New Football District For Northview: NHS And Jay Now Both In 1A

January 17, 2009

The Northview Chiefs and the Jay Royals might just become big football rivals now that the two teams are in the same football district.

The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) has released the final district alignments for both the 2009 and 2010 football seasons.

In preliminary district alignments released in December, Northview remained in District 1-2B. Under a FHSAA rule that allows schools to “play down” one district, the Chiefs requested to be moved down one district to District 1-1A, the same district as the Royals.

“I’m excited for our kids and our program,” Northview Heach Coach Cody Keene said after the FHSAA district announcements Friday. “There will not be as much travel, and I think that will be good for our program.”

In addition to Northview, District 1-1A also includes Baker, Bozeman (Southport), Freeport, Holmes County (Bonifay), Sneads, South Walton (Santa Rosa Beach) and Vernon.

“Some of the schools are still a good distance, but it will be better for us,” Keene said. “We will be able to focus more on football. It will be a very competitive district.”

Keene said that he hopes Northview can develop a few strong rivalries within the district, like the Jay Royals.

Class 1A is Florida’s smallest, comprised primarily of schools with 521 or fewer students. Northview had 544 students during the October week used by the FHSAA to determine the new classifications, but schools in the lower 10% of the population breakdown of each classification have the option of playing down one classification if it is deemed more suitable for district travel reasons.

Football fans in Pensacola will likely see a few more rivalries develop under the new classifications.  District 1-4A will include Crestview, Escambia, Milton, Pace, Pine Forest and Tate. Class 4A includes schools with 1,740 to 2,014 students.

Comments

4 Responses to “New Football District For Northview: NHS And Jay Now Both In 1A”

  1. G.B on February 10th, 2009 11:23 am

    At last count Northview had around 520 students. When the count was completed they were 12 over the 1A cutoff. In accordance with state and district rules this allows the school to request to move down. This was a very good move for many reasons. Best of all is that you are now afforded a closer rivalry to emerge in the Jay vs Northview which in turn is great for the district and the North end area. To comment on the Coach is detrimental to the team. We all should support the team no matter what they do. It’s SPORTSMANSHIP!

  2. john on January 31st, 2009 1:09 am

    Wow 540 students and were a 1-A its gonna be embarassing if keene misses the playoffs

  3. Bodie on January 18th, 2009 1:41 pm

    Look out Jay here we come!!!!!! I believe this will be a good thing. Northview needs a good rival like Jay and Baker. Now we need to focus on doing what ever it takes to get the kids back in the sports program (to stay). We have too many students either quitting or just not playing we need to figure out WHY!!!

    GOOD LUCK
    GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!

  4. teri on January 17th, 2009 10:32 pm

    Jay for the last few years has traveled im quite sure lots futher then Northview did and Jay did quite fine with there football program.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News, Sports, TOP sports