O'Neal Joins Sandhills Athletic Conference in the Fall of 2023
O'Neal will join a new athletic conference starting the 2023/2024 school year.
The 2023/2024 school year will see a good deal of change across the athletics landscape throughout the state of North Carolina. Unlike in years past, where schools would choose whom they partnered with in their own athletic conference; for the first time in its history, the North Carolina Independent School Athletic Association (NCISAA) has decided to take the role of placing teams into athletic conferences. Many schools and conferences across the state will experience shifting and a number of new conferences are in the process of being formed.
O’Neal’s present conference for JV and varsity sports - the Tri-TAC Conference - has lost three schools from its original membership – American Hebrew Academy is no longer in operation, Trinity Academy has moved to a 3A conference, and Salem Baptist Christian School is moving to a conference with less travel. The Tri-TAC Conference therefore would be left with four schools including O’Neal – and some Tri-TAC schools do not have every sport O’Neal offers.
After much consideration and planning by member schools, along with guidance from the NCISAA state office, The O’Neal School will be joining the Sandhills Athletic Conference (SAC) in the Fall of 2023. Joining the SAC Conference will allow O’Neal to remain in a conference with 2A schools. O’Neal’s middle school athletic conference – Southeast Middle School Athletic Conference (SEMSAC) will be re-configured to align with the new JV/varsity line-up and be called SAC Middle School Conference.
The SAC Conference will consist of the following schools, all of which are 2A:
Berean Baptist Academy
Fayetteville Christian School
Freedom Christian Academy
Northwood Temple Academy
The O’Neal School
Village Christian Academy.
The SAC MS Conference will consist of the following schools, all of which are 2A:
Berean Baptist Academy
Fayetteville Academy
Fayetteville Christian School *not in Varsity Conference*
Freedom Christian Academy
Northwood Temple Academy
The O’Neal School
Village Christian Academy
We are pleased with this move for a number of reasons, some of which are listed below:
- SAC is exclusively a 2A conference. Playing in a completely 2A conference enhances our opportunities when it comes to state playoff seeding.
- While O’Neal will schedule schools across all classifications, we will be competing with only 2A schools for conference championships.
- We currently already play all the new and current conference members in non-conference and conference competitions.
- The SAC Conference will continue to provide a great level of competition for our teams.
- The new Conference will require a lot less travel and reduce late school-night travel. Side note: not all SAC conference schools offer every sport, so every team will not be traveling to every school each season.
- The size of the conference will allow us a good deal of freedom for non-conference scheduling.
All in all, we are excited about these statewide and conference changes, and we greatly look forward to SAC Conference action beginning and to some great competitions ahead next Fall!
For questions feel free to reach out to Athletic Director James Franklin.
Go Falcons!
The O'Neal School
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