Marion to shift
to 1A in football

As expected, several Marion County school districts will be changing classifications for football next fall.

Marion will move down from Class 2A to Class 1A, the state’s smallest, because of declining enrollment and a reduced number of schools classified in 3A and 2A.

Class 1A for football will now consist of the 43 smallest schools in the state still playing 11-player football. Marion will be in the middle of this group, having the 24th largest enrollment in the class.

Other schools moving from 2A to 1A include Belle Plaine, Bluestem, Cherokee Southeast, Ellis, Erie, Hutch Trinity, Jayhawk Linn, McLouth, Mission Valley, Oskaloosa, Republic County, Riverside, St. Mary’s Colgan, St. Mary’s, Sterling, and Syracuse.

Centre and Peabody-Burns both will move from eight-player to six-player football, joined by newcomers Altoona Midway, Chase, Chetopa, Ingals, Southern Coffey, Southern Cloud, Tescott, Triplains/Brewster, Waverly, and Wetmore.

Centre will be the third largest of 26 schools in the class. Peabody-Burns will be the 11th.

Football classifications differ from other sport and activity classifications, all of which remain unchanged for Marion County schools.

Hillsboro will remain the third latest and Marion the 29th largest in 2A.

Goessel will be the fourth largest, Centre the 65th, and Peabody-Burns the 66th in 1A.