High school basketball conference pairings fill the months of January and February with conference records determining conference tournament seeding in early March and conference tournament results determining state tournament berths in mid-March.
The 2021-22 regular season for high school basketball is well-underway; however, many followers of basketball failed to get the memo on numerous changes to the classification of Alaska basketball teams which took effect with start of the 2021-22 season.
Let’s begin at the top, classification-wise, with changes to Alaska’s largest classifications 4A and 3A basketball.
ACS & Monroe (boys) Move To 4A
The most impactful change involves the re-classification of Anchorage Christian School and Monroe Catholic School.
Anchorage Christian School’ boys and girls basketball teams and the Monroe Catholic boys basketball teams have been re-classified to 4A basketball beginning with the current season. The ASAA board approved the movement of the teams based on competitive balance and program success at the 3A level.
The ACS girls have won each basketball state championship since 2017 and the ACS Boys and Monroe boys have combined to win the 3A titles since 2019.
Anchorage Christian has been relocated into the Northern Lights Conference in 4A basketball, joining SoHi, Palmer, Wasilla, Colony and Kodiak.
The Monroe boys are now part of the Mid-Alaska Conference along with Lathrop, North Pole and West Valley.
The Northern Lights Conference receives two berths to the 4A State Basketball Championships; the Mid-Alaska Conference receives one berth and two at-large berths remain to be assigned.
3A Creates Peninsula & Eastern Conference
The 3A Southcentral Conference no longer exists and the 3A Southeast Conference has been absorbed. The new Peninsula Conference contains Kenai, Nikiski, Homer, Seward and Grace Christian. The newly formed Eastern Conference contains Sitka and Mt. Edgecombe from Southeast and Houston and Redington from the Mat-Su Valley. Each conference receives two berths to the 3A State Basketball Championships.
Ninilchik Opts-Up To 2A Classification
The Ninilchik Wolverines have been approved to opt-up to the Interior Conference in 2A basketball. The move, out of 1A basketball, is effective beginning 2021 and is for a three-year period. The Interior Conference includes Cordova, Su-Valley, Nenana, Glennallen, Tok and Effie Kokrine.
Link to ASAA Basketball Procedures and Classifications: Click Here!