North Dakota high school volleyball adjusts with addition of third class – InForum

FARGO — A new era of volleyball in North Dakota is set to begin this season.

For the first time, high school volleyball in the state will compete under three classifications after the North Dakota High School Activities Association board approved a three-class plan in September 2023 and finalized the move last year.

The approved plan mimics

the move basketball made

to three classes, which has now been in place for two seasons.

“I think (three-class basketball) has been good in some ways and not good in others,” said NDHSAA assistant director Kevin Morast, who oversees the sport of volleyball. “Basically, we’re seeing more teams qualify for state tournaments, but revenue seems to be down a little bit.

“For the most part, I think it’s a success and I think most of our member schools like it, which is why we’re here.”

David Samson/The Forum

Similar to basketball, a move to three classes of volleyball required at least 60% of support from the NDHSAA’s member schools. Formal efforts to implement a three-class volleyball system began soon after the basketball plan was put into place.

Volleyball, first sanctioned by the NDHSAA in 1983-84, had competed under two classes since 1988-89.

“I don’t think there’s been a (previous) formal attempt,” Morast said. “But as soon as you heard them talking about it in basketball, volleyball was a part of that conversation. Even when the basketball committee was working, they started with basketball and volleyball.

“It ended up being just basketball in the end getting to push through. But ever since I’ve been in the office, there’s been talk about it and that’s been 12 years.”

Previously, the sport operated under two classes, Class A and Class B, based on enrollment. Beginning in 2025-26, teams will compete in Division AA (largest), Division A (middle) or Division B (small).

Schools with an enrollment of 650 or higher will be placed in Division AA, 162.5 to 649 in Division A and 162.5 or less in Division B.

Public and non-public schools located within a Division AA school district that have an enrollment of 100-399 will be placed in Division A. Those within a Division AA district and an enrollment of 400 or more students are placed in Division AA.

Teams may also choose to opt up a division. Opt-ups are a minimum of two seasons.

Fargo Shanley and Bismarck St. Mary’s are both opt-up schools in Division AA. In Division A, Bismarck Shiloh Christian and Dickinson Trinity were moved up based on their locations within a Division AA school district.

David Samson/The Forum

The NDHSAA heard four opt-down petitions from member schools and finalized division placement last December.

Opt-down requests from Four Winds-Minnewaukan, Dunseith and Standing Rock were approved to move those three schools from Division A to Division B. Grand Forks Central’s petition to opt down from Division AA to Division A was denied.

When fielding feedback from coaches and administrators, Morast said the ultimate reasoning for a change to three-classes was more parity.

“I think it’s the same reasons as basketball,” Morast said. “Getting a fair playing field, and some of our larger schools possibly came to dominate the division and (other teams) not getting the chance to play for the state tournament.

“I also think it just gives those Division B schools an opportunity at the beginning of the season to say, ‘We have a legitimate chance at making the state tournament this year.’ I look at some of those regions, and somebody is going to qualify that hasn’t qualified in a really long time.”

Unlike basketball — which fields boys and girls divisions and hosts five state tournaments in multiple host cities — the volleyball state tournament will remain a combined format with all three divisions competing on the same weekend at the same venue.

This year’s volleyball state tournament is slated for Nov. 20-22 at the Bismarck Event Center. As usual, matches will run on two courts at the venue.

To accommodate the third class, seventh-place matches will be played off-site that Saturday and the first championship match will begin earlier in the day, with hard start times of 2:30, 5 and 7:30 p.m.

“Working with television because they’re the key factor, we’re going to be playing on two courts and obviously we’re going to be starting way earlier than we have in the past,” Morast said. “Some of those matches will be starting at 9 a.m. and on Saturday, those seventh-place matches will start at 8 a.m.

“We will have standalone championships. Everything on Thursday and Friday will be in two-hour intervals with the last match scheduled for 8 o’clock. So there’s a chance that if every single match went five (sets), we could run into that problem (of late matches), but that’s highly unlikely.”

David Samson/The Forum

Division AA, the large-school division, will remain largely the same in postseason format. There will be an East Region and West Region tournament with the top four placers at each advancing to state.

North Dakota High School Activities Association

Division A is split into four regions, with each region tournament champion qualifying for the state tournament. Four state qualifying matches — two in the East and two in the West — will then be held between region runner-ups and third-place teams to determine the remaining four participants.

North Dakota High School Activities Association

Division B will be split into eight districts and four regions. The top four teams in each district qualify for the region tournaments, with the four region winners advancing to state. Similar to Division AA, state qualifying matches will be held to determine the final four qualifiers.

North Dakota High School Activities Association

The first official day of the high school volleyball season is Aug. 18, with the first day of contests set for Aug. 29.

The full three-class volleyball plan may be viewed in full

here

.

“We’re just excited to see how it’s going to work out,” Morast said. “Excited to see new teams. It’s going to be an interesting process, we’re going to learn a lot and we’ll adjust from there.”