The Lackawanna Interscholastic Athletic Association has set Lackawanna League sports divisional alignments and scheduling formats for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years.

Fall and winter plans are completely set.

According to LIAA secretary, Montrose athletic director Joe Gilhool, the spring plans need only to receive formal approval in a vote by principals of member schools.

The LIAA reorganizes every two school years, along with the new enrollment figures and classification breakdowns from the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association. When the PIAA expanded the number of classes in several sports for this two-year cycle, it created the need for additional changes.

The Small School Division in golf, where Forest City is the most recent playoff champion and Montrose is a perennial contender, got much tougher. Scranton Prep, perhaps the deepest and strongest program in the Lackawanna League, dropped from Class AAA along with Western Wayne.

Those changes increase Small School golf to 15 teams, giving all a 14-match schedule.

All five county teams (Susquehanna players are part of the Blue Ridge team in a cooperative sponsorship) are in the Small School Division.

Scranton Prep and Western Wayne also join the mix in boys’ soccer, which is switching from three to four classifications in the PIAA.

The LIAA has decided to split its old small school division into two divisions.

Elk Lake, Montrose and Mountain View will be in Division 2 with Holy Cross, Lakeland, Scranton Prep and Western Wayne.

Blue Ridge and Forest City will be in Division 3 along with Carbondale, Dunmore, Mid Valley, Old Forge and Riverside.

Teams will play each other twice each within the divisions. The Lackawanna League will also assign each team two crossover games against the other division.

Girls soccer in the Lackawanna League will expand from three divisions to four.

The small schools will add Western Wayne and switch from the old nine-team Division 3 to a new Divisions 3 and 4 with five teams each.

Montrose and Mountain View will play in Division 3 with Holy Cross, Lakeland and Western Wayne.

Elk Lake and Forest City will be in Division 4 with Dunmore, Carbondale and Mid Valley.

Teams will play a 13-game schedule, playing in their division twice and crossing over with the other division’s teams once each.

There are no changes in the cross country, girls tennis or girls volleyball formats.

Football was the first to be addressed during winter meetings.

Basketball teams from Susquehanna County remain in the same set-up, in Division 4, which features the six county schools plus Lackawanna Trail for both boys and girls.

Wrestling has only a minor change. Valley View moves up from Division 1 and Honesdale moves down to Division 2 to join Blue Ridge, Elk Lake, Montrose, Mountain View, Lackawanna Trail, Scranton Prep and Western Wayne.

The plans to be finalized in track and field, baseball and softball do not include any changes that impact county schools.

WEEK IN REVIEW

As of presstime, seven county teams were still pursuing district titles on the diamonds.

Blue Ridge, Forest City and Elk Lake were all still active in the Class A baseball playoffs, which were set to conclude on Memorial Day.

Elk Lake and Montrose, in Class AA, joined Blue Ridge and Mountain View, in Class A, in the softball playoffs. The Class A championship game was scheduled for May 31.

In baseball, Montrose’s reign as District 2 Class AA champion came to an end when Northwest scored nine runs in the top of the first inning May 24 on the way to a 13-5 victory.

Bryden Jerauld had a single, double, RBI and run scored for Montrose, the Lackawanna League Division 4 champion and the district tournament’s second seed.

Elk Lake opened a pair of six-run leads, then held off host Lackawanna Trail, 11-8, in a Class A quarterfinal May 23.

The Warriors allowed the Lions three runs each in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings.

Blue Ridge and Forest City each had byes into the semifinals.

In softball, Elk Lake defeated Wyoming Seminary, 9-1, May 23 in a Class AA first-round game. It advanced along with Montrose, which had a bye into the quarterfinals as the tournament’s top seed.

Blue Ridge shut out MMI Prep, 8-0, and Mountain View topped Forest City, 7-3, in the May 24 District 2 Class A quarterfinals. Old Forge eliminated Susquehanna, 6-4.

Blue Ridge’s Danielle Goff threw a three-hitter with a walk and 11 strikeouts.

Taylor Hall and Hunter Vaughn each had two hits in the win.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The District 2 Class AA softball championship game is scheduled for Wednesday at a neutral site.

The first round of the PIAA state tournaments in baseball and softball is scheduled for Monday, June 6.

EDITOR’S NOTE

This edition of the Susquehanna County Transcript had an earlier deadline because of the holiday weekend.

Coverage of the state track and field championships and the completion of the District 2 baseball and softball tournaments can be found in the next issue of the newspaper.

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE FOR NEWMAN

Ryan Newman and crew chief Luke Lambert

Ryan Newman's future racing plans are cloudy.

As of now, he doesn't have a Sprint Cup ride after the end of this season.

Newman and car owner Richard Childress both offered little on Newman's future with Richard Childress Racing. Newman signed a three-year contact to drive for the team beginning with the 2014 season. This is his third year with the organization. No extension on Newman's contract has been announced.

With RCR at three cars and Ty Dillon, Childress' grandson, on the path to move up to the Sprint Cup Series, the question is what RCR's driver lineup will be next year if it doesn't find sponsorship to expand to four cars.

“I'll keep doing this as long as somebody wants me to do it and it's fun doing it,” Newman said of his future.

Asked about next year's driver lineup, Childress said: “We're not looking at anything right now. We've got to focus and focus hard on trying to go out and win races. That's our No. 1 focus right now.”

Although Newman has yet to win at RCR, he finished second in the points in 2014 and was 11th last year.

Will winning a race change his status at RCR?

“I have no idea,” Newman said.

He has 18 career Sprint Cup victories, but hasn't visited victory lane since 2013. After 12 races into this season, Newman has three top-10s and is 18th in points.

Because of consistency throughout the season, Newman beat rookie Kyle Larson for the final wild card spot in the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup. Newman almost won at Talladega when he controlled the final 10 laps. However, a final GWC finish attempt relegated Newman to a fifth-place finish.

Newman was so consistent that after starting the Chase 11th in the standings, he moved up each round and was fourth when they came to Phoenix for the next-to-last round of the Chase.

At Phoenix, Newman was in danger of missing the final round. On the final lap, Newman pulled a controversial move on Kyle Larson, forcing Larson to slap the wall. Newman finished 11th, and bumped Jeff Gordon out of the Chase. Newman defended his move stating that while it was unintentional, he felt like he owed Larson one for a previous accident. Larson later himself agreed with Newman's situation but admitted to have been initially furious over the move.

At Homestead, Newman almost won the Championship but because he finished second to Kevin Harvick in the race, and in the standings. When Newman was interviewed he stated that he was not going to play dirty and wanted to have a clean race with Harvick.

Newman announced in January 2015 that he renewed his RCR contract and would drive the No. 31 again for the 2015 NASCAR Cup series season. Though Newman did not win a pole in 2014 he was listed as being among the drivers allowed in the Sprint Unlimited because NASCAR allowed all Chase drivers to participate in the race.

Newman began the 2015 season with a string of top-10's, including a third-place finish at Las Vegas. While running sixth in the standings in late-March, NASCAR confiscated various tires from Newman's team, because they suspectedd that his team had illegally tampered with the tires. Many teams including Newman's were accused of poking holes in the tires to allow air to bleed, which produces more grip for the tires and allows a car to maintain faster speed. Two weeks later NASCAR penalized Newman's team with a 75-point deduction, a $125,000 fine, a six-race suspension for crew chief Luke Lambert and two key crew members.

RCR announced that they would appeal the penalties.

Both appeals were exhausted with the same outcome, when the Final Appeals officer upheld the partially reduced penalties including the suspensions. He probably had nothing to do with it at all. The only reason the penalties were partially reduced was because of a gray area in the NASCAR rulebook over whether or not the penalties were post-race inspection penalties.

Newman went on to make the Chase, but was eliminated at the end of round two. He finished 11th in the final standings, one point short of the top-10. Jimmie Johnson beat him out for 10th by one point.

Childress has two grandsons, Austin and Ty Dillon. Austin is racing in the Sprint Cup Series. The 26-year-old racer won titles in both the truck and Xfinity Series prior to graduating to Cup, where he is currently eight in the standings.

Childress has plans to put Ty Dillon in a Sprint Cup car in 2017. If that happens, RCR would have to find a lot of additional sponsor money in order to field a fourth car. If another big money sponsor can't be found, then the adage, “Blood is thicker than water,” would probably hold true, and Newman would be looking for another ride.

NASCAR RACE FANS STILL BIG BUSINESS

Long before the roar of the engines, NASCAR racing adds a big boost to the local economy.  According to television station WJZY in Charlotte, NASCAR fans come to the track ready to spend money.

Fans from all 50 states walked the grounds of Charlotte Motor Speedway over the last week.

The speedway estimates they added $250 to $275 million to the local economy.

The sea of fans entering the track, already spend hundreds of dollars even before getting to their seat.

“I would say about $300 dollars after everything is all said and done,” said one fan visiting from South Carolina.

“Just on souvenirs alone for me, probably between $300 and $500,” said Lisa Woodmore.

Lisa Woodmore and April Armstrong traveled all the way from Nashville. It was their 60th race together.

“We have been to Bristol, Charlotte, Talladega, Atlanta, Daytona,” said Woodmore.

They travel across the country, easily spending thousands of dollars every year on things like merchandise, tickets and food.

They say it’s worth every penny.

“You love the smell and the taste and the people. You just can’t get enough of it,” said Armstrong.

For other fans the pain to the pocketbook forces them to experience a shorter NASCAR season.

“I don’t go to as many races as I used to because of the travel and other expenses. You could spend a lot of money,” said Alan Green.

Ed Clark, president of Atlanta Motor Speedway said Delta Airlines conducted a survey and found that a typical race weekend is worth $500 million to Atlanta and the surrounding communities.

“Our race weekend is a win-win for everyone,” said Clark. “The fans spend money and the businesses benefit. It's good for the fan and merchant, from the largest corporations down to mom and pop operations.”

There are dozens of Waffle House restaurants in and around Atlanta, but the one in Griffin, Georgia, about 10 miles south of the track, has their busiest morning of the year on race day. They serve an estimated 700 breakfasts.

Weekend Racing: The Sprint Cup and Nationwide teams will be at the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway. The Trucks have an off weekend.

Sat., June 4, Nationwide Series race 12 of 33; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: Fox.

Sun., June 5, Sprint Cup Series race 14 of 36; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: Foxsports1.

Racing Trivia Question: What year did Bobby Allison win the NASCAR championship?

Last Week's Question? Who won the first race at Charlotte Motor Speedway? It was ran in 1960, and was called the World 600. Answer. Joe Lee Johnson.

You may contact the Racing Reporter by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com