When the news arrived on Monday morning, John Roderique was not surprised.
The Missouri State High School Activities Association released its new classifications and district assignments for the fall 2020 season, and Roderique’s Webb City football team was listed in Class 5’s District 6.
After years of being a perennial power in Class 4, the defending champion Cardinals bumped up a class.
“The last couple years we’ve been thinking we might bump up,” Roderique said. “It wasn’t really a surprise this year because they changed the format as far as how they calculate the districts. It is what it is. It will just be a different group of teams we’ll play. We’ve always played those Class 5 teams in the COC. It will obviously be a step up (in competition) if we can advance past the district. But if you can win our district, you’ll be well-prepared.”
The change is due to the MSHSAA bylaw that passed a couple of years ago.
“They wanted the differential to be as small as it could be,” Roderique said.
Also competing in Class 5’s District 6 are Carthage, Branson, Neosho, Ozark and Republic, all members of the Central Ozark Conference.
With that, fans may get a Carthage-Webb City postseason matchup after the regular season meeting was canceled due to virus-related issues at CHS.
The two schools have been meeting on the gridiron for 100 years now. Of course, District 6 features last year’s Class 4 and Class 5 state champions.
“We haven’t been in a district with Carthage in a long time, so that’s the biggest change,” Roderique said. “It will be different. But it just adds to the rivalry. There aren’t a lot of years where you have two defending state champions in the same district.”
Competing against Class 5 competition is nothing new for Webb City, as the COC has had five members (Carthage, Branson, Ozark, Nixa, Republic) competing in Class 5 for years. Joplin and Nixa are now both in Class 6.
Before the COC expanded, Webb City regularly scheduled larger schools, including Rockhurst and Springdale Har-Ber.
There are eight districts in Class 5, with 51 total teams. There were 36 teams in Class 5 last year.
THIS ‘N THAT
Carl Junction is now the only Class 4 school competing in the COC.
The championship picture will look much different in Class 4 this year. Ladue, Camdenton and Platte County are other teams that bumped up to Class 5 this year.
Webb City beat Platte County in last year’s Class 4 championship game and the Cardinals beat both Camdenton and Ladue en route to the title game. Ladue won the Class 4 championship in ’18.
Class 3 now features defending state champion Odessa, last year’s Class 3 runner-up Cassville, along with last year’s Class 2 champion Lutheran North and last year’s Class 2 runner-up Ava. Also of note, Valle Catholic is now in Class 3 as well. It’s safe to say Class 3 is loaded.
The state’s largest 32 schools are in Class 6, including Joplin and Nixa.
Nine of those teams, including DeSmet and CBC, haven’t even played a game yet this season.
Only two teams in Class 6’s District 1 have played thus far, with only half the teams in District 2 having competed.
How will this impact the postseason? Will several teams receive byes in their respective district tournaments or will MSHSAA adjust the district assignments?
Only time will tell.
