Oregon Public Broadcasting

The highest-ranked high school football team in the state, Eugene’s Sheldon High School, narrowly beat Southridge High in Beaverton last week. But Central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey reports the real action in Oregon prep sports this week was in the conference room.

The group in charge of dividing Oregon high schools into smaller sports conferences unveiled its "final" draft for the next four years.

It’s a big deal for schools because it can determine most sports teams travel schedules.

Earlier, Pendleton and Hermiston complained they were being forced to drive school buses four hours to Bend for league games.

In the final draft, they got put in a new Columbia River Conference with The Dalles and Hood River.

But several southeast Portland schools, including Milwaukie’s La Salle, are unhappy now. Their league includes Madras High, more than 100 miles away.

But Madras athletics director Paul Brown is pleased, because Portland teams won’t usually travel to Madras.

Paul Brown: “For us, we get that competition that’s always gonna come over for league competition. And then we can do the non-league stuff locally.”

Unhappy coaches say they hope that school officials will tweak the plan further.