Even since before I’ve attended Liberty, we’ve been a 2A-sized school classified as 3A, competing and succeeding against the larger schools. But now, as competition gets harder and we remain below the 3A student population requirement, school and district administrators are thinking of moving us down to the 2A level.

Competing against schools our own size sounds ideal at first. While we’d still be competing against 3A teams in regular season, post-season we’d be using our improved skills against 2A. We would no longer be compared to the institutions developing the future Olympians of America. Right?

But before you take a stand, first look at how we’ve been doing so far. Like track and field for example: their girls’ team has won KingCo multiple years in a row and not a season goes by without serious contenders in state for both boys and girls. Along with that is swim and dive, or women’s soccer, or softball, or men’s golf, which all have placed high in rankings.

Not only that, but there’s a certain sense of pride that those at Liberty take in being the “underdog” school. Every time we beat Mercer Island, there’s a buzz circulating for days. The size of our school compared to those that we compete against makes our student athletes feel the need and want to prove themselves to their peers and those of the larger schools—even though the odds are seemingly against them. And when we win, the spirit and pride that runs through our hallways and locker rooms is unifying and morale-boosting. I’d hate to lose that because we decided to switch down to 2A.

I’m not saying that there aren’t any benefits to the moving of classifications. I agree that it’d be nice not to have to compete with schools ranked 3rd in the state. And yeah, I guess we’d have a better chance of sending more teams to state if we were 2A. But I firmly believe that if Liberty is sitting comfortably where it is right now, there really isn’t any reason for us to have to reclassify.