By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — With reclassification underway for the next two years of LHSAA prep sports, it appears the River Region is in for a shakeup if preliminary plans for new districts are approved.

Under the proposed setup, West St. John, which has elected to “play up” in Class 2A, Riverside and St. Charles Catholic, which drops down from 3A, would all compete in new District 9-2A, along with Newman, Country Day and Sophie B. Wright.

In Class 3A, Lutcher and St. James would meet, the Bulldogs dropping down from 4A and St. James moving up from 2A. Those schools would be part of District 9-3A, along with De La Salle, Lusher and McMain in football, and with those schools and Clark, KIPP Renaissance and Science Academy in all sports.

District 7-5A will maintain status quo for the most part, with East St. John, Destrehan and Hahnville retaining their annual district rivalries with one another and H.L. Bourgeois, Central Lafourche, Terrebonne and Thibodaux. The lone change is the loss of South Lafourche, which will be dropping down to Class 4A.

The final districting plan will be finalized March 18.

For St. John Parish, the change would group three of the parish’s four teams in the same district — and with state power John Curtis electing to play up in Class 5A over the next two seasons, the potential of inter-parish district championship games is all the more real, and exciting, for local fans.

West St. John athletic director and football coach Robert Valdez said the decision to play up wasn’t lightly pondered and discussed, but that ultimately, the move represented a chance for the Rams program to grow across all sports.

“When we started looking at where we’d fall, it became a real consideration,” Valdez said.

“It looked like we’d either be in with the Ascension Parish teams or the teams in Metairie and New Orleans. We started looking at travel, and we understood if we moved up to 2A, we’d probably we put with our local teams, Riverside and St. Charles. Newman and Country Day aren’t too far, either.”

Valdez said it was a decision made with all sports in mind.

“There’s still going to be some challenges in certain sports when it comes to numbers,” Valdez said. “We still need to grow. But we feel we can compete in 2A.”

The lure of playing multiple local, rivalry games in each sport also made financial sense, he said.

That will be true in all sports, but especially during football season, where SCC, RA and WSJ are each coming off trips to their respective postseason classification’s state semifinals.

“You look at that district, and just about every week it’s some kind of marquee matchup,” he said.

“It’s exciting. You’re looking at a district loaded with traditional programs, one of if not the toughest 2A districts in the state without a doubt.”