Following suit with fall sports, boys and girls basketball in Berkshire County is no longer competing as part of a Berkshire League.

Instead, the local teams have been divided up into a variety of leagues within the Pioneer Valley Athletic Conference.

While this will detract somewhat from some typical geographic rivalries, the goal continues to be the striving for competitive balance.

Likewise to the fall soccer season, the basketball teams will also be broken into classes, which will formulate small, eight-team brackets at the end of the regular season to compete for new Western Massachusetts titles. The teams will also be competing throughout the year to add to their power ratings within the MIAA’s state-wide system. Those teams that qualify for the state tournament will be placed into divisional brackets with a minimum of 32 teams across the Commonwealth.

Girls Basketball

Things are also different in girls basketball, and different from the schools’ boys alignment as well.

For starters, Taconic and Pittsfield are split up into sister leagues the Valley League and Valley Wheel. Taconic is in the Valley League with Central, Northampton, Longmeadow, West Springfield and Holyoke. PHS is in the Wheel with Minnechaug, East Longmeadow, Chicopee, Chicopee Comp. and Westfield. Those two leagues will do the top three/bottom three cross-over games.

Pittsfield and Taconic are still scheduled to play each other twice, to open the season on Monday, Dec. 13 and then again on Jan. 12.

Lenox likewise finds itself all alone in the Franklin South, where Palmer, Greenfield, Frontier, Hopkins, Ware and Athol reside. The Franklin West houses Lee, Mount Everett and McCann Tech, along with Southwick, Pope Francis, Easthampton and Renaissance. Those schools will play in-league twice with one cross-over each, pre-scheduled.

Similarly, the sister leagues Suburban and Central play that style of schedule. From the Berkshires, Mount Greylock, Drury and Monument Mountain will play in the Central League, while Wahconah and Hoosac Valley compete in the Suburban.

Central also houses Belchertown, Agawam, Sabis and Ludlow. Suburban is made up of Hampshire, South Hadley, Granby, Monson and Amherst, along with Wahconah and Hoosac.

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