NCHSAA Approves 2025-2029 Realignment: What does it mean for East and West Bladen?

Bladen County, NC - The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) is making a major shift in how schools are classified, and it’s going to have an impact on both East and West Bladen.

Starting with the 2025-2026 school year, the state will move from its current four-classification system to eight classifications — a change designed to group schools more evenly by enrollment size.

For student-athletes, coaches, and fans in Bladen County, the new system means new conferences, new opponents, and new challenges.

East Bladen

East Bladen will land in the 2A classification in the 1A/2A Conference B, a league that brings together a mix of familiar faces and new competition.

Schools in this conference include:

• East Columbus (1A)

• East Bladen (2A)

• Hobbton (2A)

• Lakewood (2A)

• North Duplin (2A)

• Union (2A)

• West Columbus (2A)

For East Bladen, this means regular matchups with some schools they’ve seen plenty of in past years, including East and West Columbus.

The longest trip for East Bladen will be around an hour and five minutes to North Duplin. They will average approximately an hour and fifty minute round trips total for the conference schedule.

It also introduces new regular-season games against teams like Hobbton, Lakewood, and North Duplin, which will require a bit more travel into Sampson and Duplin County.

West Bladen

West Bladen is going into a very similar environment, being in the 3A classification, with one slight shift.

The Knights will compete in 3A/4A/5A Conference B, which is made up of:

• South Columbus (3A)

• West Bladen (3A)

• Whiteville (3A)

• Fairmont (4A)

• Red Springs (4A)

• South Brunswick (5A)

This realignment keeps most of the same teams West Bladen is used to facing in the regular season consistetly with South Brunswick being the only exception.

The longest trip for West Bladen will be around an hour and fifteen minutes to South Brunswick. They will average approximately an hour and a half round trips total for the conference schedule.

Traditional opponents like Whiteville, South Columbus, Fairmont, Red Springs, will keep some local flavor in the conference schedule.

What is remaining for the NCHSAA is to decide how playoff seeding will be decided, such as automatic bids from conference, how many playoffs teams and games there will be, etc.

I will keep you updated as information comes avaiable.