BLOOMINGTON - The gym is packed as Normal Community and Bloomington high schools square off for the regional title. Remember those days? That's good because they're a thing of the past.

The new classification system implemented by the Illinois High School Association this school year will require more travel for some schools and break up long-standing rivalries in the postseason.

There will be four classes for volleyball, boys and girls basketball and baseball. Boys golf and boys and girls cross country will have three classes each. Other sports remain as they were last year.

The most impacted school in the Pantagraph area this academic year will be Normal Community. The Ironmen are among only 16 Class 4A schools south of Interstate 80. The only other Central Illinois school in Class 4A is Pekin.

"I can tell you from our side it's evident changes will be made in travel and rival games will be lost in the regional and some sectionals we've had," said NCHS athletic director Andy Turner. "After that, you still have to play the games and keep moving forward if you advance. The fortunate part is there will be four state champions crowned instead of two."

Normal West athletic director Stan Lewis believes his school will join the Ironmen in Class 4A for the 2008-09 school year. The Wildcats are the fourth largest school of 191 in Class 3A in a four-class system this year and 25 students short of the 1,658 cutoff to Class 4A. Enrollments as of Sept. 30 will be used for next year.

With an expected enrollment increase, the Unit 5 schools should be together in all sports again in a year.

"The positive side is because of where we're located, we think we'll have an opportunity to host a lot of stuff," said Lewis. "Our location will help us some."

Turner agrees with Lewis - and apparently so did the IHSA as the Ironmen will host a Class 4A volleyball sectional. For the regional, NCHS travels to Minooka along with Bradley-Bourbonnais and Ottawa.

"From our standpoint, we'll host everything we can host," said Turner. "We have the facilities and it will be less travel."

To minimize travel costs, the IHSA will hold semifinal and final matches in volleyball regionals and sectionals on the same night. If there are more than four teams in the regional, preliminary matches would be held at the higher-seeded team.

West will serve as host to a Class 3A volleyball regional that will include Bloomington, University High, Morton and Rantoul, with the sectional at Metamora.

BHS appears firmly entrenched in Class 3A of the four-class system. The Purple Raiders will remain with NCHS and West in Class 3A of the three-class sports.

"In the team sports where we're 3A it won't affect us as much as Normal Community in 4A," said BHS athletic director John Szabo. "In individual sports like cross country, our sectional includes teams from Edwardsville all the way up to the south suburbs of Chicago.

"If they have those (sectional) contests in Central Illinois, it will be better for everyone and not affect us a whole lot …. You have to give it a try and give it a year to see how everything pans out."

University High found out last year how an expanded class can mean more travel.

Girls golf went to two classes for the first time last year. On their way to a second straight state title, the Pioneers played their regional at Channahon (just outside of Joliet), went way north to the sectional in Freeport and played the state in Makanda (south of Carbondale).

"It's amazing what our kids accomplished traveling around the world," said U High coach Cal Hubbard. "It's too bad it comes to this in a sport where it takes so much time out of school anyway. It's hard to play golf at dark, I guess."

The controversial enrollment multiplier bumped U High from Class A to AA a couple years ago. So the Pioneers won't have much of a shock in the four-class system competing in Class 3A with BHS, West and other Big 12 Conference schools.

"We won't have Central Catholic, Tri-Valley, Hartem in volleyball, those types of things," said U High athletic director Curt Christenson. "Against Bloomington and West, we've had rivalries with those schools, but we have a hard time competing. Certain sports can be tougher than others."

For schools such as Heyworth, which is in the smallest class in every sport, the classification changes will hardly be noticed while traveling.

However, the Hornets (enrollment 267) and others similar in size should find a competitive advantage not going against much larger schools. Still, getting to the state finals in basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball will be just as difficult as only four schools in each class will advance instead of eight.

"The question is whether it waters it down. Are we getting to that point?" said Heyworth athletic director Charlie Lockenour. "The opportunity will be there (for smaller schools to advance). We'll have to see what happens."

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Pantagraph area breakdown

Here is how the larger area schools will be classified in the new Illinois High School Association classification system used this school year. If not included, area schools are in the smallest class available.

Two classes

Class AA: Bloomington, Normal Community, Normal West, University High, Lincoln, Mahomet-Seymour, Pontiac, Streator

Three classes

Class 2A: Central Catholic, University High, Clinton, Lincoln, Mahomet-Seymour, Olympia, PBL, Pontiac, Prairie Central, Streator

Class 3A: Bloomington, Normal Community, Normal West

Four classes

Class 2A: Central Catholic, Clinton, El Paso-Gridley, Eureka, Fieldcrest, Olympia, Prairie Central

Class 3A: Bloomington, Normal West, University High, Lincoln, Mahomet-Seymour, Pontiac, Streator

Class 4A: Normal Community