Heading into his first year at St. Louis, new head coach Charlie Cryer has to be breathing a little easier.

The Louisiana High School Athletic Association released a list of schools on Wednesday that are electing to play up in classification for the upcoming football season and it featured some of the state’s heavy hitters.

Evangel Christian, John Curtis Christian and Lafayette-based schools St. Thomas More and Teurlings Catholic will play in the Division I select school division in the postseason. All four schools played last season in Division II, where St. Louis is classified.

Each team will play in its respective districts in the regular season and then compete in Division I for the football playoffs.

The move gives the Division I playoff a new shot of life. Last season’s bracket featured 10 teams. Shreveport-based school C.E. Byrd moved to the non-select side of the bracket this season to compete in Class 5A, giving Division I a 13-team pool to possibly expand the playoff field to 12 teams.

“It’s going to be a good thing for (Division I) because they don’t have that many teams,” Cryer said. “It’s going to help us because it eliminates some of the competition.

“We were already 3A having to move up to 4A in the playoffs as it is. We still had to play those teams. You’re talking about four great football teams. With STM, they’re sitting around 1,100 or 1,200 students and we have 575. It’s still not a walk in the park in our division. But I feel a little better about it.”

With the four teams moving up, Division II would’ve had 11 schools that were playoff eligible last season.(MGNonline)