Central Basketball Moving to Class AA
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WHEELING -- Announced Friday by the WVSSAC, Wheeling Central's boys and girls basketball teams will be moving down to Class AA for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.
The Maroon Knights competed in Class AAA the past two seasons following the sport's expansion to four classifications in 2019.
"It was a decision we kind of made at the beginning of the season last year," Central athletic director Donnie Murray said. "Coach Mel (Stephens) and Coach Roberta (Olejasz) both decided to move down to AA."
When the expansion happened, Central, a Class A school at the time, was originally placed in Class AAA by the WVSSAC's competitive balance formula. There was a rule in place, however, that prohibited teams from moving up two classifications, meaning Central would have been placed in Class AA prior to the 2020-21 season.
Murray, Stephens, the longtime coach of the boys team, and then-girls coach Penn Kurtz decided to allow the move all the way up to Class AAA, however.
"A lot of why I wanted to move to AAA was, in a perfect world, I was kind of hoping that would allow us to match up with (Class AAAA schools) Wheeling Park, Brooke and John Marshall," Murray said. "Just to set up some local games, kind of primetime games. They continued to play their regular schedule that they had (previously) and it just didn't work out so a lot of our scheduling stayed relatively the same."
Another thought Murray had about moving up to Class AAA was how the regions would be aligned. Class AAA's Region I, Section I included Central, Oak Glen, Weir and North Marion. Murray said he thought Section II of the region would include schools from the nearby Fairmont area. Instead, Region I, Section II was made up of eastern panhandle schools Keyser, Hampshire and Berkeley Springs.
"A lot of it was in the hopes for a good sectional alignment," Murray said of the move to Class AAA. "We thought Region II, the Fairmont area, would get broken up a little bit and that would be the other part of our region. Then when they came out with the regions, they actually paired us with the eastern panhandle. That pushed our regional games to anywhere from two to three hours."
The Fairmont-area schools are all contained in the two sections in Region II.
In terms of scheduling, Murray said he expects very little change going from Class AAA to AA. The biggest change, he said, was when they originally left Class A and lost local opponents like Cameron, Paden City, Valley and Hundred.
The Maroon Knights will now be in Class AA Region I, Section I along with Magnolia and St. Marys. Ritchie County was in the section last season, but has moved to Section II.
Section II of the region will include Ritchie, Williamstown and Parkersburg Catholic.
Class AAA Region I, Section I will stay the same with Weir, Oak Glen and North Marion.
Wheeling Central was the only school in the state to have both its boys and girls team change classes this offseason. Notre Dame, Trinity and Westside will all have their boys teams move from Class AAA to AA.
The Maroon Knights could be on the move again in two more years, however, when the WVSSAC's pilot period fully comes to an end. Murray said at that point, the competitive balance formula may again move the Knights up to Class AAA or allow them to stay in Class AA.