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.