St. James moving to 4A in 2016

[bbrown1240]

From what I hear they have as much students as Conway, and definitely more than Socastee. When it happens, and no other team drops out of region 6, I see Sumter being shipped to region 4. Region 5 is a possibility but realistically I see us moving to region 4. I don't think region 6 will become a mega region like regions 1 and 2. Travel time becomes a big factor. Any thoughts?

[Tigerific]

They should have moved up last year. Switched with James Island to stay in 3a. St. James does not have more than Conway or Socastee but unless someone passes them they should barely make the cut next year.

[SF Band dad]

If St. James moves up region 6 should become a more compact, 6 team region with 4 schools in Horry and 2 in Florence. Travel goes up for the 2 Florence schools in that scenario, St. James is farther for us than Sumter.

I say "should" because a we could end-up with an odd number of schools in the Columbia area that forces them to do something goofy, look at regions 3 and 8 in this alignment....goofy.

[Tigerific]

St James stadium is only about 3 miles from Socastee

[SF Band dad]

From my house in central Florence I can be at the Sumter stadium in under an hour, it took me over 1:20 to get to Socastee last night. US-501 is no fun on a Friday night. Still, it will be good to have a more compact region that is contained in a single TV market.

[Tigerific]

It's the traffic, not the mileage but Sumter is closer to Florence. For years Conway and Socastee were in a 8 team region and Florence was the closest away game. We went to Dillon, Hartsville, Darlington, Marlboro Co, Sumter and the old Hillcrest Dalzell.

[wave 80]

On the region 8 scenario.
From a travel aspect ...it would be a better fit if West Ashley moved to region 8
and then St.james or Socastee could move to region 7.

[Tigerific]

Won't never happen. Region 6 would have 7 teams or Sumter would get moved to region 7.

[SF Band dad]

Won't never happen. Region 6 would have 7 teams or Sumter would get moved to region 7.

Region 3 currently has 7 teams, region 8 has 5. So it doesn't seem that SCHSL is too worried about odd numbers.

Sumter could end-up in regions 5, 6 or 7, depending on how many schools end-up in each area. Hartsville was right on the edge in the last realignment, they could move up too. (You can't trust the raw numbers, in Darlington County, the students at Mayo HS get allocated back to the school they are zoned for.)

[SF Band dad]

Using the 2014 135-day Headcount as a guide, St. James has 1482 which would put them into 4A at #51, just ahead of South Aiken.

But there are others that are moving around too. This year's numbers would drop Westwood to 3A, but they only have 237 seniors and 260 juniors this year. Looking at the size of their sophomore and freshmen classes, I'm guessing they will be in the lower half of 4A in the 2015 135ADM.

There are other "stealth" schools that could move up as well. In Darlington County the students at Mayo HS for Math & Science get allocated back to the HS they are zoned for. There's no way to know how many of those will end-up getting added to Hartsville's 1200, but it was almost 200 in the last round which put them right on the edge.