Wyoming Area will be in Division 2 of the Wyoming Valley Conference’s new two-division setup for boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball in the 2019-20 school year.
The WVC needed to reassess its divisional alignments with the transition of the Wilkes-Barre Area School District from three teams – Coughlin, GAR and Meyers – to one combined Wilkes-Barre Area Wolfpack, beginning in the fall.
Football schedules were redrawn earlier and the other sports did not need any significant changes.
Both basketball leagues and the baseball and softball leagues were switched from three to two divisions when conference officials met to plan the formats and schedules for the next school year.
Pittston Area teams will remain in Division 1.
Wyoming Area had been in Division 2 of the three-division setup. That means games against every conference team in basketball and crossover games with Division 1 teams on the diamond during the spring.
Conference schedules will now be made up entirely of games within their own division, playing each opponent twice (home and home) for a 14-game WVC schedule.
Wilkes-Barre Area will be in Division 1 with Pittston Area as well as Berwick, Crestwood, Dallas, Hazleton Area, Nanticoke and Wyoming Valley West.
Wyoming Area will be in Division 2 with Hanover Area, Holy Redeemer, Lake-Lehman, MMI Prep, Northwest, Tunkhannock and Wyoming Seminary.
The WVC also decided to retain its four-team overall basketball championship tournament. It will no longer need ratings to determine berths and instead will be able to simply go with the top two teams in the conference standings for each division.
The reduction in league games, from 16 or 17 per team to 14, also means the schedule does not need to begin before the holiday. The first WVC games will be played Jan. 2, for girls, and Jan. 3, 2020, for boys.
December’s basketball schedule will be open for strictly non-league and tournament play.
There is a possibility of more realignment after just one season when the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association enters a new two-year cycle where it collects updated enrollment figures to determine classifications for district and state competition in each sport.
