Ch-ch-ch-changes : 2004
The new coaches and
new schools have their own pages.
The Piedmont District (Region IV) lost 2 schools over the Summer : Laurel Park
(whose students were moved to Magna Vista) and Fieldale-Collinsville (whose students
are now at Bassett). Because of this, about a dozen schools were forced to find
someone 'new' to fill in the holes.
Martinsville will meet Giles for ther first time ever (according to a May 20th article
in the Roanoke Times),
as the Spartans replacement for Twin Valley (who picked up a new Group A school in WV -
Beckley Christian). Twin Valley also lost Grundy from their schedule, so the Wave will
play yet another Ky. school - Sheldon Clark (of Inez), which they'll meet in the first
Ky-Va Coal Bowl at East Ridge High School, over at Lick Creek, Ky.
Bassett seemed to have the hardest time finding 2 games, but the Bengals talked both
Rappahannock County (between Charlottesville & Winchester) and Martinsburg, WV (2003 Group
AAA runner-up, just 200 miles north of Roanoke on I-81) into visiting Henry Co.
And because of all this, the Region IV playoff teams will be decided partly on games played
from the eastern-most town in Va. (on the DelMarVa Pennisula, where Rappahannock Co. opens up
@ Chincoteague) to north-central Maryland (Martinsburg has a Sept. game at Westminister, just
SE of Gettysburg, PA) to the southeastern tip of Ohio (Sheldon Clark travels to Fairland,
just across the river from Huntington, in early Sept.)
(You know, this point system thing is getting waaayyy too messy. The VHSL needs to
go to either 5 or 6 Groups, not 4, with each Region having 2 Districts of about 7 teams,
with the top 2 teams in each District going to the playoffs, and power points used
ONLY for breaking ties. See bottom of page for a straight-by-the-enrollment-numbers
6A plan.)
And, most importantly, the Henry Co. mergers led to a CHANGE in the Region IV Divisions.
We start with the closing of 2 schools in Div. 3, giving them 7.
Then, with Bassett's
new enrollment numbers making them the largest school in Region IV, they get pushed up into
Div. 4, AND, no Div. 4 teams drop to Div. 3, according to a new document posted Aug. 24th
by the VHSL. So sorry, Marion
and Patrick Co.
Also, did you notice that Labor Day is 5 calendar days later this year than it was
last year? Do you care? Well, you should.
Since the VHSL set the Friday before Labor Day as "week 1", a lot of Va. schools
won't open the season until September. But, hey, this is SW Va., and we want to see
football in August (and Tech's game doesn't count, since it's in D.C.)
While those teams out east wait until after school opens on Labor Day to play,
a bunch of SW VA schools play out-of-state teams, and schedule them early (the first
playing date is 8/27 in W.Va., Tenn. & N.C., and 8/20 in Ky), so we'll see games on
August 27th, or "week 0" of the VHSL calendar.
All of Region D, plus Region IV's Highlands & Southwest districts, & Lebanon
(Region C - Hogo.) decided to move ALL their games back a week on the football calendar
to give them an open date heading into the playoffs (see related stories in the
Roanoke Times and
Galax
Gazette).
The VHSL Executive Committee met May 5-6
and approved the following football-related changes :
Ratings Points Tiebreaker : Last year's new rule which used the average of the teams
that the tied teams LOST to has been CHANGED to using the averages of the teams that
they WON against.
Post-season seeding : District Champions will NO LONGER be automatically seeded higher
than wild-card teams. (What a CROCK... why even HAVE districts if you get NOTHING for
being the champ? Again, I say go to a 6A scheme with the top 2 teams advancing,
which would work in EVERY sport.)
Here's the 2003 power ratings and seedings, and how the seedings would have been
with the new rule.
2003 new 2003 new
Div. 4 seed rule Div. 2 seed rule
Magna Vista 221 D 1 2 Gate City 212 D 1 1
Abingdon 168 D 2 4 Haysi 179 D 2 3
Carroll Co. 223 3 1 Rye Cove 134 D 3 4
Richlands 192 4 3 Powell Valley 184 4 2
Tunstall 177 Honaker 183
Heritage 271 D 1 1 Radford 203 D 1 1
Blacksburg 241 D 2 3 George Wythe 179 D 2 3
W. Fleming 236 D 3 4 Giles 197 3 2
Liberty 250 4 2 Lebanon 164 4 4
Amherst Co. 241 Floyd Co. 159
So instead of just 2 of the 10 district champs playing a 1st round road game,
6 would have traveled. Plus, 1 non-champ would have hosted a 2nd round game.
But Honaker would have still missed the playoffs at 9-1.
The VHSL also said that Lee could not drop to Group A for the 2004-2005 school year.
Lee had requested to drop after drawing up new attendance zones and transferring some
students to the Career Center, which the county would reclassify as a seperate school
for enrollment purposes. This led Lee to consider litigation against the VHSL over
loss of instructional time due to being in the Highlands District. (See Kingsport
Times-News articles of
March 30th ,
May 12th &
June 15th ).
And they said Haysi could NOT play an "early" game against an out-of-state team.
This led to what was supposed to be an Aug. 20th season-opener against Jenkins (KY)
to be moved to a MONDAY night, October 11th, according to a July 6th article in the
Coalfield Progress. (This apparently allows Haysi to by-pass the "4 days rest" rule,
which no other team in the state was allowed to do in either of the past 2 years when games
were ppd. due to hurricanes and sniper attacks.)
You know, looks like someone needs to come up with a new term to signify THE FIRST
playing date of a season ("10 days before Labor Day", for example). We had a similar
problem last year with Grayson Co. & Alleghany Co. (NC), which resulted with that game
being counting as a scrimmage for Grayson & a game for Alleghany. The Aug. 23rd edition of
the Galax
Gazette says the same is true this year, with Grayson making it a "benefit" game.
The VHSL R&R committee made their recommendations for alignment for the 2-year cycle from
2005-2007, based on the
latest ADM (Average Daily Membership)
of all schools. Their only change for SW VA : moving Va. High from AA-Highlands to A-Lonesome
Pine (see the May 19th article in the
Bristol Herald Courier). Later that day, Bristol's TV station,
WCYB, said it's either the Hogo.
or no-go for the Bearcats, as did the Aug. 11th
Bristol Herald Courier.
Other local newspaper articles were written in
Galax ,
Roanoke ,
Halifax Co. ,
Culpeper ,
Fauquier ,
Fredericksburg ,
Newport News &
NoVa.
And, following the age-old rule of saving the best for last, the R&R Committee recommended
realigning to FOUR Groups beginning in the Fall of 2007 (again,
see Section V).
Finally, the National Federation of State High School Associations, or
NFHS, adopted some
rule changes for 2004, including allowing the head coach to directly call a time-out.
If VA went to 6-A today, here's what we could have :
Group A Group AA Group AAA Group AAAA
- - - - - - - - - - - - - 1st Region - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1st District
Rye Cove Gate City Lee Carroll Co.
Thomas Walker Powell Valley Abingdon Pulaski Co.
Twin Springs JJ Kelly Marion Blacksburg
Appalachia Lebanon Richlands Salem
Coeburn Tazewell Patrick Co. William Fleming
JI Burton Graham Martinsville William Byrd
Pound Grundy
2nd District
Hurley Va. High Christiansburg Magna Vista
Twin Valley John Battle Lord Botetourt Bassett
Council Patrick Henry Hidden Valley Heritage Lynchburg
Honaker Fort Chiswell Northside Amherst Co.
Haysi George Wythe Cave Spring Jeff. Forest
Clintwood Grayson Co. Tunstall
Ervinton
- - - - - - - - - - - - - 2nd Region - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1st District
Castlewood Giles Rockbridge Co.
St. Paul Radford Alleghany
Chilhowie Floyd Co.
Holston Glenvar
Northwood Dan River
Rural Retreat Gretna
Chatham
2nd District
Mt. Rogers Liberty Bedford
Galax Rustburg
Bland
Pocy
Narrows
Auburn
Eastern Mont.