The pause before Oregon’s 2022 prep sports storm
Get ready for some changes already scheduled for this upcoming OSAA season
Most players and coaches are currently taking advantage of a short pause in the crazy sports merry-go-round—a brief, but well-deserved cessation from interscholastic athletic preparation. The first practice date for fall sports is August 15. Actual interschool competition (football jamborees or other fall sports contests) can start as of August 25.
This pause allows sportscasters/writers like me to step back for a moment and assess the state of prep sports in Oregon for the 2022-23 school year. Note: this evaluation assumes that state leaders will not mask and/or shutdown sports seasons as they did during the COVID-19 pandemic. It appears the virus has mutated itself down to a more contagious, but less lethal form of the original disease—in the same general category as the flu. Stay tuned.
OSAA classifications remain relatively balanced for the upcoming year. There is a small drop in school numbers at the 6A level as the Bend area schools move down three teams to 5A due to an additional school (Caldera) being figured into the district’s lowered population totals. But there are some adjustments going on that transcend the classifications themselves.
Football as a sport continues to shuffle and realign. One 5A school from last season (North Salem) moved up to 6A for all sports in 2022-23, thanks to their success last season in a number of sports, including football. McKay of Salem—which played 5A football last year as a 6A school, has now moved down to solely 5A competition due to their struggles in all sports last season. Four 6A schools (Southridge, South Eugene, Forest Grove, Willamette) have opted to play down for football this upcoming season after struggling the past several years.
And the continued evolution of small school football continues statewide. There are 50 teams at the 1A (small school) level. Due to unstable enrollment numbers, many schools—some of them merging for the season—are opting to play six-man, rather than “normal” eight-man football. The OSAA brought back six-man football in 2018, six decades after it was dropped in 1960. This year, 28 teams are playing under eight-man rules, while 22 teams are opting for the six-man game. Without going into great detail about six-man football, I can tell you that there is some “getting used to” rules involved, including 15 yards (instead of 10) for a first down, all players being eligible receivers on offense, and points after touchdown are reversed—runs and passes are worth one point, while kicks are worth two points. Oh, and field goals—they are valued at FOUR points in the six-man game. To read more about six-man football, here is a nifty 2021 article on the subject from the Roseburg News-Review newspaper.
Addendum: OSAA is also supporting the START of nine-man football for a handful of teams in Oregon. The Eastern Oregon schools involved are: Grant Union, Heppner, Irrigon, Riverside, Stanfield, Umatilla and Weston-McEwen. Pendleton’s East Oregonian newspaper has the low-down on this new level of football—which they will be covering extensively. Check out their story here.
One more item for 2022 football: A rather unusual 6A football “super conference” has been formed after the afore-mentioned shuffling around of some schools at the 5A and 6A levels. Five teams from Salem-Keizer and five from Southern Oregon have been put together in a special league known as “Special District 1.” The ten-team conference will have three non-leagues games on the schedule, followed by seven games between special district teams. That means each team will miss out on playing two squads from within the district. Those missing matchups would involve Salem vs. Southern Oregon schools. The final records will be used in part to determine seeding for the state playoffs—power rankings still are the final determining factor. I wrote about this in an earlier column for another of my ventures on Facebook called Full Access Sports—you can read it here.
The bottom line here is, it will be a crazy, long-travel season for teams from Salem and the Rogue Valley. Good thing gasoline is so cheap right now (yes—that is sarcasm).
Enjoy the break, everyone. High School sports will be back in a few short weeks.
Football leagues and playoff have always been complicated. OSAA does a good job of attempting to putting this all together. School Administrators/Athletic Directors and coaches all have representation for their input! Got to love high school sports!! Awesome!