Rose basketball highlights
Mon.| 10-27-25 | SPORTS
As spectators walk into the gymnasium at Rose, they can’t help but notice details like the American flag hanging proudly, fresh, clean court floors, or, if you’re lucky, a scoreboard that indicates the home team winning. One of the most eye-catching aspects of the gym is the state championship banners that decorate all four walls, some dating back to 1992.
A majority of the banners are labeled “3A State Champions,” however, that will all change this year as Rose athletics has been upgraded to a 6A classification due to the new reclassification rules that the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) has put into place for the 2025-2026 school year.
As of March 6, 2025, the NCHSAA posted the final reclassifications of North Carolina high schools. In previous years, there have been classifications ranging from 1A-4A, depending on the school's population. Athletic Director Clay Medlin has been watching the decision process to expand to eight classifications unfold over the last couple of years.
Graphic by Maya Swaggerty
“What other states do is they kind of model states around them, so the four states that touch us, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, all have less public schools than we have, but they had more classifications,” Medlin said. “So we asked ourselves, why do we have more schools than them and we have fewer classifications?”
Medlin believes the main motivation for the new classifications was due in part to participation dropping in high school athletics across the state.
“The trend was, you started to see less popularity amongst smaller schools, and they weren't able to fill the football team, they weren't able to fill JV teams across the board,” Medlin said.
Though this change was quite shocking to most, Medlin seems to believe this is a good decision that will not only benefit Rose but also smaller 1A schools that have a hard time showing what they are made of in the postseason.
“The 1A schools knew that at the end of the year, no matter how good they were, they're probably not going to beat [larger schools],” Medlin said. “So now, with more classifications, more teams are going to have a chance to advance in the playoffs, and that's going to see participation pop back up, hopefully.”
As far as Rose athletics go, Medlin is optimistic about future successes that teams might have.
“Our athletics are on the up and up, and we have a lot of positives now, we're growing our sports, and we've got increased participation,” Medlin said. “I do think we'll flourish more, but there are still good teams out there.”
