Bend High football hosts North Medford Friday night.

The executive board of the Oregon School Activities Association approved the final recommendation of the Classification and Redistricting Committee, which will bring statewide changes to leagues and districts for high school sports.

For Central Oregon high schools, it means that four Bend-area high schools — Bend High, Mountain View, Summit and Caldera — will leave the conference with Salem schools, move down from being a Class 6A school to once again compete at the 5A level.

The four schools will also return to being in the same conference as Redmond and Ridgeview high schools after the last redistricting in 2018 split up the long-standing Intermountain Conference.

“We are pumped about it,” said Dave Williams, the athletic director for Bend-La Pine Schools and Caldera High. “Now that we are opening a new school, we are back down in 5A. It just made sense to be back with Central Oregon schools.”

It is the addition of Caldera High — which opened its doors this fall in southeast Bend — that made the move down to 5A possible. Classifications are based primarily on school’s anticipated enrollment.With the new high school in Bend, the OSAA determined that the four high schools would fall below the 1,000-student enrollment cutoff for 6A.

Sam Platt, the athletic director at Ridgeview High, also said playing against the Bend schools has its advantages — especially for student athletes. League games will now be less than a half an hour away, rather than taking trips to The Dalles, Hood River or Pendleton and getting home late at night. It also allows for more community involvement.

While schools’ enrollment plays a major role in determining classifications, so too does competitive balance. By moving into the same conference as Bend schools, Platt thinks it was a trade off between the benefits of playing closer schools and competitive equity — something they were able to find with the schools currently in the Intermountain Conference.

Since joining the 6A ranks, there have been a number of Bend sports programs that have cemented themselves as some of the top programs in the state’s highest classification, and will now move down a level.

“As much as the regional option is really good and will help us, we want to keep competitive balance,” said Platt. “We were pleased with our current league. Each of the schools have strengths and weaknesses, not one school dominates all. It spreads success out.

“We had our own success at the 5A level,” Platt continued. “And so a lot of our coaches are excited for the challenge to be competitive and relevant at the statewide level.”

As was mentioned throughout Monday’s meeting, held in Wilsonville, from final testimonials prior to the board casting its vote, there was no perfect solution for the reclassifications. One committee member said he would have liked to delay the vote to better refine the redistricting — especially at the 3A level.

But the board decided Monday to move forward with its decision.

“Whenever we come to a point where a final decision is made, they are not easy decisions … lines are drawn,” said Peter Weber, the executive director of the OSAA, during the meeting. “At times it feels like groups haven’t been heard or input hasn’t been considered. Throughout the process with the executive board, even if requests weren’t approved, they were considered. They were reviewed, examined, and ultimately decisions were made.”

Now the athletic directors of the new six-school athletic conference will begin planning on what the league play will look like for the next four years starting next fall.

“Fortunately we have had a long history with these schools,” said Williams. “Hopefully, it will be simpler than with a league separated by 150 miles.”