NORTHERN SCHOOLS PUSH FOR REALIGNMENT

avoiding national power Gorman is understandable, especially considering the Gaels on Saturday overpowered Reed 48-7 to win their ninth consecutive state championship, accommodating Reno in realignment would accomplish little to help Las Vegas schools in their plea to balance the playing field.

Make no doubt about it, realignment is about appeasing the North — even if athletes in Las Vegas, where there are nearly three times the number of NIAA member schools, are shorted. Of the eight regional quarterfinal games in football this fall, seven were decided by the mercy rule, and that trend will continue if Reno gets its wish to play down a classification.

The new 4A in realignment would be limited to about 12 Las Vegas schools to match those in the Reno area. That means about 14 would be pegged for the 5A, and there aren’t that many qualified schools to fill those slots. The have-nots would be forced to continue strapping it up against Gorman and Arbor View football, Centennial girls basketball and dynasties in other sports.

We’ve seen Eldorado and Valley finish in last place in many sports while stuck in the large-school classification, while Chaparral — a school with similar traits — has flourished in the 3A the past four years. Mojave, a former turnaround school, went from having a one-win football program in 2016 to the 3A state championship game.

Realignment will be determined using the Nevada Rubric, a formula that takes points earned by a team’s place in the standings for all sports. Football will be aligned separately, thankfully. Divisions will be finalized Thursday during a planning meeting at Chaparral and forwarded for approval to the Board of Control.

Thursday’s meeting is open to the public, so it’s not too late to voice your opinion. And don’t make your comments solely about Gorman — we don’t need to point fingers, but programs at other Las Vegas schools also attract players because of their success.

If Gorman football wasn’t dominating Reno-area teams, would Liberty and Arbor View take turns beating them? Would the final also be lopsided? What about Basic baseball and Centennial girls basketball? Is the North’s decision to skip on the 5A a means to avoid them too?

As we have painfully witnessed over the recent years, there’s no easy solution for realignment. When you are managing 37 Las Vegas-area high schools, and only a handful of those schools are thriving, some are going be put in bad situations and not all can have the fortune of playing in a lower classification.

If every school were like Chaparral, which has found its identify in the 3A and had memorable seasons in many sports, then realignment would be a hit. But for every Chaparral, there’s a Valley or Eldorado, and that’s not right.

What’s even worse is Saturday could have been the last true large-school football championship game. Reno fans, like they often do when the game is played up North, yelled into the press box toward NIA A officials about their disgust at playing Gorman.

Next year, though, it will be different. It will be Reed, Reno or Damonte Ranch’s turn to get their revenge. ray.brewer@lasvegassun.com / 702-990-2662 / @raybrewer21