Wayland, Winthrop added to schedule
Published in the February 15, 2017 edition
By TOM CONDARDO
LYNNFIELD — The road to the high school Super Bowl and a potential state championship got a little rougher for Lynnfield thanks to a ruling by the MIAA on February 2.
The Pioneers were originally placed in Division 6 (equivalent to D3A in which Lynnfield played in 2016) when football realignments were announced in November. But when the dust settled from a flurry of approved and denied appeals, the Pioneers landed in Division 5. Lynnfield appealed to stay in Division 6 but its request was denied.
“I had a feeling something like this was going to happen,” said Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. “I know there were some people upset that we were in (D3A) last season.”
The Pioneers (with a male enrollment in grades 9-12 of 320) now shift from being the fifth largest school in D6 to being the smallest school in D5. For purposes of post season play, instead of facing teams like fellow CAL Baker Division (small) schools Hamilton-Wenham and Ipswich, along with Winthrop and Stoneham, they will be matched up against larger much schools.
The 11-team D5 consists of Somerville (653), Bedford (429), Newburyport (370), Weston (363), Watertown (352), Triton (346), Swampscott (343), Pentucket (333), Amesbury (331) and Saugus (330).
Lynnfield’s appeal denied
In many ways, the MIAA is in a no-win situation when it comes to assigning schools to divisions. The process the organization has created with starts with placing schools based on grade 9-12 male enrollment. From there, they make adjustments using what they call a “multiplier,” although it can result in a school moving up or down within the array of divisions.
Vocational schools move down three divisions and private schools move up one division. Urban schools (defined as having more than 50 percent high needs and 40 percent economically disadvantaged, or a combined number over 90 from these two categories) move down two divisions.
Following the original alignment announcement in the fall, the MIAA made adjustments, including dropping Greater Lowell, Whittier Tech in Haverhill and Northeast Metro Tech in Wakefield down from D5 to D6. This is where some of the controversy arose. Greater Lowell, with a D1-sized enrollment of 1,142, should have dropped to D4. Whittier (726) should have gone from D2 to D5. Northeast (667) should have gone from D2 to D5.
Inexplicably, all three were dropped an additional division to D6. That gave D6 at total of 14 teams while D5 has only nine. To fill the new void, the MIAA reached down into the original D6, skipped over Somerville and Salem – the two largest schools which were dropped because of the urban school multiplier – and “promoted” Saugus and Lynnfield to D5.
The MIAA then subsequently denied Lynnfield’s appeal to stay in its original division. The major confusion comes over the reasoning by the MIAA for dropping the divisions of the three vocational schools contrary to the established formula.
MIAA adds ‘program strength’ to equation
“The process is supposed to be based on the multiplier and you go down or up based on your enrollment,” Weidman told the Villager. “But then teams that landed in that spot appealed and my understanding is it came down to how good you’ve been. Then they moved schools. It was not supposed to be based on ability or performance or program strength. But they apparently dropped schools down because of weak program strength.”
Weidman’s contention was that if the MIAA was going to drop schools because of program strength, it should have bumped schools up using the same justification. For example, Stoneham, with an enrollment of only 16 fewer male students than Lynnfield, stayed in D6 despite having advanced to the division finals for the past two seasons.
“Either you’re doing it by strength or you’re not,” Weidman said. “If you’re going to drop people down because they’re weak, then you should take people up because they’re strong, not just the next school numbers wise. This just doesn’t make any sense to me. If we were supposed to be moved up for legitimate reasons, that’s fine. But to have an appeal on top of your multiplier is a little bit frustrating.”
The MIAA didn’t provide a reason for denying the Lynnfield appeal.
“When you appeal you basically have five minutes and they tell you what they’ll do and then they send you an email saying that you were denied,” Weidman said. “There is nothing we can do at this point other than play each game the best you can.”
Most of their new D5 foes are familiar from the old D4 – the division the Pioneers captured in 2014. They defeated Saugus and Swampscott en route to the D4 North crown before falling to powerhouse Holliston in the state championship semifinals.
The recent strength of the Pioneers’ program should keep them competitive, despite some of the school size disparities. Since 2012, Lynnfield has played members of their new division 21 times and sports a 16-5 record.
Scheduling update
In terms of the 2017 schedule, Danvers has opted out of playing the Pioneers but taking the Falcons’ place will be the return of old time Lynnfield foe, Wayland. The Warriors hail from the Dual County League, the Pioneers’ original league when the program began in 1958.
The two schools met annually from 1958 to 1972. The teams didn’t meet in 1973 when the CAL was formed, but resumed a year later and Wayland became the traditional opening week opponent for the Pioneers from 1974–94, except for 1991 when they met in Week 2.
When Wilmington joined the CAL in 1995, there was no longer room on the Lynnfield schedule for the Wayland came to continue and the two schools haven’t met since. The Warriors and Pioneers have met 37 times, most of any non-CAL team, with Lynnfield holding a slight 18-17-2 edge in the series.
The Pioneers also have a tentative agreement to play Winthrop this season to fill the bye week Lynnfield had last year. The Pioneers have played the Vikings only once, defeating them 35-14 to capture the D4 North title in 2014.
