new schools for 2004
Four new high schools will open in Va. this Fall, while three disappeared.
Prince William county (in NoVa) opens two of them (giving them 8, plus 2 in cities),
but neither AAA school will field a varsity team until next year (since most new schools in
NoVa bring in no Seniors, they only have a JV team their first year).
Freedom H.S. (at Neabsco Mills in Woodbridge, AAA - Cardinal Dist.) will draw students from
Potomac, Gar-Field & Woodbridge. The Eagles brought in C.D. Hylton asst. John Brown (whose
father Bill led C.D. Hylton to the AAA state title in '98 & '99) as their 1st coach.
Battlefield H.S. (previously called Dominion Valley and Long Park, in Haymarket, AAA -
Cedar Run Dist.) will draw from Brentsville Dist. & Stonewall Jackson-Manassas.
The Bobcats hired Mark Cox away from W.T. Woodson (6 years) as their 1st coach. (BTW,
Battlefield A.D. Dave Davis is a former track & cross country coach @ Va. High & Blacksburg,
along with C.D. Hylton, Woodbridge, Forest Park & Georgetown U.)
A story on PW's school explosion can be found in the Jan. 24th edition of the
Potomac News.
On down I-95, Spotsylvania Co. opens Riverbend H.S. The Bears (AA - Region I - Battlefield
Dist.) hired Massaponnax asst. Drew Seaman as their 1st head coach, according to the
Aug. 10th edition of the Fredericksburg
Free Lance-Star.
And on down in the Tidewater region, Suffolk opens King's Fork H.S., which will draw from
their other two schools, Lakeland & Nansemond River (both of which opened in 1990 replacing
Suffolk, Forest Glen, John Yeates & JFK). The Bulldogs (AAA - Eastern Region, Southeastern
District) will be led by long-time Radford asst. Cecil Phillips, according to the June 16th
edition of the
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot.
We also get an existing school adding varsity football this year, so welcome to the big show,
Rappahannock County Panthers (Group A - Region B - Bull Run District, located between
Charlottesville & Winchester) and coach Kemp Pullin. (See article from last December's
Fredericksburg
Free Lance-Star.)
Looking ahead, Va. should see 4 more new schools in 2005 :
Stafford Co. - "Mountain View" or "Ronald Reagan" (may know 9/15)
Fairfax Co. - a "south county" school with grades 7-10 (near Woodbridge & I-95)
Loudoun Co. - Freedom (at South Riding) & Briar Woods (on Belmont Ridge Road at Ashburn)
in 2006 - a new one in Warren Co.
in 2007 - a new one in Fauquier Co., Culpeper Co.
And who knows when more SW VA schools may consolidate. Past rumors have included :
Appalachia with Powell Valley; Haysi with Clintwood and/or Ervinton; Hurley with Grundy.
In Ky., Whitesburg, Fleming-Neon & Letcher should consolidate into
Letcher Co.
Central at Ermine next Summer, while Cawood, Evarts & Cumberland plan to consolidate
near Rosspoint in the not-to-distant future, and a talked about Betsy Layne, South Floyd
& Allen Central merger seems a long way off (see last year's story in the
Lexington Herald Leader ).
Va. lost three schools to consolidation over the Summer, with two of them around Martinsville.
The Piedmont District (AA - Region IV) lost Laurel Park (whose students were moved to
Magna Vista) and Fieldale-Collinsville (whose students are now at Bassett). And since the
mergers occured in the middle of a 2-year cycle, the Bengals stay in Div. 3 despite having
the largest enrollment (1286) of any school in Region IV.
And we say goodbye to one of the smallest AAA schools in the state. In a weird move
(even for Richmond)
that created a lot of ruckus among East Enders, Armstrong & the John F. Kennedy School for
Math, Science & Technology (Central Region, Capitol District) were merged, with the Armstrong
name moving to the JFK site. (BTW, the JFK Kougars coach got the football job by default,
as the Armstrong coach moved on to a college position, according to the July 20th
Richmond Times-Dispatch.)