Judge Memorial CHS athletics move to 4A class

Judge Memorial Catholic High School

+ Enlarge

Starting this fall, all Judge Memorial Catholic High School sports teams, except football, will move up from 3A to 4A. Courtesy photo/Judge Memorial Catholic High School

by Sean McMinimee

Judge Memorial CHS Class of 2014

SALT LAKE CITY — Big changes are on the way for Judge Memorial Catholic High School athletics, starting with the 2013-2014 school year.

Every two years the Utah High School Athletic Association redefines region membership for each school, usually based on students enrolled and the competitiveness of teams in their respective divisions. For the last two years Judge has been in 3A Region 10, traveling distances to schools such as Vernal and Roosevelt. Starting this fall, every sport at Judge except football will be in 4A Region 6 with Highland, East, Bountiful, Woods Cross, Clearfield, Cyprus and Kearns.

Many wonder if Judge will remain competitive in the new region, and what impact the changes will have on student-athletes and on the overall athletic program at Judge. Others wonder why Judge decided to proceed with this change and about the school’s rivalry with Juan Diego Catholic High School. Here are some answers.

Judge hopes to remain competitive in all sports, even with the move up to 4A. While Judge now will be competing against opponents from schools at least twice the size of its student body, the Bulldog coaching staffs, athletic director Dan Quinn and principal Rick Bartman believe that Judge can remain competitive.

"Many of our athletic teams already compete with the schools that will be in our new region during the preseason, so it shouldn’t be that different from a competitive standpoint," Boys’ basketball coach Dan Del Porto said.

This desire to remain competitive is the reason that Judge’s football team will remain in 3A instead of moving up. Football will compete in the 3A Northern division with Morgan, Grantsville, Carbon, Emery and Union.

"Football is staying behind to keep the players safe because they don’t have the size on the offensive or defensive lines to compete in Region 6 safely," said Bartman.

Head football coach James Cordova added, "Football will remain competitive with every team in the new region."

Quinn added some historical perspective to the move. "Prior to 1998 Judge had always played up a classification," he said. "In 1998 the school decided to play in our natural size classification due to the size of the linemen in 4A football. They were outweighing our linemen sometimes by an average of over 100 pounds, and it became a safety factor."

The new region rekindles some old rivalries.

"With the new region the school goes back to its original Region 6, with some of our best rivals geographically," said Quinn. "Through the years, Judge has had some memorable games against neighborhood teams like East and Highland."

The UHSAA has long asked Judge to consider reclassification. In recent years, Bartman had been hesitant to agree to the reclassification because of the safety concern with football.

"Last year, once again, UHSAA approached Mr. Bartman about going 4A," said Quinn. "He, like many of the other principals in the state, was concerned about having football play up a classification due to the size of the players from the larger high schools and safety of athletes. For the past four years the UHSAA has talked about creating a six classification system in football while maintaining the five classifications in all other sports. This year UHSAA voted on, and approved, six classifications in football alone. They also have left open the possibility of changing it back in two years, or moving all sports to six classifications. This opened the door for cross-classification."

Bartman stated, "Everything changed when the UHSAA said that we could move up in all sports, with the exception of football."

After consulting with Judge coaches, the decision to move ahead and pursue the move up to 4A was made. UHSAA approved the plan in November. The rest, they say, is history.