The First Season of AHSAA Private School Play - Part 1

Since the late1990s, issues between public schools and private schools have threatened to separate the schools into their own divisions. It finally happened, as the AHSAA announced in late January that public and private schools would split beginning in 2026 in the playoffs.

Many of the complaints from both sides have disappeared with the split. As summer workouts are starting up, it would be a good time to examine some of the issues facing the private schools as they began this new adventure in the AHSAA. As in most situations with competitive athletics, there will be both good and bad as schools walk this new path.

In this series of articles, we will take a look at some of the issues that have been talked about with the two private school divisions.

1. Will the public schools be willing to play the private schools in non-region contests if they don’t have to schedule them?

The answer to this one seems to be a resounding yes. Every private school that has their official 2026 schedule posted is playing at least one public school on their schedule. In fact, Pike Liberal Arts and Alabama Christian Academy in Class A are playing four public schools this season. It appears that the relationships built up over time that have led to some competitive games over the years make continued play more important than being angry at the other side. Travel is also a factor. Some of these teams have been in the same regions for several years and playing an opponent within easy driving distance helps both schools. We also forget that quite a few head coaches at private schools once coached for a number of years in public schools. They can see both sides of the picture.

2. How big an issue is travel going to be?

The easy answer is that yes, it is a big issue in football, but it is an even bigger problem for sports like basketball and softball that play over twice as many games, including home and away games every year. Part of the reason that many private schools left the AISA was because of increased travel as their numbers dwindled. Travel has always been an issue with public schools as well.

Some schools came out pretty good with their travel, even with less schools in their division. Single A, Region 2 includes four Montgomery schools and three schools in Prattville, Troy and Greenville that are within an hour or less of Montgomery. But Region 3 is much more spread out, with schools at Prattville and Selma to the south, Tuscaloosa and Carrollton to the west, and Pell City and Anniston to the northeast of Birmingham. Region 4 stretches from Gadsden in the eastern section of the state all the way across to Florence in the northwest corner, a drive of some two and a half hours.

Reclassification has always been an issue for the big schools in Enterprise and Dothan. Often, they would get lumped in with the Mobile area schools and travel became a nightmare. For Single A schools in Dothan (Northside Methodist and Providence), they are in an eight team region with six of those schools from the Mobile area. This means that every time they have region game road trip over the next two seasons, on only one time will they have a short trip. It is about three hours from Dothan to Mobile.

Double A had some schools that got hammered on the travel.  With only 16 schools and two regions, we end up with a north Alabama region (2), that stretches from Auburn to the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa area all the way to Huntsville. Birmingham/Tuscaloosa  to Huntsville is only about an hour and a half to two hours. But Lee Scott Academy in Auburn drew the short straw as they were place in the north Alabama region. Four of the schools in their region are in the Huntsville area, a drive of three and a half hours.

Double A Region 1 is the south Alabama region. Glenwood Academy in Phenix City has five of the seven region opponents in the Mobile area. Some of those drives will be nearly four hours, and they will probably be making three of those in one season. Houston Academy in Dothan is not as far, but it is still a three-hour bus trip to Mobile.

Travel will always be an issue over cost. Chartering buses for those long trips will be very expensive, not to mention that the teams will have to stop for meals along the way. Three plus hour bus rides also mean missed school time as teams will have to leave by lunchtime. The extended travel also means less fans to attend those games.

Over the course of a football season, things can wear teams and coaching staffs down and travel can be one of those. Arriving home at 2:00 AM, watching the film and getting ready for next week’s opponent must all happen during the weekends.

But travel may be toughest on the parents and fans who must spend the money and drive the long miles and hours to support their team.

When the decisions are made by the AHSAA staff and the Central Board concerning reclassification, travel is always a big consideration. But sometimes there are just no good answers to this problem.

Next: Competition issues and the Playoffs