The Understanding of Regions in Sports

Haleigh+Mason+making+a+layup.+Bullitt+East+girls+basketball+is+in+the+sixth+region+in+kentucky.+

Haleigh Mason making a layup. Bullitt East girls basketball is in the sixth region in kentucky.

Shelbie Heath, Jr. Photography Editor

Not everyone goes into a sport knowing exactly how regions work. 

It’s not as difficult as people make it seem, it’s just a simple layout of the state broken up. 

The whole rundown of regions is mapped out and split up into sections. It’s all based on a geographical standpoint on where you are in the state. Each sport has a different number of regions they compete against because some schools do not have every sport or do not have a high number of athletes. “A lot of people just don’t know it’s a geographical breakdown of schools in an area,” Athletic Director Kenny Hughes said. States do this for the convenience of not having to travel as much. When they break each sport down they try to make it even as possible. “Generally as you go up in size from 1A, 2A, and 3A, the level of competitiveness gets higher and higher,” Hughes said.

A school that has a high percentage of males or females gives them an advantage over schools that have a lower percentage. Having more athletes can give the teams better options to select for their teams. Bigger schools have a higher probability of having more really good athletes than smaller schools.

In cross country, not every school has a team to compete with. There are three classes and Bullitt East is in Region Three of Class 3A. The state was divided into three enrollment-based classes and each of these classes had seven regions.

“The far west part of this state starts with region one. And so you have schools that are relatively close there. And then as you move to the east part of the state, the numbers go up and Region 16 is the far eastern part of the state,” Hughes said.  With how the state and district are broken up more rural schools will play the surrounding schools and the urban schools go up against the outside of that city. 

Kentucky has 16 regions and 64 districts in basketball. Bullitt East is in Region Six District 24, as well as the top half of Jefferson County. District 24 has Bullitt East, Fern Creek, Jeffersontown, Mercy and Whitefield academy.

Wrestling is different from other sports as they do not have classes; it just has regions. Bullitt East is in Region three out of eight. Other teams in the region include Bullitt Central, DeSales, DuPont Manual, Fairdale, Iroquois, Male, North Bullitt, Pleasure Ridge Park, Shawnee, St. Xavier, Trinity Valley and Western. This alignment gives wrestlers more opportunities to see what their competition is at state. Most sports only have about 4-10 schools in each region and wrestling exceeds that with 13 schools. 

Soccer is split up into 16 regions with 63 districts all over Kentucky. Bullitt East is Region Six District 24 along with Fern Creek, Jeffersontown, Mercy and Whitefield Academy.

In football, there are six class A enrollment-based classes with eight districts in each. Bullitt East is in Class 6A District 4 along with Fern Creek, Male and Southern. Classes are based on the size of the kids in the schools. “Football is based on the number of males that you have in the building,” Hughes said. 

To know more about your sport and how the regions work go to https://khsaa.org Kentucky High School Athletic Association website.