By ARCHIE MOUNTAIN
CONCORD — With the realignment of all three NHIAA football divisions and the addition of a new division, New Hampshire high schools will be looking at revamped schedules when the season kicks off in the fall.
Newport, Kearsarge and Stevens will remain in Division III while Fall Mountain will drop down to the new Division IV that includes teams that are relatively new to the varsity sport and allow others that have been struggling an opportunity to rebuild their programs.
Division will include schools with 900 students or more; Division II, 641-899; Division III, 451-640 and Division IV, schools with fewer than 450 students.
Newport, 356 students, Somersworth, 438 and Trinity, 314, all requested to move up to D-III while Fall Mountain, 506, petitioned to be placed in the new D-IV.
With the new lineup, Newport will play an old foe, Lebanon, and will continue to play Stevens and Kearsarge. D-III teams will have a nine-game schedule. With only eight teams making up D-III, Fall Mountain faces a schedule of seven games against Division teams.
The largest Division III team enrollment wise is the combination of Hillsboro-Deering-Hopkinton. Trinity is the smallest while Newport is positioned just ahead of Trinity based on enrollment.
Alvirne, 1,200, and St. Thomas Aquinas, 432, petitioned to play in D-II and Bishop Guertin, 789, jumped up to D-I
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