Can the Cascade Christian boys basketball team compete at the Class 5A level? Absolutely.

Should the two-time reigning 3A state champion Challengers be afforded that opportunity? Well, that will be up for discussion for a second time this offseason after the private school recently asked the Oregon School Activities Association to reconsider the team’s petition to move up two classifications for the remaining three years of the current classification cycle.

The OSAA executive board is set to meet for its annual summer workshop Monday-Wednesday in Redmond, and a revised petition spearheaded by Cascade Christian boys basketball coach Brian Morse is on the docket for the board’s work session.

Morse initially made the request prior to an executive board meeting in May, but while the workshop discussion at that time created dialogue, it didn’t bring forth any action since it wasn’t in the OSAA bylaws to support the board voting on it.

“We had planned on talking about the concept again this summer anyways,” said OSAA Executive Director Peter Weber, “figuring that this might not be the only time that somebody brings this up and we probably better dig into it a little bit deeper. About a week ago, (Cascade Christian) sent back information asking for a reconsideration.”

It’s not completely uncommon for a school to request to play up or down a classification level due to various factors, including competitive balance, but those requests have exclusively been for all sports at the petitioning school to make the move and not just one.

For example, Lincoln High carries an average daily membership of 432 — closer to the 4A margin of 311-607 — and Central Catholic is at a 620 ADM — 13 over the 4A cut — but each is able to compete at the 6A level after petitioning for a universal jump among all sports programs.

“It was denied earlier because the OSAA doesn’t have a policy that allows it,” said Weber of Cascade Christian’s initial petition. “We specifically have policies that say it can’t happen, that if somebody goes up, they go up in everything.”

With the Challengers’ ADM at 154, it’s unrealistic to expect all of their sports programs to be able to hold their own against schools that are around the 1,004 cutoff for 5A representation.

And quite honestly, Morse said, none of Cascade Christian’s other programs expressed a willingness to move even to the 4A level when he first toyed with the notion one year ago.

Morse said his initial petition, which he held off until March to ensure it had more merit as a back-to-back 3A state champion, was a move to the 4A Skyline Conference but its representatives said they would only be interested if the move was made by the entire school.

That led to the current petition to play in the 5A Midwestern League, which includes local schools Ashland, Crater and Eagle Point and Eugene-area schools Churchill, North Eugene, Thurston and Springfield.

“I’m really doing it for the kids,” said Morse. “They will have so much better competitive games this way. I want the bar raised to see how far these guys can go, that’s the big thing. That’s not to say it would be a slam dunk that we’d win the 3A again — we’d be the favorites — but I really want them pushed and challenged.”

As part of the petition, Morse notes that the Challengers have been to four straight 3A state championship games, had an average margin of victory of 44 points in the Far West League this past season and boast a 2023-24 roster with three players who hold Division I offers in 7-foot senior center Austin Maurer (Oregon State, Colorado, New Mexico among others), junior guard Drew Hall (Idaho) and incoming freshman guard Avery Huston (Portland).

The Challengers went 27-4 last year, with only one state playoff win under 17 points as well as a hallmark win over 5A Summit.

Morse said his reclassification petition carries unanimous support from the 3A boys basketball coaches — although that push seems understandable for any coach eager to eliminate a title threat or a demoralizing loss. It has also brought support from the Oregon Basketball Coaches Association and Oregon Athletic Coaches Association.

The petition point of noting that Woodburn’s boys soccer team was allowed to move from 4A to 5A in 2018 is moot, however, since Woodburn carried a 5A ADM at the time but was playing down as a school for overall competitive balance. The boys soccer team was allowed to play at its traditional 5A level due to the OSAA’s already instilled dominant sport policy.

A revision to Cascade Christian’s petition is in criteria that mandates a two-classification bump for the entirety of the four-year time block — of which the coming year will only be the second of the current block — and petitions have to be made at least six months in advance of a season.

“We know it’s an unprecedented deal,” said Morse. “I’m not concerned about it because I think the way I set it up with the criteria that you’ve got to move up two classifications will really make a lot of programs think about doing it, along with committing for the four years.”

“Every sports program,” he added, “whether it’s volleyball, baseball, basketball, they may have a special run of players coming through their program and they want to see how good they really could be. I think that will allow these programs to do it. I think you’ll see a lot more 2A teams moving up to 4A or 1A playing up to 3A. Even with that, though, you still have to petition the board, it’s not like you just get it, and they still have to approve you.”

Morse said he believes that creating a new policy will allow for more flexibility and be a win-win when it comes to sportsmanship and competitive balance issues.

“It’s not like we’re petitioning to go down and dominate somebody,” he added, “we’re petitioning to play up. If we did get the 5A, are we going to win the 5A state championship? Probably not, but I think at least we would be in contention for it with what we have coming back.”

Weber said he has no inclination as to how the board will receive the new petition, partially because there are six new executive board members who weren’t in on the initial conversation.

Still, the request certainly warrants a larger conversation for the association, whether that’s among the athletic directors or delegate assembly or what have you.

“Obviously requests like these are coming from a specific school about a specific sport,” said Weber, “but at the association level, we need to kind of look beyond that and say what’s that look like in other potential situations or requests and is that something we want to do.”

“To me it’s more about the precedent piece of it,” he added. “That doesn’t mean that’s a negative, it’s just that’s something we need to think about and what are the unintended pieces perhaps that come with that. Does that encourage a school to be the basketball school and the school down the street to be the softball school and the school down the street to be something else and kids gravitate towards that and transfer. Maybe there’s nothing there but I think that’s part of the discussion that we’ll have is what other pieces come about as a result of something like this.”