AHSAA announces new region alignments for football, basketball

By By Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
The longtime series between Hartselle and Brewer will be back on the schedule next fall with a new region lineup in Class 5A.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association Wednesday released new alignments for football and basketball last week that will be in effect until 2012.
Brewer and Hartselle had met every season since 1981, but the Patriots were put into a nine-team region during the last realignment two years ago dooming the series.
Now with realignment, the two rivals will meet again for the first time since the 2007 season.
The two schools will be joined by Cullman, Curry, Hayden, Mortimer Jordan, Walker and West Point in the reworked Region 6 lineup.
None of the schools in the Hartselle Enquirer coverage area will be changing classifications.
Godsey expects to fill the three non-region games with traditional rivals Austin and Decatur and another team to be determined.
Brewer will have the benefit of adding another non-region game. Under the previous alignment, the Patriots had non-region games during weeks one and 10. Now Brewer will have a non-region date during week five.
The new football region alignment will have only four nine-team regions statewide in Classes 2A and 3A. In the current alignment, the nine-team regions are in Classes 1A, 5A and 6A.
Falkville will remain a member of Class 2A, Region 7 for the next two years, but the lineup will face some changes.
Gone are Addison, Lamar County, Sulligent and Winston County, with Sumiton Christian, Tanner, West End-Walnut Grove and Westminster Christian joining the region.
The Blue Devils’ travel situation hasn’t improved much, however. Falkville will play against high schools in seven different counties next fall.
Danville, on the other hand, will be losing several two-hour trips from its region schedule next season. The Hawks will be moving from Region 7 to Region 8, which features several teams in the Shoals area.
The new region features Danville, West Morgan, Elkmont, Cleveland, Lauderdale County, Colbert County, Sheffield and Rogers.
All of those trips are much shorter than the Hawks’ road trips to Winfield and Hamilton the last two seasons.
Priceville moves into Class 4A, Region 8 next season to face Ardmore, Brooks, Central-Florence, Deshler, East Lawrence, West Limestone and Wilson.
The Bulldogs’ move was largely a result of Butler’s drop from Class 5A to 4A.