Several south King County schools are heading north.

At least in a figurative sense.

Auburn School District athletic director Rob Swaim said last Friday that the three high schools he oversees will “opt up” to Class 4A and resurrect the North Puget Sound League during the 2016-17 school year.

The 14-team league, which included Auburn High in its previous incarnation before disbanding in 1990, will include all of the Kent and Federal Way public high schools along with Kennedy Catholic, Enumclaw, Hazen, Mount Rainier and Tahoma. Those schools, with the exception of Hazen and Kennedy Catholic, both of whom compete in Seamount 3A, are members of the South Puget Sound League.

All three Auburn high schools have competed together in SPSL 3A since 2014, and Swaim said a top priority was to keep those programs in the same league.

The next consideration, he said, was to minimize instructional time lost through travel and transportation expenses.

With the potential demise of both the 3A and 4A divisions of the Narrows League – all five Tacoma public high schools have applied for admission to the SPSL – South King County programs could have faced regular trips to Pierce County – and beyond.

Swaim said when the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association released preliminary enrollment numbers and those school officials began to announce their intentions, local athletic directors began having discussions, too.

“The NPSL was probably going to happen with or without the Auburn schools,” Swaim said.

Swaim acknowledged that not everyone is pleased with the outcome, which will pit Auburn’s programs against some schools with much larger enrollments in the playoffs. As of the Jan. 6 WIAA enrollment count, Auburn (1,202.75) was the largest high school in the district, followed by Auburn Riverside (1,179.16) and Auburn Mountainview (1,095.09). They are among 12 of 16 NPSL 4A that opted up from 3A.

Tahoma (1,712.25) is the NPSL’s largest member, followed by Kentridge (1,548.83), Kent-Meridian (1,506.28) and Kentwood (1,438.2).

Schools with the top 16 to 17 percent enrollment are recognized as 4A.

Kentlake (1,019.32) was the only Kent school that opted up.

There were not enough members to create a viable NPSL 4A without members opting up.

Kent School District athletic director Dave Lutes said that was not an issue.

“The difference between 3A and 4A, in our opinion, is negligible,” he said.

Lutes said the impetus for the move was the potential size of SPSL 4A. With the potential additions of the Auburn public schools, Kennedy Catholic and Sumner, that league could have grown from 17 to 22 members.

That does not include the potential demise of the Narrows, which would leave 4A programs Bellarmine Prep, Olympia, South Kitsap and possibly Timberline, which is the smallest school (1,326.21) in its classification, looking for a new league.

“The south schools are wonderful people and wonderful friends,” Lutes said. “This is more about community and bringing back some of the old rivalries and keeping the new ones we have now.”

Now comes the busy work. Swaim said the NPSL athletic directors have discussed dividing the 16 teams into two separate divisions. The Kent and Federal Way school districts, he said, could be evenly split into separate divisions. As for Auburn, Swaim said, he expects two high schools to play in one division.

“We want to make it a balanced, fair league,” he said.

Other elements that must be sorted out, Lutes said, are developing a financial start-up, sports commissioner responsibilities, a league handbook with rules and regulations, scheduling formats and league administrative responsibilities.

Lutes, who became Kent’s athletic director in 1990 after compiling an 81-20 record during a nine-season run as Kentwood’s first football coach, looks forward to the challenge. He said the NPSL dissolved at that time because Highline and Renton schools changed classifications.

“It’s kind of nostalgic for me because I think I’m the only athletic director left that went through that in 1990,” Lutes said. “I just kind of feel like we’ve come full cycle. I’m really excited for the league.”