How are high school sports and enrollment size related? The Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) uses student enrollment numbers to determine school classification for sports.

“The size of our school is determined by the number of students that are eligible to participate in extracurricular activities,” Athletic Director Eric Wolgast said.

According to KSHSAA, there are 353 schools in Kansas, with 32 schools being 5A, including Maize. To be classified as 5A the student enrollment numbers must range from 774-1356 students. The current enrollment number is 1,331 for the 2016-2017 school year.

Last year was the first year Maize moved classifications from 6A to 5A, but this only affected the football team, as they played 5A. All sports in the 2016-2017 school year at Maize are playing in the 5A class.

Maize South decreased enrollment from 5A to 4A this school year. This change became effective in the 2016-2017 school year with enrollment being 773 students. This means Maize South will not play Maize in sports, unless classification sizes change and put these schools in the size classification in the future.

Volleyball coach Betsy Manning, has experienced the classification change first hand.

“For volleyball our regional has been quite a bit more difficult than what it was in the past,” Manning said. “We used to get pushed out with a lot of the western school which historically just haven’t quite a strong volleyball teams. When we dropped to 5A we got put in with some more of the power houses around here like Eisenhower, Bishop Carroll, and Pittsburgh.”

Manning also said that South Maize dropping to 4A affected the team.

“Since they [Maize South] dropped to 4A, what happened is they dropped out of our regional and we picked up a couple new teams, one of them being Pittsburgh,” Manning said. “So again, MSHS dropping out has made our job a little tougher.”

Senior Breckyn Roe, has been on the volleyball team since our school changed classification sizes from 6A to 5A.

“[Changing classification sizes] hasn’t really drastically affected our team,” Roe said.”We come to play every game and don’t worry about who is on the other side of the net.”

She believes that school size should not affect the team.

“Play to the best of your team’s ability and it should not matter who the opponent is,” Roe said.