The Montana High School Association held its annual spring meeting on April 11-12 and approved numerous classification changes, as well as clarification on rules and baseball implementation plans, according to a press release from the association on Wednesday.
Effective in the 2023-2024 school year, Bigfork will jump from Class B to Class A.
That same year, the following schools will move from Class C up to Class B: Chinook, Darby, Ennis, Fairview, Lone Peak and Superior. Forsyth will drop from Class B to Class C. For football, all of these schools will remain in the 8-Man ranks.
The MHSA also dropped boys powerlifting as an sanctioned sport due to lack of interest from schools.
According to the memo, the Board approved extending the Class B-C tennis season by one week. The state tournament will be held on the same weekend as the other spring state championships beginning in 2022-2023.
For girls softball and boys baseball (which is set to begin in 2022-2023), the MHSA approved a motion to prohibit walk-up music during regular season and postseason games.
Additionally in boys baseball, the memo said "MHSA staff will form an ad-hoc master baseball scheduling committee after the schools waiting on school board action notify the MHSA on whether they will add baseball or not (however not later than their May school board meetings). This committee will look at various options and schedule the first year of baseball according to the schools participating and their geographic regions. Post-season formats will be reviewed however the state tournament dates are set."
The board provided clarification on the addition of shot clocks to high school basketball, which can be found here.
The MHSA also provided clarification to the eighth-grade participation rule, which can be read here.
There were also adjustments made to girls wrestling, which can be found here.
