Gansett Stays in D-III Football; Rogers Up to D-II

According to The Woonsocket Call, the latest meeting of the Rhode Island Interscholastic League has resulted in changes to the high school football divisions.

Tolman High School of Pawtucket will move up to Division I, based on the 70-30 formula used to determine division placement. (Teams are given a score based 70 percent on their win-loss record for the past eight years, and based 30 percent on male student enrollment.)

Moving down based on the formula is North Kingstown High School. The Skippers have had a miserable time in Division I play recently, going 0-24 the past three years. In the past eight years, North Kingstown has won just 22 league games and lost 46.

The RIIL also honored a request from South Kingstown to stay in Division I. As a result, the Rebels will stay in Division I, and Woonsocket will stay in Division II as opposed to being forced to move up Division I. The rest of Division I stays unchanged.

Moving from Division II to Division III is Ponaganset. The Chieftains moved up after winning Division III championships in 2007 and 2009, but the past two years, they combined to go 5-9 in Division II.

Moving to Division II will be this year's Division III champion, Rogers. After struggling in tougher divisions from 2006 to 2009, the Vikings posted a 15-1 record the past two years in Division III.

The rest of the divisional lineups remain unchanged. The members of each:

• Division I: Barrington, Bishop Hendricken, Cranston East, Cranston West, East Providence, La Salle, Portsmouth, South Kingstown and Tolman.
• Division II-A: Chariho, Coventry, Johnston, Mt. Hope, Toll Gate, Warwick Vets, Westerly and Woonsocket.
• Division II-B: Central, Cumberland, North Kingstown, Pilgrim, Rogers, St. Ray's, Shea and West Warwick.
• Division III: Burrillville, East Greenwich, Lincoln, Middletown, Moses Brown, Narragansett, Ponaganset and Tiverton.
• Division IV: Central Falls, Exeter / West Greenwich, Hope, Mt. Pleasant, North Providence, North Smithfield, Providence Country Day / Wheeler / Juanita Sanchez co-op, Scituate and Smithfield.