Valley sectional alignment: New sectionals contain few private schools, no teams from previous cycle

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The days of the Tippecanoe Valley football team traveling south to Indianapolis for a sectional game are over for at least the next two years.

And the days of Valley playing private school teams in a sectional game in any sport are much fewer, according to the new IHSAA alignments for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years released Tuesday.

Also noteworthy is that Valley is not in a single sectional in a team sport against any of their new rivals in the Indiana Northern State Conference, which begins play next year.

Football

Valley will be the westernmost team in Class 3A, Sectional 26, and while there will be no drives to face teams like Indianapolis Chatard, which eliminated Valley 40-7 last year and went on to win the Class 3A state title, there could be a few long hauls east.

That is because the other teams in Sectional 26 include Angola, Fairfield, Fort Wayne Concordia, Garrett, Lakeland, West Noble and Woodlan. None of these schools were in Valley’s sectional during the last cycle.

Valley has not won a sectional title since 1992, and no team in this field has won a sectional title since Fort Wayne Concordia in 2020. Lakeland and West Noble have never won a sectional football title.

Valley has lost to a private school in the sectional each of the last four years.

Volleyball, girls basketball, boys basketball

Columbia City has moved down from Class 4A to Class 3A and will join Valley in Sectional 20 along with Fairfield, NorthWood, Wawasee and West Noble.

None of these schools were in Valley’s sectional in any of these sports during the last cycle.

An obstacle in volleyball would figure to be NorthWood, who has won five consecutive sectional titles.

In girls basketball, a postseason matchup with Fairfield would be a rematch of the 2023 semistate game that Fairfield won during their run to the state title. Another obstacle could be Columbia City, which went 22-3 and will return Addison Baxter, who has verbally committed to Butler, for her senior season at point guard next year. Another top team could be NorthWood, who is coached by 2010 Valley grad Taylor Burkhart who made the semistate last year.

Valley’s boys basketball sectional will feature a Fairfield team that made it to semistate last year and a NorthWood program that has won nine sectionals and the 2023 state title in Aaron Wolfe’s previous 17 years as coach.

In addition, Columbia City is coming off a 16-win season last year, and Wawasee coach Lou Lefevre has won six sectional titles in his coaching career.

Boys soccer

Valley will be in a seven-team sectional that – unlike the previous cycle – has no private school teams and no teams from Fort Wayne.

Instead, Valley will be in Class 2A, Sectional 22 along with Eastern (Greentown), Maconaquah, Northwestern, Peru, Rochester and Wabash. Northwestern has won two straight sectional titles. Valley has never won a boys soccer sectional.

Girls soccer

Valley will be in a five-team grouping as coach Tricia Sederholm prepares for her second year as coach.

The other four teams are Culver Academy, NorthWood, Plymouth and Wawasee.

NorthWood is coming off a 13-6-1 season last year and has won five sectional titles in the last seven years.

Valley sectional lineup (2024-25 and 2025-26)

Class 2A, Sectional 21 (girls soccer)

Culver Academy, NorthWood, Plymouth, VALLEY, Wawasee

Class 2A, Sectional 22 (boys soccer)

Eastern (Greentown), Maconaquah, Northwestern, Peru, Rochester, VALLEY, Wabash

Class 3A, Sectional 20 (volleyball, girls basketball, boys basketball)

Columbia City, Fairfield, NorthWood, VALLEY, Wawasee, West Noble

Class 3A, Sectional 26 (football)

Angola, Fairfield, Fort Wayne Concordia, Garrett, Lakeland, VALLEY, West Noble, Woodlan