The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association has released its postseason football format for the seven Class 5A and 4A Southern schools still eligible for state championships, after 30 Clark County School District programs declared independent status for the fall.
Six state champions will be crowned this season: Open Division, 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A. The remaining Southern 5A teams are Bishop Gorman, Faith Lutheran and Losee. The third-place team in the final 5A Southern standings will automatically advance to the Open Division state title game. The first- and second-place teams will meet in a state semifinal, with the winner also reaching the Open Division final. The loser of that semifinal will compete against the 5A Northern Region champion for the 5A state championship.
In 4A, the four remaining Southern schools — Sloan Canyon, Mater East, SLAM! Nevada and Cadence — will play a Southern Region playoff tournament, and the winner will face the 4A Northern champion for the 4A state title.
Gorman athletic director Grant Rice declined to discuss how the playoff format was negotiated but praised the cooperation among private and charter schools.
“Bishop Gorman, we’re happy that our league, out-of-state and playoff schedules are complete,” Rice said in the school’s first public statement since the CCSD schools’ move. “We’re excited that charter and private schools in Las Vegas will get to play a full schedule, mixed with combination of local and out-of-state teams, plus compete for a state championship as well as getting maximum exposure for these students in Southern Nevada, which is really what is most important.”
NIAA executive director Tim Jackson said the association listened to a proposal from the Southern schools that gave the top two 5A teams an additional playoff game. “We looked at suggestions made by the Southern 5A and 4A schools and realized by doing that, we were giving the teams that finished first and second in the 5A an opportunity to have two playoff games,” Jackson said. “That was why we landed on that to give them that opportunity.”
Sloan Canyon coach Nate Oishi said the private and charter schools began meeting in January to coordinate schedules and draft a playoff format after hearing that CCSD schools might go independent. “We talked about it as charter and private schools of how we saw the format would be and what we thought would be good and presented it to Mr. Jackson,” Oishi said. “We all came to a quick agreement on how the playoffs will be ran this year. (Jackson) was OK with the schedules we built, so it was a good, quick, smooth meeting.”
Rice said Gorman’s football schedule is not yet finalized but reported matchups include St. John Bosco (Aug. 21 in Las Vegas), Columbus (Aug. 28 in Florida) and Mater Dei (Sept. 18 in California). “The private and charter schools, we’ve been working on this probably close to a couple months now, knowing that (the CCSD schools going independent) the reality of this was a possibility and this was going to happen,” Rice said. “We were still in wait-and-see mode; we wanted to be prepared in case this reality came true. We all agreed and realized that this is new territory, but everyone just buckled down and got it done.”
