By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
The Lackawanna League will switch from four divisions to three divisions of eight teams each in softball for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Lackawanna Interscholastic Athletic Association athletic directors are in the process of developing schedules or the next two-year sports cycle, the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. The first step in that process is agreeing on divisional alignments, which the LIAA did in many sports, including baseball and softball, earlier this month.
Softball is following the same plan as baseball, which was reported here earlier this week.
Honesdale moves out of the old Division 1-2 combination that played crossovers against each other, leaving eight teams to form the new Division 1.
To balance the divisions, Carbondale moves away from its old division rivals to play in the division with the six Susquehanna County schools, including neighboring Forest City and Mountain View, and Lackawanna Trail.
Under the plan, the new divisions will be aligned as follows:
| Division 1 | Division 2 | Division 3 | |||
| School | Current Division | School | Current Division | School | Current Division |
| Abington Heights | 1 | Dunmore | 3 | Blue Ridge | 4 |
| Delaware Valley | 2 | Holy Cross | 3 | Carbondale | 3 |
| North Pocono | 2 | Honesdale | 2 | Elk Lake | 4 |
| Scranton | 1 | Lakeland | 3 | Forest City | 4 |
| Scranton Prep | 1 | Mid Valley | 3 | Lackawanna Trail | 4 |
| Valley View | 1 | Old Forge | 3 | Montrose | 4 |
| Wallenpaupack | 2 | Riverside | 3 | Mountain View | 4 |
| West Scranton | 1 | Western Wayne | 3 | Susquehanna | 4 |
All teams will play home-and-home against divisional opponents for a 14-game league schedule.
Division 1 will include the 2021 Lackawanna Division 1 champion, Abington Heights, and the District 2 Class 5A champion, West Scranton.
Mid Valley, a state finalist in Class 3A, as well as the Lackawanna Division 3 and District 2 Class 3A champion, will be joined by 2021 Lackawanna Division 2 champion Honesdale and District 2 Class A champion Old Forge in the new Division 2.
Division 3 includes Elk Lake, which won Lackawanna League Division 4 and District 2 Class 2A titles last spring.
The teams will remain in their current divisional alignments for the spring of 2022.
The LIAA routinely realigns some sports divisions every two years in conjunction with the new Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association two-year enrollment cycle which determines the classifications in which teams will compete on the state and district levels.
MORE LIAA REALIGNMENT
Two teams each on the move in boys, girls soccer: https://nepasportsnation.com/four-lackawanna-soccer-teams-changing-divisions-next-two-years/.
Two girls volleyball teams trade places: https://nepasportsnation.com/lackawanna-league-promotes-blue-ridge-in-girls-volleyball/.
Baseball changing to three divisions: https://nepasportsnation.com/changes-ahead-in-liaa-baseball/.
