Ironwood moves up to Division 3 next year

By JASON JUNO

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Ironwood --- Ironwood enjoyed success in its stay in Division 4, but their short run in the MHSAA's smallest division will end, at least for now.

The MHSAA announced the classifications for next year's postseason tournaments Friday, and as expected, Ironwood moved up to Division 3 for basketball and volleyball.

Their high school enrollment rose from 194 students for the 2023-24 school year to 219, putting them well above the sub-200 student cutoffs for teams to be in Division 4. The classifications are based on a second-semester count date, which for the MHSAA, was Feb. 14.

Ironwood's girls teams moved to D-4 during the 2020-21 school year and the boys basketball team followed a year later.

School officials and coaches didn't think they'd be here this long. They were the biggest boys basketball team in D-4 last year and among the top girls teams. But their enrollment rose too much now to stay in D-4.

New families have been moving into the district and the high school enrollment has been rising, athletic director Dan Martinson said. Some 29 students graduated last year with 55 students in this year's freshmen class. This year, it's 36 seniors graduating and 58 coming from the eighth-grade class.

The sophomore and junior classes are even bigger, both well into the 60s.

Their enrollment number should be even higher for the 2025-26 school year before it settles into the 200-220 range, Martinson said.

He expects them to be in D-3 for "the foreseeable future." Down the road, one of their programs might be able to drop to D-4 while others stay up in D-3, which is what happens to teams near the always-changing cutoff.

One issue with that is the cutoff between Division 3 and Division 4 teams continues to go down. This year, the top end of D-4 girls basketball teams is at 194 students, compared to 205 last year.

Enrollments across the state have been going down for several years, said Geoff Kimmerly, the MHSAA's Director of Communications.

"Our sports are divided evenly by the number of divisions playing - so all of our basketball teams by four - and we not only have lower population (and enrollments) across the state but many more smaller schools with additional non-public and charter schools opening over the last many years. Those schools tend to be among our smallest, filling up Division 4 and bringing that enrollment max down."

Talk of adding a fifth division has also quieted.

"I am also curious to see what happens with the five-division talk that is going on in the state," Martinson said. "Last fall, I kind of thought it was a done deal, so I was shocked when it didn't happen for this (coming) year."

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Ironwood's enrollment is just above the 215-student cutoff for 8-player football teams to compete in the MHSAA playoffs. But Ironwood will still be eligible in 2024 should they qualify.

"Ironwood gets a one-year grace and will still be allowed to participate in the playoffs if it qualifies this fall," Kimmerly said.

In volleyball and basketball, Ironwood has been competing in the local D-4 districts and they've been a formidable foe.

The Ironwood boys basketball team won District 97 with a championship game victory over Wakefield-Marenisco in 2023 and the volleyball team won back-to-back district titles in 2021 and 2022 with the 2021 team also winning their first regional title in 20 years.

There's been some elite competition as well. Teams from their district have advanced to state - the 2022 Ewen-Trout Creek boys and the 2023 Forest Park volleyball team.

Ironwood's volleyball program quickly rose to one of the best in the U.P. in Division 4, even competing well against Forest Park last fall. Now they'll be back to competing against the likes of Calumet, a common state qualifier in Division 3.

"It is definitely disappointing to move up to Division 3. We have been very successful in Division 4," Ironwood volleyball coach Lisa Fechter said. "However, we are up to the challenge. We should have a very strong team next year that should be able to compete with larger Division 3 schools. Playing tougher competition will only make us better."

Adam Mackey has won D-3 districts as a player and a D-4 district as a coach. It's always a challenge to get to the regional, and some years D-4 could be stronger than D-3, he said. D-3 looks to be pretty strong next year, though.

"This upcoming year with the likelihood of some top U.P. programs like Iron Mountain, Menominee and/or Westwood being in a district or regional setting, it will be a good challenge," Mackey said.

The districts have largely been local rivalry games of late, made up mostly of teams they play twice a year on their side of the Copper Mountain Conference. The regional semifinal has been a team from the other side of the league.

Tournament foes will be new to them now, unless they happen to play them as part of their limited non-conference schedule.

Martinson knew the change was coming and he's been scheduling some bigger schools in non-conference games.

"I don't think it favors or hurts us at all, but adjusting to teams that we most likely won't see during the regular season will be an in-game adjustment," Mackey said.

A big change will be the change in district formats. The local districts have all been in one gym, whereas the rest of the U.P. generally plays with the non-traditional format, where each game is at a different site based on random draw.

"The last few years playing against local rivals in the district made for entertaining matchups and large crowds," Mackey said. "Hopefully, that's something that we don't lose now with playing opponents from farther distances. The non-traditional format will be interesting because of the opportunity to host games. I believe that has a big impact, especially in a tournament setting."

The girls basketball team has been in contention for a district title. They fell just short against a young Ewen-Trout Creek game in this year's district final.

District 3 seemed to be a bit easier than Division 4 this year. D-3 got harder with Ironwood and state champion Ishpeming moving up for next season.

Ishpeming girls coach Ryan Reichel had expected their enrollment to drop enough that they'd stay in D-4, but that didn't happen.

The new makeup of districts across the state hasn't been announced yet.

Ironwood's baseball and softball teams will stay in Division 4 in the 2024-25 school year. The enrollment cutoffs are considerably higher for those sports.