The Utah High School Activities Association Board of Trustees set a new alignment on Thursday for the next two years that would see Park City High School move down to Class 4A from Class 5A for every sport.
The change will take place starting the 2023-24 school year, and with the move comes a new region. Park City will retain Murray as a regional opponent from its current region, and Cottonwood, Hillcrest, Jordan, Stansbury and Tooele will make up the rest of the new Region 10.
“We’re happy,” said Jamie Sheetz, Park City’s athletic director. “Hillcrest, Cottonwood, Murray, Jordan, they’re all Salt Lake schools. It just shifts just a tad out because you get rid of East, Highland, Skyline and Olympus. You get rid of the east there, and then you just pick up a little bit more of the southeast schools with those other ones. We’re OK with it. We’re happy with it.”
Park City has been in Class 5A for all sports since the start of the 2021-22 school year and was in the classification in everything but football in the previous two-year cycle. While Sheetz said going back to being in Class 5A for everything but football again was considered, it didn’t make sense once the enrollment numbers came out. Even in the new Class 4A, Park City is one of the smaller schools.
“Truthfully, we dropped down so far in 4A that it almost became a non-starter to even talk about 5A, but we’ve had some success in 5A, especially in certain sports,” Sheetz said. “We think we can still compete in 5A if we stayed there, but our enrollment, just where we sit amongst the group of Utah schools now has dropped so low there. Maybe we just accept that this is where we’re at for right now and see what the future holds.”
South Summit will continue to be in Class 3A in all activities but football, for which it will stay in Class 2A. The same goes for North Summit, which is in Class 2A for non-football activities and Class 1A on the gridiron.
There is still one more step in the realignment process. Schools can apply to have a specific sport or activity placed in a higher classification. Their requests will be considered in the Board of Trustees meeting on Jan. 19.
Sheetz said Park City would apply to have its lacrosse teams move up to either Class 5A or Class 6A, with the final decision coming after talking to both programs. Park City’s boys lacrosse team took home the Class 5A state championship last season. The girls lacrosse team is 36-1 in the last two seasons and won a state title in 2021.
“They need to be competing at a higher level, that’s where they’re at,” Sheetz said. “They’re the one program that we’ve got that would compete for a state championship at that level, final four or semifinals, at the 5A and 6A levels.”
Park City moving down to Class 4A would also be a shift for the football team. Park City went a combined 13-9 in two seasons in Class 5A with two playoff wins and two exits in the second round. But being a smaller school means it can be tougher to match up to bigger schools physically.
“It’s a personnel issue, really, in terms of depth,” Sheetz said. “It’s tougher for us as a smaller school in 5A – or was – to get deeper into the playoffs because a lot of times we show up to the playoffs a little dinged up with guys on the sidelines. I think, we believe, it’s much less likely to occur in (4A). Smaller student bodies generally have not as many kids to select from, and so you generally don’t have as many big kids out there. You have fewer. Not that things still can’t happen, but the likelihood of us physically being beat up as much, I think, is less likely.”
Moving down to Class 4A doesn’t necessarily mean an easier schedule in all sports – Sheetz mentioned the strength of softball and baseball in Class 4A. But Sheetz believes this is the best fit for Park City for now.
“It just depends on the sport,” he said. “But across the board, we feel comfortable saying we’re going to stick with (4A).”