As the student population expanded from the 22’-23’ to the 23’-24’ school year, the athletic class went down two divisions because the prior student population is greater than previous years. This year, Champe’s student population drastically increased from 1,597 students to 1,747.
Because of the 20% increase in freshmen this year compared to last, along with many transfer students, all of the John Champe athletic teams were affected. They went from Class 6, Region B, to Class 4, Region C. High School athletic divisions, in simple terms, are determined by the size of the student population, and the geographic location of the school. The smallest high schools are Division 1 and the largest are Division 6. Larger schools are typically viewed as more competitive because they have a larger pool of athletes to draft from. This explains the advantage Champe will hopefully have in the upcoming seasons.
“Classification is a four-year cycle with a reevaluation every two years to check on the enrollment number,” Assistant Athletic Director Anthony Royse said. “A school may stay in its current classification during this reevaluation or it could move up or down depending on the school’s class size.”
The Girls Volleyball coach, Brian Meredeth, was a coach at a D4 school for the past 3 years. The team’s performance was not significantly affected, evident in their 4-14 win-lose ratio for the fall 23’-24’ season compared to last year’s 5-15. He is attempting to help this team build a successful program, as with this division change comes unexpected obstacles.
“Champe moving down means we get to play all the teams and athletes I’ve already coached and played against, and have stats and film on” Coach Meredeth said, “With that in mind, I’ve been very happy with how resilient the teams have been and how they’ve taken on all the challenges and improved during the season.”
Out-of-season varsity soccer coach, Jose Mina, has high expectations for the upcoming season, as the team will have had an extensive period to train. Although this is his first year as a soccer coach at Champe, he has considerable experience as both an athlete and a coach. He was previously a college athlete in Texas. According to MaxPreps, the boys varsity soccer had a 2-14 win-lose ratio, during the 2022-2023 season. Hopefully with the division change, that will improve.
“I think the division change will be good for us so we can play competitive teams at our level,” coach Mina said. “I have high expectations of our team and look forward to the opportunity to lead the Knights’ soccer team to the state level.”
The division change creates motivation for coaches as well as student athletes because being in a new division allows opportunities to play against a new pool of schools. Hopes are high for this season, apparent by the optimism expressed by both in-season and out-of-season coaches.
“The move was finalized last year in the early spring,” Royse said. “In all, I believe we will benefit from the move down by division, moving from 6A to 4A levels the field for us in athletics.”
