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Football Districts (’08, ’09): McCluer North, Pattonville Swap Classes
BY JIM WIENERS
High School Football in Missouri continues late-season round-robin district games that qualify teams for the post-season Missouri State High School Activities Association championships but with some changes.
Beginning with the 2008 season this fall the top two teams in each district qualify for post-season play. In all but a Class Five district, which has five teams, there is a 50 percent chance a team advances to post-season play because of the four-team district set up. That means an extra round of post-season play with the sites to be announced next season.
Class Five had the biggest change. Last fall four of the eight districts had five teams. For the next two seasons, 2008 and 2009, there will be 12 districts instead of having five or six teams in eight districts.
When the enrollment figures, based on the first semester of the 2007-08 school year. McCluer North — whose enrollment of 1,938, according to MSHSAA figures, is one of the 32 largest high schools in Missouri and will compete in Class Six. North will be in District Four along with Suburban North Conference rivals Hazelwood Central (2,587), Hazelwood West (2,528) and Riverview Gardens (1,977).
Meanwhile Pattonville — whose enrollment dropped to 1,716, mainly because of the buyout of homes west of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport — moved to Class Five and will compete in District Four against two Suburban North rivals Hazelwood East (1,631) and McCluer (1,600) and Fort Zumwalt North (1,374).
Another Suburban North team, Ritenour (2,040) will be in Class Six, District Two with a pair of Suburban West Conference teams — Mehlville (1,936), Class Six State Runner Up, and Lindbergh (1,946) — and an all-boys Catholic school in St. Louis University High (adjusted to 2,835). That means there will be no Wagon Wheel game between Ritenour and Normandy (1,319), which competes against Clayton (817), Jennings (997) and University City (1,041) in Class Four, District Five.
In Class Three ABC League rivals Lutheran North (adjusted to 511) and John Burroughs (540) will compete against Trinity Catholic (adjusted to 539) and McCluer South-Berkeley (742) in Class Three, District Five. Burroughs replaces Cardinal Ritter, who will compete in an all City of St. Louis high school district in Class Three.
Since the Missouri State High School Activities Association went to six classes in 2002 DeSmet is the only St. Louis area Class Six Champion (2005) while Webster Groves was the last St. Louis team to win in Class Five (2002). Riverview Gardens was the last Suburban North high school to win state (1998 Class 5A) while Lutheran North was the last North County high school to win state (1999 Class 2A). No St. Louis area high school has won state football the last two seasons (2006, 2007) while last fall five of the six champions crowned at the Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, were in or near the Kansas City area.
