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Staff Report

East Bladen and West Bladen will remain in separate conferences under the final realignment plan released Thursday by the N.C. High School Athletic Association.

Realignment, which expands classifications from four to eight, will begin with the 2025-26 school year and be in effect for four seasons.

East Bladen in a 1A/2A conference with East Columbus being the lone 1A school. Joining the Eagles as a 2A school are Hobbton, Lakewood, North Duplin, Union and West Columbus.

West Bladen will be in the 3A class with South Columbus and Whiteville. The trio will be joined by 4A Fairmont and Red Springs along with 5A South Brunswick.

Currently, the Knights are in the Southeastern Athletic 2A Conference with Fairmont, St. Pauls, Red Springs, Midway and Clinton.

East Bladen is in the combined Waccamaw 1A/2A Conference currently. The Eagles are 1A with East Columbus, Pender and West Columbus along with 2A members South Columbus, Heide Trask and Whiteville.

East Bladen and West Bladen were in the same 2A conference for the first two years of the current four-year plan. East Bladen’s appeal to move to 1A after two years was approved by the NCHSAA board and the school’s athletic teams were reassigned to the Waccamaw Conference.

Other conferences involving area schools include:

2A/3A: Midway (3A), Rosewood (2A), Goldsboro (3A), James Kenan (3A), Princeton (3A), Spring Creek (3A) and Wallace-Rose Hill (3A).

3A/4A: Heide Trask (3A), Pender (3A), Clinton (4A), South Lenoir (3A), East Duplin (4A) and Southwest Onslow (4A).

5A/6A: St. Pauls (5A), Douglas Byrd (5A), E.E. Smith (6A), Seventy-First (6A), South View (6A) and Westover (6A).

6A/7A: Lumberton (7A), Purnell Swett (7A), Cape Fear (7A), Gray’s Creek (6A), Scotland (6A) and Terry Sanford (6A).

The 2025-29 realignment plan was approved Monday after hearing final requests from 27 member schools. The eight-classification plan represents the first expansion of classifications since 1960 when the NCHSAA moved from three classifications to four.