LISBON FALLS – Several schools around the state will be moving up or down a class in Maine Principals’ Association-sanctioned athletics next school year. At schools such as Lisbon High School, that should mean less confusion.

After years of playing Class B in some sports and Class C in others, Lisbon will be competing exclusively in Class C next year. Moving down from Class B to C will be the field hockey, soccer, basketball, cheerleading, baseball and softball programs at Lisbon.

“We’re extremely excited to be in Class C next year,” said Lisbon co-curricular director Jeff Ramich. “Class C is where we’ve always belonged anyway.”

While the switch won’t affect the Greyhounds’ membership in the Mountain Valley Conference, it could have a major impact on how Lisbon performs in the postseason.

Stuck on the low end of Class B enrollment for years while playing in the predominantly Class C MVC, Lisbon teams often found themselves posting impressive records but having little to show for it when the final Class B Heal Point standings came out. Even when they made the playoffs, the Greyhounds usually were matched up with an unfamiliar opponent from the Western Maine Conference.

“We always got (Class) C points, which usually meant we’d go down to Cape Elizabeth or Gorham or Greely. No matter what sport we were playing, it would be, ‘Thank you for participating. Here are some nice parting gifts,'” Ramich said. “We’re just happy we’re going to see the same teams in the playoffs that we do in the regular season, for the most part.”

Lisbon has been teetering on the edge between Class B and C for years. The school didn’t need a dramatic drop in enrollment to move down to C.

“The limit has been right around that 400 mark. It just so happened they (the MPA) called us on April 1 this year when our enrollment was 399,” Ramich said. “There have been years when they’ve called and we’ve been at 401.”

Every two years the Maine Principals’ Association looks at the enrollment classifications that determine which schools compete in different classes. This year, the Classification Committee tinkered with the cutoff points in four sports – cross country, football, skiing and swimming – in pursuit of greater balance among the classifications.

In football, the changes were made due in large part to the influx of new teams in Western Maine.

Tweaking the numbers for individual sports such as cross country and swimming was more of a challenge, said MPA assistant executive director Jeff Sturgis.

“There’s a dichotomy between team sports and individual sports,” he said. “The problem with individual sports is you try to divide the schools evenly, but you end up with odd numbers at state meets.”

Thus, Sturgis noted, some state meets in sports such as skiing may have 100 more athletes competing in Class A than Class B, and dozens more in Class B than Class C.

The MPA classification committee met “five or six” times to devise the new classification cutoffs, Sturgis said, and for the first time the committee sought feedback from its member schools.

Lisbon isn’t alone in moving down a class to Class C. Wiscasset, another member of the MVC in several sports, will be competing as a Class C school in baseball, softball and basketball next year. In Eastern Maine, Presque Isle will leave Class A for Class B.

Not everyone is moving down a class, however. Oak Hill, which is moving to Eastern Maine, is moving up to next fall to become part of the newly formed Pine Tree Conference in Class B. The Raiders have been a member of Class B in all other sports. Freeport, meanwhile, will make the leap from Class C to B in several sports, including soccer, baseball and softball.

[email protected]