Hickory and St. Stephens football will not play this year and other implications of the realignment

Jason Koon

This fall will be the first time since 1992 that Hickory and St. Stephens have not met on the football field.

This is happening because of the NCHSAA’s reclassification into eight classes and accompanying conference realignments that take effect this fall. Hickory and Saint landed in different classes and conferences. Additionally, the newly constituted Western Foothills 4A/5A Conference has nine teams in it, including Hickory. This means the Red Tornadoes and the rest of the teams in the western foothills conference will only play two nonconference games.

It’s a dynamic St. Stephens head coach Kyle Lowman said he didn’t think would hold.

“I honestly never thought that nine team league would stick,” Lowman said. “I wish we could still play Hickory. I wish we could still play