In breaking down the short list of powerhouse football programs in Class 5A, it doesn't take long for St. Thomas Aquinas to roll off the tongue. Same goes for Wichita Northwest.
The Saints and Grizzlies have combined for just one state title between them -- Aquinas' crown in 2018, but have been fixtures at the top of the classification under their current regimes -- Randy Dreiling at Aquinas and Steve Martin at Northwest. In the past decade, they've combined for five runner-up finishes and countless other semifinal showings.
But after this season, Aquinas and Northwest no longer fit the label of Class 5A contender. The Saints and Grizzlies are on the move.
In
Friday's release of the new football classifications for the 2022-23 seasons, Aquinas is one of two Class 5A schools dropping to Class 4A for the next cycle. With an enrollment of 662 from its ninth, 10th and 11-grade classes, the Saints dipped out of the 32-school range for Class 5A.
Aquinas and Kansas City Schlagle (663) will drop to Class 4A, replaced by Lansing (701) and Great Bend (689).
Dreiling said the news about Aquinas moving down a class took him by surprise this morning.
"Some other coach sent me a text saying 'You're 4A' and I said, "No we're not,'" Dreiling said.
Dreiling said he'd prefer his team staying in 5A, but his players will likely take the news in stride.
"Our task at hand is what we'll focus on," he said. "This will have no bearing on the kids. They're not going to sit around and care about what class they're in. They're just going to play football."
Northwest, meanwhile, is moving up to Class 6A. The Grizzlies' enrollment count of 1,126 jumps them out of Class 5A and solidly in Class 6A, joined by fellow 5A-to-6A mover Wichita Heights, which has an enrollment of 1,116. They replace Kansas City Harmon (1,081) and Wichita West (1,071), which drop from 6A to 5A.
Martin anticipated Northwest's move back to 6A, where it last competed in 2017. He sensed the possibility last year based on the school's class sizes.
"It'll be some of the same things for us no matter where we are," said Martin, the Grizzlies' coach since 2012. "You're still going to get quality competition. We're going to be running into the Derbys and Junction Citys instead of Maize, Kapaun and Carroll. You just play who's on your schedule, and hopefully you've made some improvement during the season to get you ready for a run in November."
The lone change in Class 4A was the addition of Aquinas and Schlagle in place of Lansing and Great Bend. In Class 3A, Wellsville is the lone mover up from Class 2A.
With Class 3A and Class 2A being reduced to just 40 schools each, there were plenty of shifts down.
Dropping from Class 3A to Class 2A were Cherryvale, Council Grove, Halstead, Larned, Riley County, Russell and Sabetha, while Horton moved up from 1A to 2A.
Moving from Class 2A to the increased Class 1A, which now has 43 schools are Belle Plaine, Ellis, Erie, Hutchinson Trinity, Jayhawk-Linn, Leon-Bluestem, Marion, McLouth, Mission Valley, Oskaloosa, Pittsburg Colgan, Republic County, Riverside, Southeast-Cherokee, St. Marys, Sterling and Syracuse. Former eight-player programs Medicine Lodge, Onaga and Valley Falls also move up to Class 1A after returning to 11-player football.
Four schools dropped from 11-player to eight-player and fall into Division I -- Ell-Saline, Elkhart, Lyndon and Sublette. Osborne, Quinter and Rock Hills move up to Division I from Division II, while Doniphan West, Fairfield, Hodgeman County, Kinsley, Marmaton Valley and St. John drop from Division I to Division II.
A total of 12 schools will drop from eight-player to the newly added six-player division -- Altoona-Midway, Chase, Chetopa, Ingalls, Lost Springs-Centre, Peabody-Burns, Southern Cloud, Southern Coffey County, Tescott, Triplains-Brewster, Waverly and Wetmore.
The classifications for all sports except football for the 2021-22 season were also announced on Friday.
There were no changes in either Class 6A or Class 5A and the lone change in Class 4A was Rock Creek moving up from 3A and Nickerson dropping from 4A to 3A.
Humboldt and Olathe Heritage Christian moved up to Class 3A from Class 2A, while Osklaoosa and St. Marys dropped from 3A to 2A. Jackson Heights, Pratt-Skyline and Rosalia-Flinthills all moved up from 1A to 2A, while Leoti-Wichita County, Spearville and Washington County dropped from 2A to 1A.