From staff reports
MONTGOMERY — The Alabama High School Athletic Association announced the new region alignments for the 2016-17 school years today in Montgomery. Hewitt-Trussville will now play in Class 7A, Region 4 with teams mostly from the Huntsville area.
Huffman moved into the state’s highest classification for the next year, shifting the Huskies north. Hewitt-Trussville’s region consists of Bob Jones, Buckhorn, Gadsden City, Grissom, Huntsville, James Clemens and Sparkman.
Clay-Chalkville went through a similar situation in 2012, and head coach Jerry Hood said there can be some challenges to being in a region with teams so far away.
“The main thing it does, it hurts your home gates,” Hood said. “The travel isn’t too bad. Hewitt needs to have a good balance of home games with teams who traditionally travel well and those teams that don’t.
“If the Hewitt-Clay series continues, that would be a fantastic gate. When we were in that region, the games against Hewitt and Pinson Valley, we split those gates to help carry us on that travel.”
Clay-Chalkville and Pinson Valley will play in Class 6A, Region 6, with a couple of changes in opponents. Carver (Birmingham), Center Point, Gardendale, Minor and Walker will compete in the region. That will leave the Cougars and Indians a region game shy of the normal seven.
“Thats the hard part, We’ve got to find four non region games,” Hood said. “I only have two teams who have said they’ll play. This is a tough couple of days trying to negotiate a non-region schedule.”
With the unfavorable travel for Hewitt-Trussville in their new region, the Paws and Claws rivalry series could continue if for no other reason than to offset those expenses. Hood wants to see it continue.
“It’s a great series. Our kids are so close, they grow up together,” he said. “I think it’d be in the best interest of both schools to continue the rivalry.”