The Indiana High School Athletic Association has released its revised class groupings for baseball, basketball, softball, and volleyball beginning this fall and running through 2011 – and Sectional #44, which Switzerland County has been a part of, looks very familiar.
The new Sectional #44 will be made up of the same six teams – Switzerland County, Lawrenceburg, Milan, South Ripley, North Decatur, and Southwestern - as it has had for the past four years; but the IHSAA has now included Hauser High School into the sectionals.
Hauser is moving up from Class A, and is located in Hope, Indiana, near Greensburg. The Jets have been a Class A powerhouse in basketball, having been ranked #1 in Class A in previous years in boys basketball.
It had been rumored that a realignment and the addition of Hauser might mean that Southwestern would get bumped to another sectional, possibly to Sectional #47, but the realignment also put seven teams – Austin, Brownstown Central, Clarksville, Eastern Pekin, Paoli, Providence, and West Washington – in that sectional.
How a seven team field will lay out for sectional play is also unknown, but fans can probably count on games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday for basketball.
Another unknown will be where the sectional tournaments will be held. The IHSAA limits the distance that teams can travel to get to a sectional site. Switzerland County is approximately 75 miles, but ultimately the seven schools will decide which sectionals are played where.
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Other area schools had mixed sectional results:
– The Class A Sectional #60 stayed the same, with Jac-Cen-Del, Oldenburg Academy, Rising Sun, Shawe Memorial, and South Decatur.
– Madison has a new home, as the Cubs will now compete in Class 3A Sectional 28, with Batesville, Franklin County, Greensburg, Scottsburg, and South Dearborn.