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Planning to catch your favorite team in the Maine high school basketball tournaments?

Here’s a tip. Make sure you’re going to the correct venue before you load up the car. Particularly in classes A and B, some rounds and even entire regional tournaments are at different sites compared to recent seasons.

The movement is primarily because of this season’s reclassification. The division for the state’s largest schools grew from 14 boys and 15 girls teams to 28 teams. Meanwhile, Class S for schools with less than 100 students was created. There was also a desire on the part of the Maine Prinicipals’ Association to create a better fan/team experience for some early round games in Portland, with the benefit of trimming costs.

CLASS A

This year’s Class A is a blend of the former Class AA and Class A. It has created a traditional geographical and conference divide between the 12 KVAC schools in the North and 16 SMAA teams in the South.

In the South, the big change is that all regional quarterfinal and semifinal games will be played at the Portland Expo before the tournament shifts to the larger (and more expensive to rent) Cross Insurance Arena for the regional finals. The former AA schools had been playing quarterfinals at the higher-seeded teams’ home gym and then going directly to Cross Insurance Arena.

Sanford senior Dylan Gendron said he’s always dreamed about playing at Cross Insurance Arena. To him, that’s where good teams got to play come tournament time. When he was working on his game, imagining a playoff moment, he was inside Cross Insurance Arena. Sanford hasn’t played a neutral-site game in years and hasn’t won such a game since 1993. This year’s team is 17-1 and seeded second in A South.

“The only reason I really want to play at the Cross is because I’ve never played there. We’ve played at the Expo. Now we’ve just got to win a couple games to be able to do it,” Gendron said.

Ryan Alexander, another Sanford senior, said coach John Morgan has been letting the Spartans know that the Expo “is going to be a big atmosphere and it’s something we’re going to have to get used to fast.”

The A North tournament will be at the Augusta Civic Center. For teams like Camden Hills and last year’s A North boys champ, Messalonskee, that’s business as usual. But former AA North schools Edward Little, Bangor, Oxford Hills and Lewiston had gotten used to playing their tournament in Portland at Cross Insurance Arena. And Mt. Ararat and Brunswick used to be in A South, playing their games at the Expo.

“It’s going back to Augusta, and when I played, we always played there,” said EL boys coach Jimbo Philbrook. “Personally, I like it.”

Philbrook said the ACC is definitely easier for fans from access and parking perspectives and the seating puts them “right on top of the action,” unlike Cross Insurance Arena which was built for hockey and has a wide swath of mostly empty space between the court and the seats.

CLASS B

In the South, games are at the Expo until the regional finals. That means no change for any of the tournament teams, whether they had been in Class A or B last season.

Not so in the North. Cony, Gardiner and Lawrence have been staples at the Augusta Civic Center. Heck, Cony is in Augusta. But both the boys and girls from Cony and Gardiner and the Lawrence girls will be playing their tournament games at Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. In fact, Cony and Gardiner meet in a girls quarterfinal on Saturday.

CLASS S

It’s a new division, made up of the smallest schools in the state. There isn’t really a difference in the tournament sites. The teams in the North go to Bangor; the southern group that includes the powerful boys and girls teams from Valley in Bingham will be in Augusta. What is different is the timing of the games. The Class S quarterfinals began Tuesday, and regional semifinals will be next Tuesday.