New Class 4A allows more teams to dream of football titles

In the old Class 4A, all but a handful of football teams knew their season had an expiration date.

Eventually, they were going to run into the likes of Bishop Gorman or Liberty in the playoffs, and there wasn’t anything they could do about it.

When the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association created Class 5A during the last realignment, a group of 17 teams in the Clark County School District was selected to make up the new 4A, creating hope that they would have a better chance to win a state championship.

“I think 4A will be one of the most competitive (classifications) there has been in Nevada for a long time,” Desert Oasis coach Brant Smith said. “It really is open to every team in 4A. Every team can compete, and there should be some great games.”

The Diamondbacks will get a firsthand look at how competitive the new 4A will be when it hosts Spring Valley at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Five 4A teams — Las Vegas, Silverado, Durango, Coronado and Clark — reached the old 4A playoffs in 2019. All of them lost in the first round to teams that are now in 5A. Cheyenne will join them in 4A after a run to the 3A state semifinals in 2019.

“I have mixed emotions. We want to compete at a high level, so we were hoping to get into 5A,” said Las Vegas coach Erick Capetillo, whose team finished 9-2 in 2019. “We missed it by one spot, but we still want to compete at a high level.”

Shadow Ridge often found itself watching the playoffs in the old 4A. The Mustangs finished fifth in the final year in the Northwest League, referred to as the “Black and Blue Division” for its physical style of play with teams such as Centennial, Arbor View and Palo Verde leading the charge.

Two close losses kept Shadow Ridge from reaching the 2019 postseason — a 36-35 overtime defeat to Palo Verde and 24-21 setback to eventual state runner-up Centennial.

The Mustangs’ relative success in that difficult league has them as a favorite among some 4A coaches. Silverado also had a strong run in the Southwest League, with its only league loss against Bishop Gorman.

While recent success is usually a gauge for how league races will play out in the future, it’s more difficult to project which teams were able to retain their usual numbers because of COVID-19.

“It was tough on the kids because for a lot of them their outlet is high school sports,” Capetillo said. “They look forward to sports and being Wildcats. They want to try things out, especially as freshmen and sophomores, but some weren’t able to so they went and got jobs.”

Based on recent results, Coronado and Shadow Ridge should battle for the Sky League title, while Las Vegas and Durango appear to be at the top of the Mountain League.

Silverado opens as the Desert League favorite, but Desert Oasis was on the verge of a 2019 playoff spot and could make some noise. Cheyenne is the wild card, coming off a 9-2 season but with a new coach.

With so many variables, it’s going to take time for the best teams to rise to the surface. Coronado, which will play only two opponents it met in 2019 in Basic and a rivalry game with Green Valley, plans to keep things simple.

“We’re trying to focus on ourselves about 80 percent of the time and our opponent 20 percent,” Coronado coach Fred Biletnikoff Jr. said. “You get thrown so many curveballs on a Friday night. You can prepare for something all week and never see it. We have to be flexible enough to adapt on Friday nights.”

While Smith and Biletnikoff Jr. said they think their teams were properly placed in 4A, they don’t want to make that their permanent home.

“The ultimate goal is to get to 5A and to be able to compete with the best,” Smith said.

Contact Jason Orts at jorts@reviewjournal.com. Follow @SportsWithOrts on Twitter.