Marshfield would find itself playing schools from the Rogue Valley in the newest reclassification proposal by the Oregon School Activities Association.

The Pirates would be in a new Class 6A and 5A hybrid league with South Medford, North Medford, Crater, Eagle Point, Ashland, Grants Pass and Roseburg in the proposal released by the Oregon School Activities Association Classification and Districting Committee last week.

The committee came up with the proposal after its meeting last week, coming to the conclusion that hybrid leagues might be the best way to go when the next four-year time block begins in the fall of 2010.

“Especially given the current financial issues facing schools, several committee members expressed concern about creating leagues that might result in excessive travel for member schools,” OSAA assistant executive directors Peter Weber and Mike Wallmark wrote in a summary of the meeting. “In addition to financial impacts on school districts, students, parents and other spectators, committee members also expressed concern that excessive travel might result in additional loss of instructional time.”

Because of that, the committee members felt the hybrid system might be the best option, especially since the group also felt that it was important to focus on continuing the current six-classification format that started in 2004.

Under a hybrid format, schools from multiple classifications would play each other during the regular season before staying within their respective classifications for the playoffs.

Marshfield athletic director Greg Mulkey said the Coos Bay school would be open to joining the Southern Oregon schools because the Pirates might be more competitive considering all sports across the board against those Class 5A schools than the traditional Midwestern League schools, and because travel over an entire league season would be about the same.

The one change that makes the Southern Oregon hybrid acceptable, Mulkey said, is the dropping of both Mazama and Klamath Union high schools in Klamath Falls to Class 4A, which would save the Pirates two trips across the pass to Klamath Falls every season.

“If Klamath Falls and Mazama were in it ... I would have put my foot down,” Mulkey said.

In all, five hybrids were suggested, including:

The 10 members of the Portland Interscholastic Leagues, whose enrollments vary from 684 students to 1,592.

Seven schools in Central Oregon — Redmond, Bend, Mountain View, Summit, Hermiston, Pendleton, Crook County and Madras.

Eight schools in Eugene and Springfield — Sheldon, South Eugene, Willamette, Thurston, Springfield, Churchill, North Eugene and Marist.

The Southern Oregon group that includes Marshfield.

And a smaller-school Southern Oregon hybrid including Cascade Christian, Illinois Valley, Lakeview, Rogue River, St. Mary’s, Bonanza, Canyonville Christian, Chiloquin, Glendale and Lost River.

That last hybrid league would be welcome news to the members of the Sunset Conference who have had to adjust their schedules to include Cascade Christian and Rogue River over the past two years.

The new proposal would return the coastal league to the Sunset Six created in 2006, with Bandon, Coquille, Myrtle Point, Gold Beach, Reedsport and Glide.

Gold Beach athletic director Kevin Swift said that the new proposal could be far from the final version, especially since his school leaders still would prefer to drop to Class 2A than remain a Class 3A school, which also might be the preferred route of both Myrtle Point and Reedsport, like Gold Beach among the smallest schools in Class 3A.

The committee’s final proposal to the OSAA Executive Board won’t come until this fall, after the new enrollment numbers are released by the State Board of Education in June. The committee might adjust the enrollment limits for the various classifications after those figures are released.

Under the newest proposal, the Far West League would remain intact with North Bend, Siuslaw, Brookings-Harbor, Sutherlin, Douglas and South Umpqua.

One South Coast school likely to change classifications is Pacific, which never has seen the reduced enrollment predicted when it was allowed to drop to Class 1A before the 2006 school year. The Curry County school likely would be in Class 2A with a group including Crow, Days Creek, North Douglas, Oakland, Oakridge, Riddle, Yoncalla and Milo Adventist Academy.

As with earlier proposals, the current concepts have been released to generate feedback from the various OSAA schools. The committee will meet a few more times before making its final recommendation in October.

The group’s next meeting is April 6 in Portland.

Comments can be sent by mail to Oregon School Activities Association, 25200 SW Parkway Avenue, Suite 1, Wilsonville, OR, 97070, or sent by e-mail to peterw@osaa.org.

The complete proposal can be seen online at www.osaa.org. The OSAA Web site also includes all the proposals that have been submitted to the committee by people throughout the state.