Lake Norman Publications

REALIGNMENT: State splits up conferences on geographic lines



With the I-Meck split along county lines in the first draft of conference realignment, Hough and Lake Norman would only face off in non-conference competition. /Doug Coats

The South Fork and I-Meck conferences would be broken up under the first draft of the N.C. High School Athletic Association’s realignment plan.

After adjusting the classification scoring system in the name of competitive balance, the proposed conferences are based more on geography. The NCHSAA said with this in mind, it did not try to limit the number of split-classification conferences.

Mecklenburg and Iredell County teams now in the I-Meck would be separated, with the league losing Lake Norman, Mooresville and West Charlotte, and picking up east Charlotte school Garinger. The Mooresville schools would join a conference with South Iredell, which will move up to 4A, and four Cabarrus County schools.

With growing enrollments, Lake Norman Charter, East Lincoln and North Lincoln are all newcomers to 3A, with the latter two enjoying athletic success at the 2A level. North Lincoln has the sixth-highest enrollment of all 3A schools in the state. After traveling west for all of its competition as a South Fork member, LNC would head east to face seven schools in Cabarrus and Rowan counties.

East and North are slated to be the Lincoln county representatives in a conference with Catawba and Iredell schools, including Hickory and Statesville. The remaining South Fork schools will stay in 2A, where they are joined by Bunker Hill and East Burke.

Though several of the lake-area charter schools are moving up to 2A, they would still play in a split conference with current 1A foes. Conference 39 would have Community School of Davidson, Pine Lake Prep and Lincoln Charter as 2A schools, but keep current PAC 7 schools Mountain Island Charter, Christ the King and Langtree Charter. 

The new league would be the strongest example of the NCHSAA decreasing a league’s footprint, with Gaston County’s Piedmont Community Charter joining lake-area schools. The Southern Piedmont football conference stretches from Thomas Jefferson Academy in Rutherford County to Union Academy in Monroe. But its schools would now be split into three new conferences.

Conference 39 only has four football-playing schools. It would need to either add more schools with football teams or create another football-only conference.

Schools may submit concerns or suggestions by Jan. 8; a second draft will be sent Jan. 14.

Lake-area 4A schools

Conference 60: Hopewell, Hough, North Meck

Conference 57: Lake Norman, Mooresville

3A schools

Conference 48: Lake Norman Charter

Conference 51: East Lincoln, North Lincoln

2A schools

Conference 39: Community School of Davidson, Lincoln Charter, Pine Lake Prep

Conference 45: Bandys

1A schools

Conference 39: Christ the King, Langtree Charter, Mountain Island Charter

Other NCHSAA changes

The state also reduced the maximum number of regular-season football games from 11 to 10. There is a stipulation that the first contest may not occur more than two days in advance of the final Friday in August.

Subdivisions were eliminated in football, cutting the number of brackets and future state champions in half.

The association also created 60-second officials’ timeout in each quarter for basketball to provide an opportunity for athletes to adapt to wearing masks during competition. 

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