"I think we have a problem if we're trying to build our regions around trying to win a state tournament trophy," Homer said. "Not everybody wins. Not everybody's going to get a trophy . . . I just feel really uncomfortable with it. I don't know where it's going to take us, and what we're going to be when we get there."

But small 3A schools and nearly all the 1A representatives felt it was the best way to deal with what has seemed like an unsolvable problem. Bobbie Killpack, Region 8 representative, has been the most vocal advocate of either moving the smallest 3A schools to 2A or creating two championships.

"There is an issue here," she said. "I talk to these principals and coaches and they say, 'Yeah, we can beat a Snow Canyon, or a Tooele or a Pine View. But to beat one after the other to get to a state championship is too much' . . . Right now there's a great disparity, and that will only grow."

Lynn Davidson, Region 3 representative, offered the compromise that eventually passed, which was that the 3A schools try the two-championship format for one year and then bring the results of the pilot program back to the board for the go-ahead to either continue or go back to the way it is now.

Craig Hammer, who sits on the UHSAA executive committee and was representing 3A principals, added that they should work out the kinks by the board's November meeting and come back with a specific plan. The 35 1A schools were added to the mix by Kendall Thomas, who said 1A has more schools that travel farther and deal with a greater range of disparity.

With the responsibility on the 3A and 1A principals to show that it would work, the board voted 20-2 to approve the idea along with the new alignment. Only Homer and Tom Hales, Region 12's representative, voted against it. Hales said he voted it down because the board dealt with the larger schools' travel issues but ignored those like the ones in Region 2.

"They tell us that we have to travel, and then we fix it so those other schools don't have to," he said. "I don't think that was fair."

Before the meeting even started, board chairman Louie Long, who's presided over all of the realignment meetings, thanked the board for their work and reminded them that it was not possible to make everyone happy as they made their decision Thursday.

The new alignment goes into effect in 2005-06, and if 1A and 3A come up with a plan the board likes, there will be seven state champions crowned in some sports that year.

---

E-mail: adonaldson@desnews.com