ON THE MOVE: Once again, Palmer finds itself in a new football conference

PALMER — For the second time in four years and third since 2000, the Palmer Moose are moving to a new prep football conference.

Palmer, now officially formerly of the Division II Northern Lights Conference, will slide into the Division II Railbelt Conference, which also now features Interior programs West Valley, Lathrop and North Pole. It’s part of reclassification effort in the works for months, which includes movement in all three divisions. The new model, adopted by the ASAA Board of Directors Monday, was one of three official proposals considered during the process, Palmer High School activities director and Region III board representative Dale Ewart said earlier this week.

Palmer High head coach Rod Christiansen said this is where he expected his team to be, as reclassification was debated during the past several months.

“We’ve kind of known for a while this is the most likely scenario,” Christiansen said.

And this is nothing new for the Moose. It’s the second time the Palmer football program has been moved from the NLC to the Railbelt. Prior to the 2000 season, ASAA ditched single classification for football and added what was then called a small-schools class. Palmer was placed in the large-schools Railblet with Lathrop, North Pole, West Valley, Colony and Wasilla. That conference, which also included Juneau-Douglas for a stretch, remained intact until ASAA reclassified football again prior to the 2015 season. At the point, Palmer was moved from the large-schools Railbelt to the medium-schools NLC and competed in a conference with Soldotna, Eagle River, Kenai and Kodiak.

Now, Palmer is the lone Valley school in a conference with three Fairbanks-area teams.

“We’ve been there before,” Christiansen said. “At that time, it made the competition a lot tougher. The schools are a little bit bigger.”

Christiansen said he believes the Moose will have an easier time adjusting to the move.

“They always have a lot of athletic kids in Fairbanks. It made us better. All the Valley teams,” Christiansen said. “It took a little time, but we kind of stepped up to it.”

Christiansen said he also believes it could even the playing field across the Division II level. In the past three years, the now defunct, Southeast Conference was 0-6 in the state semifinals. The NLC was perfect in the semis, with Soldotna winning all three state titles, the last two came with wins over Palmer.

“I think they’ll be more of a competitive balance,” Christiansen said.

Ewart said competitive balance was a primary reason for the latest reclassification. But big changes at the Division II level also led to the need to once again reclassify. North Pole left the Southeast Conference. The Thunder Mountain and Juneau-Douglas teams have merged to form one, yet to be officially named, Juneau team. Ketchikan’s official status was also in question at times.

With the proposal, the Southeast Conference was eliminated and Ketchikan was dropped from Division II level to the Division III level, even though Ketchikan High School far exceeds the maximum number for the student enrollment requirement set by the board with the proposal.

The move was made because Ketchikan is not competitive at the Division II level, Ewart said.

The approved proposal includes teams separated into three divisions based on student enrollment. The Division I level includes 10 programs from schools with a reported enrollment of 1,000 students or more. The Division II level includes eight programs from schools with a reported enrollment of 451-999 students. The Division III level includes 10 programs from schools with an enrollment of 450 or below, and Ketchikan.

Teams can opt to a higher division, Ewart said, but not down. Ketchikan became an exception to that rule.

Colony and Wasilla remain in the Division I Railbelt Conference, but will be joined by two new teams in the conference. Defending state champion Bartlett was moved from the Cook Inlet to the Railbelt. The new Juneau co-op team is also one of five teams in the conference. Chugiak, the defending conference champion, remains in the Railbelt.

The Cook Inlet now includes Dimond, East, Service, South and West.

Wasilla head coach Will Stout said the Warriors will face the challenge of an even more difficult conference head on.

“We’re excited two good teams are coming to our conference,” Stout said.

The Greatland Conference has also returned to Alaska football, and it includes a pair of Valley teams. Houston and Redington will be in the same conference for the first time, after Redington was moved out of the Peninsula Conference. The Division III Greatland, which was called the Aurora Conference last year, also includes Barrow, Eielson, Monroe and Valdez. The other Division III conference, the Peninsula, features Homer, Nikiski, Seward, Voznesenka and Ketchikan.

The move of Redington was a slight change from the original proposal, which includes the Huskies remaining in the Peninsula.

Ewart said of the three proposals initially considered, two includes three divisions. Another, which condensed teams into just two divisions, was scrapped almost immediately, he said.

The playoff format didn’t change with reclassifications. The Division I level will continue with four playoff teams from each of the five-team conferences. The higher seed will continue to host the quarterfinal games. ASAA will host the semifinals and championship games. The Division II and III levels will have a pair of playoff berths from each conference, with a semifinal and final round at each level.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.

ASAA prep football

Division I

Cook Inlet Conference: West Anchorage, East Anchorage, Dimond, Service, South Anchorage; Railbelt Conference: Bartlett, Chugiak, Colony, Juneau, Wasilla.

Division II

Northern Lights Conference: Eagle River, Soldotna, Kenai, Kodiak; Railbelt Conference: Palmer, West Valley, Lathrop, North Pole.

Division III

Greatland Conference: Barrow, Eielson, Houston, Monroe, Redington, Valdez; Peninsula Conference: Homer, Nikiski, Seward, Ketchikan, Voznesenka.