ahsaa.com for a listing of all the the track and field, golf, and tennis sections.

All area and section alignments are in effect for the 2021 and 2022 spring sports seasons.