New districts set for next 2 grid seasons

Two teams from the northeast — the Commerce Tigers and Wyandotte Bears — will be added as district opponents of the Pawhuska Huskies for the 2014 and 2015 high school football seasons, it was announced last week by the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association.

Commerce and Wyandotte are to replace Adair and Chouteau-Mazie in the state’s realigned Class 2A-District 8, which will include Pawhuska and four of the Huskie’s current foes from District 2A-7 — Caney Valley, Chelsea, Nowata and Oklahoma Union.

Adair and Chouteau will remain in the 2A-7 district, where they’re to be re-united with several former members of their district from four year’s previously (when it was called 2A-8). Other future 2A-7 schools include Colcord, Hulbert, Kansas, Haskell and Salina, according to the OSSAA plan.

In the first round of state playoffs last November, the Huskies played at Commerce against the District 2A-8 champion Tigers. Wyandotte also is a 2A-8 member, currently.

New district football assignments for other area schools include: Barnsdall and Hominy are to be members of Class A District 6 along with Drumright, Kiefer, Morrisson, Mounds and Yale; Pawnee will move back up to Class 2A to join Alva, Chisholm, Hennessey, Newkirk, Perry and Tonkawa in District 1; Woodland will continue playing the eight-man format in the 10-member Class B-District 3, which also has Bartlesville’s Wesleyan Christian School, and Copan drops to Class C District 3 where there are eight other schools including Prue.

Bartlesville will be one of eight schools in Class 6A’s Division II, District I. The state’s largest class was recently divided (according to size) into two 16-team divisions, with a state championship to be awarded in both divisions. Other area teams in Division II’s District 6A-1 include Bixby, Claremore, Muskogee, Ponca City, Sapulpa, Sand Springs and Tulsa Washington.

Class 6A Division I District 1 includes powerhouse Jenks as well as Broken Arrow and six larger schools from the west side of the state. The other perennial contender from the east, Union, is in Division I District 2 along with Owasso and six other Oklahoma City-area districts.