If you follow high school sports in these parts, you know that seismic changes are kicking in for many of Central Oregon’s prep teams beginning this fall. The three Bend schools are elevating to Class 6A, where they are now in league with five Salem-area schools. Redmond, Ridgeview and Crook County make up half of a revamped Intermountain Conference in 5A. Across the state, a lot of furniture has been rearranged in the OSAA’s latest round of reclassification and redistricting.

Also new starting this school year will be The Bulletin’s approach to covering prep sports.

In recent years, the addition of a new high school in our coverage area (Ridgeview) and its accompanying athletic programs, combined with the birth and growth of non-mainstream sports at many of our high schools, has stretched our newspaper’s sports staff to the point where a change we knew for some time was inevitable is now at hand.

For the first time, Central Oregon will have athletes and teams playing for Oregon School Activities Association championships in six different classifications, in seven different leagues (eight different districts for football). That does not count sports not affiliated with the OSAA, such as water polo in the fall, alpine and nordic skiing in the winter, and lacrosse in the spring.

It’s a lot to keep tabs on, and it is our aim to continue to do just that, and do it better than any other news source around.

The change our readers will notice — and, we trust, like — will be the focus of our prep coverage. Our plan is to report in timely fashion the scores and results of teams representing all of our 13 high schools (a new school in Bend will make 14 soon), and to provide updated league standings as promptly and frequently as practical.

Our aim is that readers will be able to rely on The Bulletin to know how their team fared in last night’s game, where the team sits in the conference standings and what is next on the schedule.

We no longer will devote hours of staff time several nights each week to producing “roundups” — capsule accounts of virtually every contest on the Central Oregon varsity schedule. Nor will we be publishing seas of agate results. That approach, a staple of this newspaper for as long as this dinosaur of a sports editor can remember, is simply no longer practical.

Nor is it the best way to optimize the use of valuable resources.

What readers can expect instead will be reports on bigger-picture topics in local high school sports. Features on athletes, coaches, teams and others whose compelling stories deserve more than a few lines in a game summary. Columns with insights and opinions to offer a closer look at important topics and issues on and off the playing field.

As for the meets and games themselves, look for more comprehensive coverage of the biggest events, especially come state championships time.

Our plan is to also provide — once or more each week — a roundup of high school highlights and other prep news items from around Central Oregon to keep readers up to speed on newsworthy happenings and noteworthy achievements. In other words, we still intend to cover all the bases. And to do so, we will rely as heavily as ever on input from outside sources — coaches, athletic administrators, parents, or anyone with an idea to share.

We are sure that at least some longtime readers will miss the old format. In some respects, we might too. But reality dictates change. And we are confident that the changes we are making — no doubt with a little tinkering along the way — will be for the better, today and into the future.

— Reporter: 541-383-0359, bbigelow@bendbulletin.com