SCHSL realignment: Raptors to play AA football

Academic Magnet lost its bid to play football at the Class A level after the High School League’s Executive Committee on Tuesday heard appeals on the realignment that takes place in time for the 2010-11 school year.

Academic Magnet will compete at the Class AA level next year. The school wanted to remain in Class A for football.

Athletic director Curt Hoffman said the school appealed because of concerns over player safety when the proposed realignment was first announced in early August.

Hoffman pointed out the Raptors have struggled playing at the Class A level in football, winning only six of its last 60 games.

“Our question was, ‘Who does it hurt?’ Nobody. Now, the vote might hurt the future of our program,” Hoffman said. “We had all our ducks in a row. We made our appeal and got some smiles and nods, but the vote wasn’t even close. I think the cards were stacked against us. I don’t think the High School League wanted to go down that slippery slope (of allowing a school to compete in two different classifications).”

Appeals were originally scheduled to be heard on Aug. 27 with nine schools, including Academic Magnet, Bishop England, Baptist Hill and Cane Bay, filing appeals. The High School rescheduled appeals for Sept. 22 to give schools more time to prepare, but then scrapped that date when officials from Chapin High School questioned the process used to determine the reclassification, which is a biennial event.

The High School League consulted with its attorneys over legal questions surrounding reclassification and recently sent over a revised alignment proposal that allowed schools to reach a compromise and skip Tuesday’s appeal.

That included Bishop England, which was originally scheduled to play all sports in a region made up of teams from out of the area. But the High School League’s revised realignment keeps the Bishops in the region with Garrett Tech, Hanahan, Academic Magnet, Stall, North Charleston and Woodland for all sports except football.

The Bishops’ football team will compete in a region that includes Manning, Lake City, Timberland, Andrews and Kingstree.

“We compromised,” Bishop England athletic director Paul Runey said. “It was too much of a financial and academic risk to appeal. What happens if we appeal and lose?”

Baptist Hill was scheduled to compete in football with teams from out of the region and in another region with local teams in all other sports. But the revised realignment proposal put all of Baptist Hill sports into one region. The Bobcats will be in a region with Burke, Charleston Charter, Cross, Lincoln, Military Magnet and St. John’s.

Cane Bay also planned to appeal when the original realignment was announced. The High School League put the school in Class AAA. But school officials contended the Cobras should have been a Class AAAA school.

“Our attendance came up a little short than what originally was projected,” Cane Bay athletic director Jeff Cruce said of his school’s decision to cancel its appeal.