Laughlin Times: Local

LAS VEGAS - The future arrangement of schools in the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association is back in the hands of committees, one of which includes Needles High School Athletic Director Bill Darrow.

At its Sept. 16 meeting at Las Vegas Del Sol High School, the association's Board of Control appointed separate northern and southern re-alignment committees.

According to Donnie Nelson, NIAA assistant director, the committees will conduct the first of three meetings on Oct. 20 in Reno and Oct. 21 at Las Vegas Legacy High School, with the Board of Control to vote at its March quarterly meeting.

The panels co-chairs are Clark County School district trustees Larry Mason and Sheila Mouton, with Andre Denson, a CCSD superintendent who used to oversee Laughlin until the district's administrative reorganization this year, as an associate member.

The southern panel has 15 members. Darrow (the Class 2A liaison) and Jeff Newton of Henderson Lake Mead Christian Academy (the 1A liaison) are the south's only small-school representatives.

NIAA Director Eddie Bonine, according to published reports, said the regroupings exclude football.

Previously he recommended that in the fall of 2010 the four classes be rearranged into three divisions by combining Classes 1A and 2A as Division III and consolidating the few 3A institutions with the less-successful 4As into Division II. The biggest howls of protest came from those 4A schools not wanting to lose the prestige of being in Division I.

The director's recommendation gave recognition to Laughlin High School's contention, during its long two-year battle over which class it should be assigned, that competitiveness should be a major factor and not just the raw enrollments the control board used.

That resulted in the school playing schedules independent of league affiliation in eight of its 11 sports. Boys and girls cross country and wrestling were not affected as 1A and 2A already were combined for post-season tournaments.

Except for golf, Needles High School fields one boys and one girls team per season.

Bonine's recommendation also gave recognition to Darrow's long-sought effort to cut down expedition-like trips, such as to West Wendover, only a couple of hours from Salt Lake City.