Woodruff Athletics Learn New Region Opponents as SCHSL Two-year Realignment Released

By: Garrett Mitchell, Staff Writer

Woodruff High School athletics have learned their placement after the South Carolina High School League released its new two-year realignment on January 24.

As expected, the Wolverines remain in class 3A, though their region opponents will drastically change from recent years.  

Woodruff will compete in Region 3-3A and be one of six schools in that conference.  As part of the realignment, a multiplier rule was taken into effect, which was passed to preserve a competitive balance between public, private, and charter schools.  While private and charter schools have dominated athletics across the state’s two lowest classifications, 1A and 2A, for decades due to the ability to recruit athletes, the multiplier counts each student living outside of each institution’s established attendance zone as three students, thereby increasing the enrollment number used for realignment and forcing most private and charter schools into higher classifications.  

Woodruff will see that effect personally in the new realignment.

When all was said and done, class 3A turned out to be the smallest among the five classes in South Carolina, with only 33 schools.  Both the upper and lower state designations will have three regions each.

The Wolverines have competed in Region 4-3A along with Clinton, Emerald, Union County, and Chester for the past two seasons.  Clinton will drop to class 2A for the first time, and Chester will drop a classification.  Emerald will now compete in class 4A.  Of the Wolverines’ four current region foes, only Union County will remain in a region with the Wolverines.

In a welcome change, Woodruff will now re-enter a region comprised predominantly of Spartanburg County schools.  The Wolverines will once again be paired with Broome and Chapman, along with Union County and the new Mountain View Prep public charter school.  The one outlier who will join Region 3 is Greer Middle College Charter, which does not field a football program.

It is also believed that Mountain View Prep may not field a varsity roster in most sports beginning in August, which will be their first school year as an active institution.

The new region alleviates what was a rugged travel schedule for Woodruff sports teams.  That, along with re-establishing traditional conference rivalries with fellow county schools, was a change welcomed by Woodruff athletic director Mike Morris despite some initial surprises.

“I was initially surprised that we ended up with only 33 teams in 3A, but that’s out of our control,” said Morris.  “I think region, we kind of thought we would be in the region with a lot of the teams we were in a region with previously.  We thought Newberry might slide up into our region.  We really hoped we would keep Landrum in 3A, but that just didn’t happen.  But we are pretty pleased with who we are in there with.”

Excluding the unknown status of Mountain View’s athletic program in their first years, Woodruff has experienced much success against teams from Broome, Chapman, and Union County in recent years.  Morris added that the new realignment gives the Wolverines a chance to remain one of the consistently successful athletic programs in the upstate and in class 3A.

“Our schedule is set up to where we will actually continue to finish our region schedule with Union County, and Chapman and Broome, obviously, have still been non-region opponents the last couple of years, but we have them back in the region,” Morris explained.  “Both of those teams are very competitive 3A schools, so we’re looking forward to the challenge of our new region with those traditional Spartanburg County schools.”

Coming to class 3A due to the multiplier are many of the private and charter schools that have long dominated 1A and 2A, such as Christ Church, Southside Christian, and defending 2A state football champion Oceanside Collegiate.  Most of those athletic programs are especially prolific in spring sports, but Morris says the Wolverine teams will be ready to compete against anyone.

“Right now, obviously, we would prefer to be winning more region titles,” Morris added.  “We haven’t won near as many region titles in the past few years as I would like to, but I think from a competition standpoint, we’ve been very competitive.  I think with our growth and staying in 3A for a couple more rounds, there is a lot of chance to grow, and I think we’ll stay competitive.”

Below is the full class 3A re-alignment as released by the South Carolina High School League:

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