Out of curiosity, what is the enrollment cap to be labeled a "small school" by Cal Hi Sports? Half Moon Bay, enrollment 1,009, is rated No.3 in the state among small schools. That student number seems fairly high to be labeled as "small."
Small school definition
- Thread starter colhenrylives
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From Cal-HI-
(All based on section by section playoff formats plus combination of enrollment and traditional placement into state rankings that we have done for 40 plus years)
This was the same type of logic that college football used for years to determine a national champion.
(All based on section by section playoff formats plus combination of enrollment and traditional placement into state rankings that we have done for 40 plus years)
This was the same type of logic that college football used for years to determine a national champion.
It’s a great question. And certainly open to subjective interpretation.
Back in the 70’s and 80’s when the SJS classified their divisions as AAA, AA and A — anything in class A was considered a small school. Class A in today’s landscape is essentially D3 and perhaps overlapping D4.
I’d personally consider a co-ed school with 1,000 students as small. Granted there are much smaller enrollment schools, but when compared to those with 1,800 - 3,000 they are small.
1,200 - 1,700 would be mid-sized to me.
Back in the 70’s and 80’s when the SJS classified their divisions as AAA, AA and A — anything in class A was considered a small school. Class A in today’s landscape is essentially D3 and perhaps overlapping D4.
I’d personally consider a co-ed school with 1,000 students as small. Granted there are much smaller enrollment schools, but when compared to those with 1,800 - 3,000 they are small.
1,200 - 1,700 would be mid-sized to me.
How about an all boys school?
If a co-ed school has over 2000 kids, I just looked up a few schools and saw that Menlo Atherton & James Logan have huge enrollment numbers. Should those schools be considered over an all boys school like Serra or Bellarmine? I know Bellarmine is twice the size of Serra from an enrollment standpoint but it doesn't seem like enrollment should be used to label a "small school" from a football standpoint in 2022.
St John Bosco is smaller than Mater Dei, and has the smallest student population of all of the schools I mentioned here. If a school has 35-50 real football players the rest of the student body doesn't matter much.
For the most part, private schools are different animal. Clearly there are many examples of small enrollment privates capable of routinely competing with larger enrollment privates and publics.
Typically they have more $$$ at their disposal than publics do and if the school is focused on athletics and has built a brand or history of success they can attract and maintain a solid base of specialized student-athletes in pretty much any sport/activity.
Having said that, I consider any private all-boys program with 1,000 students a large school. The SJS seems to as well, as enrollments are usually doubled to classify them in a division.
In the NCS it used to be B (cutoff was 300 and I think increased to 500) and A (cutoff was 600 and increased to 1000) were small 2A, 3A and then 4A were “big.”
With 5 divisions V and IV were small while III, II, and I were large. When competitive equity came into play then 7 divisions it became tough to judge.
It depends on the area but public schools I would say 0-700 is small 700-1500 is medium and 1500+ is large. But there is a difference between a 200 school and a 600 school just as 1600 is smaller than 3000.
Private is tricky, it depends on the type of student, type of school, and area. Coed 0-400 is small 400-800 is medium 800+ is large I would say.
With 5 divisions V and IV were small while III, II, and I were large. When competitive equity came into play then 7 divisions it became tough to judge.
It depends on the area but public schools I would say 0-700 is small 700-1500 is medium and 1500+ is large. But there is a difference between a 200 school and a 600 school just as 1600 is smaller than 3000.
Private is tricky, it depends on the type of student, type of school, and area. Coed 0-400 is small 400-800 is medium 800+ is large I would say.
and that argument can be made in the reverse at james logan. they may have 3k students but half are females and then most boys are athletic in the least bit.
I like how other states use the private school enrollment multiplier to even the playing field in the smaller school divisions. This dissuades privates from using small enrollment numbers to feast on small town programs.
Good thought
you may be able to achieve the same goal by using power rankings for competitive equity
