EAST LANSING, MI (WHTC) – The sports rivalry between Zeeland’s two public high schools will be taken to another level next fall.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association announced today that Zeeland West High School will be among five statewide that will be “moving up” from Class B to Class A in basketball and volleyball tournament competitions in 2017-18. The classifications are based on a second-semester count taken this past February 8th, and Class A includes schools that have 881 or more students.
With 960 students, the Dux will join Zeeland East (994 students), Holland High (1140) and West Ottawa (2200) as among 186 schools in this classification. The other high schools in the Holland-Zeeland area will stay in their same classes for 2017-18 – Class B for Hamilton (783), Holland Christian (688) and Fennville (414); Class C for Saugatuck (297) and Black River Public School (315); and Class D for Calvary Schools of Holland (83).
Other MHSAA-sponsored sports have different tournament classifications based on the number of schools participating in those events, and the football divisions are broken down by the enrollment numbers of the 256 qualifying teams. Schools can opt to “punch above their weight” in certain sports by asking the MSHAA to play in the next higher classification for a two-year period.
