Darrell Moody: North Valleys to 3A was right thing to do

At last, a move in the NIAA that makes sense.

At the recent Board of Control Meeting in Reno, North Valleys was granted its wish to move down to 3A in all sports.

In the 12 years I’ve worked in Nevada, North Valleys won two titles, both in boys soccer. They’re a second-division program in almost every sport.

Too many people think North Valleys is too big for the 3A. I’m not one of them. I want to also point out this move is just for two years, or one realignment cycle.

North Valleys does have 2,100 students, but that area is rural, and athletic director Richard Peraldo pointed out feeder schools are several miles from the high school, and many students have to ride a bus to get to school, thus making it hard to get home after a practice.

That’s the kind of thing people need to look at — not the total enrollment. Peraldo points out 32 percent of the student body plays sports at NV, which isn’t a huge number. Maybe if NV has some success that will change.

Peraldo said he would like his teams to have a chance to compete for championships; be competitive. He has the right idea. This is a guy who wants to do the right thing by his student-athletes.

I wish more athletic directors/administrators were like him.

The other news to come out of the meeting is in two years Wooster will be back playing 4A football, something the school doesn’t want.

Plain and simple, Wooster should be in the 3A for ALL sports. The Colts did have a decent baseball season, but they’ve struggled in the last 12 years, and I don’t see things changing much.

Wooster was a middle of the pack 3A school in football, and it will be a last-place team in the Sierra League.

Wooster and Hug need to move down to 3A in everything, and it should be taken out of the hands of administrators, who for the most part, will take the easy way out.

The NIAA needs to form a competition committee to decide these things. Or, the northern schools need to be part of the rubric system that’s used in the Las Vegas area. One thing people need to understand is the rubric is just for a realignment cycle. It’s based on wins and losses, not on the wishes of school administrators.

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It was announced last week the University of Nevada men’s basketball team will visit Costa Rica on Aug. 18-26.

According to a university press release, the team will play the Costa Rica national team as well as teams from Canada.

The best thing about that is it gives the Wolf Pack, which will have several new players seeing significant playing time, an opportunity to develop chemistry in non-stressful situations. This kind of trip can only help a team.

“We are so excited to take our foreign tour trip this year to Costa Rica in August,” head coach Eric Musselman said. “A trip like this is an unbelievable experience for our players and staff and it allows us the opportunity to grow together as a team. It’s great for the new players to bond and get closer to the older guys and vice versa. The other great part of this trip is it takes everyone out of their element, by being in a different country and doing things like zip lining or rafting, that you naturally grow closer to each other just based on the fact that you are all learning and experiencing new things together.”