MADISON- The Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) approved the seven-classification system and new classifications among member schools for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years. The updates on the system, first implemented in 2014-2015, will make some changes for Madison Academy.

In accordance with the AHSAA constitution and by-laws, classification is based on Average Daily Membership (ADM) for grades nine through 11, plus eighth-grade hold-back students. Within the guidelines set forth by AHSAA, alignments for the next two school years were also released for fall sports.

Madison Academy will again be a mix of different classifications. In football and cross country, the Mustangs will drop to Class 3-A while volleyball will remain in Class 5-A. The lower total enrollment for the private school also dropped, this causing the mix up in the alignments for the sports.

“Nothing will change for us as we will continue to work, develop and grow young men on and off the field regardless of what classification we are in,” said Bob Godsey, head football coach at Madison Academy. “Our enrollment is simply not as big as everyone wants to think it is. For me personally, it has always been about quality over quantity.”

The new enrollment numbers now have the school ranked No. 236 in the state with 259 students compared to two years ago when the school was No. 196 with 302 students.

Mark Mincher, athletic director the Mustangs’ athletics, said, “They re-class by season now. So this was only for the fall sports. Winter will come out in the early spring when the winter sports are complete.”

The Mustangs’ football program will be among 60 schools in Class 4-A.

The remainder of the sports alignments will be released at a later date. Meanwhile, Bob Jones, James Clemens and Sparkman all remain in Class 7-A.