The Utah High School Activities Association Board of Trustees voted Thursday to move all Uintah High School sports and activities from 4A to 5A starting in the 2021 – 2022 school year. The news was announced in a press release from Uintah High Athletics on Thursday. “The UHSAA Board of Trustees rejected a request from the Uintah School District to allow Uintah High football to move from 4A to 3A next year,” shares the press release. “The request was made in an effort to improve player safety, allow the football program to rebuild, attract more players and play in a region that made more sense geographically and competitively. The UHSAA Board of Trustees discussed the ‘first alignment consideration’ for regions on December 9th [which] would have put Uintah in 4A with only four other schools in its region. This would have made it extremely difficult for the Utes to schedule an equal amount of home and away contests. As the discussions progressed, it appeared Uintah could end up being the only 4A team remaining in the central part of the state, forcing the Utes to play in a region composed of teams from either the Cache Valley or the St. George area. The Uintah School District opposed this option. UHSAA sets its classifications based primarily on student population. Uintah High is at the top of 4A in terms of student population this year. It will be one of the smaller 5A schools in terms of student population next year.” Still, Uintah High Athletic Director Bill Sivert says he believes Uintah High can still be competitive even if the road to state may be more difficult. “I would encourage more kids to try out, especially if they are freshmen or sophomores,” shares Sivert. “Give it a shot. See what you think. If they want to play, there’s a place for them on a lot of these teams.” The UHSAA board of trustees has proposed that a committee be formed to examine how realignment takes place in the future. One area the committee is expected to explore is whether there is still a need for regions now that RPI rankings are used to seed the playoffs.
