Release of district assignments sets up postseason for high school sports

Friday marked the first day of contests for the new school year in Missouri and also when MSHSAA set the stage for the fall sports postseason.

The organization that oversees state championships released class and district assignments for football, softball, boys soccer and girls tennis. Cross country will be released at a later date and boys swimming just has two classifications, of which Poplar Bluff is in the smallest, with state qualifying determined by times throughout the fall.

In football, the Mules are once again in Class 5 District 1 with defending state champion Jackson, Seckman, Mehlville and Oakville along with Cape Central and Fox. With seven teams, the top seed will have a first-round bye into the semifinal while Nos. 2-3-4 will host their quarterfinal games.

Dexter and Doniphan are in a six-team district in Class 3 with Park Hills Central, Fredericktown, Potosi and Kennett. The top two seeds will have first-round byes with Nos. 3 and 4 hosting quarterfinals. Malden is again in Class 1 with Caruthersville, Chaffee, Charleston, Hayti, Portageville, Scott City and St. Vincent.

Poplar Bluff’s soccer team landed in a tough district in Class 4, the largest in the sport. The Mules are grouped with defending state champion Jackson, Lindbergh, Vianney, Fox, Northwest, Oakville and Seckman. The number of districts were cut in half so that the champion will advance to the state quarterfinal, eliminating the sectional round.

The softball postseason did a similar things last year and will again have eight districts in all but the smallest class.

The Mules are in Class 5, the largest, with Notre Dame, Jackson, Fox, Lindbergh, Mehlville, Oakville and Seckman.

In Class 3, Doniphan is grouped with Perryville, Bayless, Fredericktown, Hancock, Herculaneum, Notre Dame-St. Louis and St. Pius X-Festus.

Twin Rivers and Greenville are in Class 2 with Chaffee, Kelly, Saxony Lutheran, Gainesville, Hartville and Seymour.

Class 1, with 16 districts, features East Carter, Naylor, Neelyville, Van Buren, Alton and Bakersfield in District 1.

Volleyball still has 16 districts with the traditional sectional-quarterfinal doubleheader playoff matchup.

The Mules are in Class 5, the largest class, with Jackson, Fox, Northwest and Seckman.

In Class 3, Dexter and Doniphan are with New Madrid Central, Kennett and Notre Dame.

Twin Rivers, Clearwater, Bloomfield, Puxico and Greenville are in Class 2 District 2 while Malden is in Class 2 District 1 with Caruthersville, Charleston, East Prairie and Portageville.

Bernie, Campbell, Clarkton, Holcomb, Gideon, Richland and Risco are in Class 1 District 2 with defending state champion Advance in District 3 with Bell City, Leopold, Marquand-Zion, Meadow Heights, Oran and Zalma. Ellington is in District 5 with Bismarck, Bunker, Lesterville, South Iron, Valley and Viburnum.

Poplar Bluff’s tennis team is in Class 2 District 1 with Cape Central, which will host the tournament, Farmington, Sikeston, St. Pius X-Festus and Windsor. Dexter is in Class 1 District 1 with host Notre Dame, Arcadia Valley, North County and Potosi.

MSHSAA has always grouped schools by location when creating the districts to keep travel at a minimum for student-athletes.

As more sports add classifications those district playoffs, in which every team qualifies and is then seeded based on its regular season, the number of teams in each district has shrunk. By cutting the number of districts in half to ensure there are more than three or four teams in a single district, the number of district champions has decreased.

Softball, for example, has added a classification in the last few years, going from four state champions to five, while cutting the number of district champions from 64 to 48.

With more teams in each district, their ability to win a title and reach the state playoffs is now more dependent on the seeding of those district tournaments. It’s much tougher to avoid an opponent in a four-team district than an eight-team group, but all the sports, minus football, leave it up to a vote by the coaches to determine seeding.

That needs to stop, especially in districts where there are regional biases, say between city and rural teams that don’t play each other. Poplar Bluff’s soccer team will also see two of its seven district opponents during the regular season.

If MSHSAA were to release the district assignments earlier, schools could schedule more games against district opponents. If fact, it should be required to make the seeding system more fair.

In the very least, there should be a compromise like MSHSAA’s point system in football where the regular season actually determines a team’s actual postseason seeding.

It’s not perfect, but it’s better than teams voting for their opponent.