Welcome to the mother of all changes pages. Forget about the ol' "sit back and grab a cold one" line from years past. Let me tell ya, you're gonna need a case of sports drink to get through all of this in one sitting.
For years, there were complaints about the 3-Group system, which led to the 6 Division set-up that we've all grown to know and, well, accept. But it still had problems, so the VHSL celebrated it's 100th anniversary last year by REALLY shaking things up. It was decreed that the schools of the VHSL (not to be confused with "the Girls of the ACC") would finally be divided into six official, "even" classes. Since there's so much to talk about, I decided to put it all in a seperate section below.
As usual, the new schools / stadium info has it's own page. In a nutshell, we have no new public schools OR varsity football programs in the state this year. Rappahannock County's team that will play an 'independent schedule' (meaning they're not eligible for the playoffs). Over in Kentucky, East Ridge has decided to do the same thing.
Last year, Martinsville's Carlisle School dropped football late in the Summer because of the low turnout at practices. They planned on playing this year, but aren't.
Hargrave Military Academy droped its postgraduate football program because "the landscape for postgraduate athletes and football programs has changed". The NCAA eliminated competition between postgrad teams and college JV teams, and college teams now encourage athletes to get enroll for the spring semester before their freshman season. The NCAA also made changes and added restrictions to colleges hosting postgraduate teams on their campuses.
Staunton has started 'pay-to-play ', which is said to be similar to the $25 per child per athletic season fee Augusta County started 2 years ago.
For the 2nd straight year, a state Senate sub-Committee defeated The “Tebow Bill”, which would have allowed home-schooled students to participate in public high school sports, by an 8-7 vote.
VHSL rule changes ...
With the whole going from 3 Groups to 6 Classes thing, the VHSL Handbook is a total mess this year, making it really hard to figure anything out. As best as I can tell, these seem to be the major changes...
30-5-1 "Fighting" - changes wording for the 2-game penalty from "engages in"
to "is ejected for", and adds cusing a ref as a reason.
2-1-2 : Allows VHSL staffers to serve as game officials
54-2-2 : "Combined teams" - tweaks the criteria for 2 very small schools to
have a combined sports team to having an ADM of less than 300 in
grades 9-12 (was 250 in grades 9-11)
[Helper's note - to be 'fair', this should have been raised by one-third,
to 333. The combined ADM for Bland & Rocky Gap right now
is 303, so they appear to be violating this rule.]
PM 68-4-6 (3) "Note" : [I've put this in my own words] The VHSL will use
the "adjusted" record of schools whose states have an Endowment Game
(i.e. NC) {If a school wins their EG, and they play 11 regular season
games, they can replace a non-District loss with the EG win}
[Helper's note - This apparently was used last year without being published]
Some tweaks have been made to the ratings/seeding tie-breaker list...
Last year's TB #5, highest win % vs. VHSL opponents, is gone after just 1 year.
The new TB #3 says you get the higher seed if one of your opponents only played 9 games.
2013 VHSL Football Ratings Point scale
(for games vs. public schools)
opponent Class : 6A 5A 4A 3A 2A 1A
-- -- -- -- -- --
if you win : 26 24 22 20 18 16
if you lose : 14 12 10 8 6 4
Additional points for beating a team in a lower Class...
District opponent - 2 points per Class difference
non-Dist. opponent - 1 point per Class difference
Rider points...
2 for each game won by a team you beat
1 for each game won by a team you lost to
(this can also be stated as 1 per win by any opponent,
1 additional per win by a team you beat)
At the end of the season, divide the total number of points earned
by the number of games 'played' (actually, the number of games you
earned points in... games vs. private/church/military/home schools
don't earn points, so they aren't counted towards the total)
New Rating Scale for sports other than football
Win = 7 points
Loss to a larger-Class school = 1 pt. per Class difference
Loss to a same-or-smaller-Class school = 0 points
At the end of the season, divide the total by the number of games 'played'
One final non-VHSL change to pass along... the VHSCA (coaches) Summer All-Star games are coming back West! Brookneal's Union Star reported that Lynchburg will host the events for the next 3 years, after a 20+ year absence.
Most of the games will be held at Liberty U., but since the NCAA prohibits a major college team's facilities to be used for non-championship high school contests, the basketball games will be played at Lynchburg College, and if the Flames football team moves up to the BCS level, the football players will stay at Lynchburg College and play at City Stadium. (I hope Snowflex will be open!!!)
Up (or over) in West Va., Gary Ray, the WVSSAC executive director since 2007, is beginning a four-year terms on the NFHS Board of Directors.
Over in Kentucky, the KHSAA "tweaked" their 'Mercy Rule', so that a running clock can now be used after a margin of 36 is reached (it was 45).
In Tennessee, the TSSAA has made a very sound move that has received some (IMHO) undeserved criticism. Because their seeding system is SOOOOO messed up, they've made at least 1 mistake in each of the past 2 years. This year, they've installed a five-hour "oops! window". As usual, the playoff brackets will be released at 11 a.m. on the Saturday morning after the last week of regular season play (no games are played on that Saturday). Schools will have until 4 p.m. to appeal if an error is suspected. If no appeal is turned in by 4 p.m., the bracket becomes official.
Tenn. also begins a new cycle. UET loses three 3A teams as Sullivan South drops to 2A, and Elizabethton & Unicoi Co. move up to 4A.
In North Carolina, the NCHSAA has gotten rid of their stupid "pod" system of making football pairings, where the 16 qualifying playoff teams were grouped into geographically-close groups of 4 for the first two rounds, regardless of seed, and have gone back to seeding by conference finish and overall record.
Gotta add this one from down in South Carolina (yeah, I know they aren't one of our neighbors, but this was just too juicy to pass up.) Last Fall, the defending 4A state champ Goose Creek Bobcats (who were also in the USA Today Top 25) was kicked out of the playoffs following a first round win because they used an ineligible player, and the SC HSL ruled against their appeal. (The kid was a 5th-year Senior and the school had received an incomplete transcript when he arrived. They noticed the problem while doing their Winter roster checks. Here's some of the stories : 1 , 2 , 3 , 4.)
Of course, one of the parents then filed a lawsuit and a judge granted an injunction that gave GC another game AND another hearing. (The kid took his 9th grade classes at a group home [think juvie] instead of at a hogh school, and the judge ruled that the kid's 8-semester clock didn't start because, under SC HSL guidelines, enrollment is recognized by being on the campus. Of course, GC won the game, but lost their 2nd appeal.
This past Winter, the SC state Senate talked about disbanding the SC HSL and creating an 'athletic division' within the state Dept of Education. But Goose Creek football coach Chuck Reedy appealed to the Senate subcommittee to let the league make its changes internally first, saying “Give us the opportunity to see if changes are made. If they are not willing to make changes, I would strongly encourage you to make the changes for them because this organization is broken and they are not serving the young men and women who compete in athletics in this state.” This prompted the a change in the bylaws so that eligibility appeals are heard by a state-wide committee instead of just the SC HSL's second in command.
In what may have been an effort to get people to forget what happened last year, DC really shook things up in the off-season. (Wilson was disqualified from the Turkey Bowl a few days before the game. They were replaced by Anacostia, which lost to Dunbar, who had their win revoked 3 months later, leaving the Turkey Bowl without a winner).
First, some new rules were created in an effort to reduce out-of-control transferring. Ninth graders can transfer once during their Freshman year without penalty, but all other transfers will have to sit for 365 days, unless granted a waiver (like for an actual, physical move).
Second, in an effort to increase participation (and maybe reduce blowouts), the DCIAA alignment system was replaced with one similar to Euro soccer. Out went the old East-West alignment, and in came a couple of Divisions... the Stars and the Stripes. The (upper) Stars division includes Anacostia, Ballou, Coolidge, Dunbar, H.D. Woodson and Wilson. The (lower) Stripes division include Phelps (no team since 1998), Eastern (no team for the last 5 years), Cardozo (no team last year), Bell and Theodore Roosevelt (both of which forfeited multiple games last year due to a lack of players) and McKinley Tech (someone had to be the 6th).
The Stars teams will continue to compete for a place in the annual Turkey Bowl, while the Stripes will hold its own four-team playoff in November that culminates in a second city championship game. Both winners will then receive automatic berths into the DCSAA playoffs, with the Turkey Bowl winner advancing directly to the championship in December.
The Stripes winner can then apply to move up to the Stars for next season, with the last-place Stars team dropping to the Stripes.
This new format is guaranteed to be in place for three years.
And Maryland FINALLY came to their senses and will now let schools play teams outside their classifications.
Okay... let's move on to the national rule changes. Here's the NFHS (National Federation of State High School Associations) rules changes for 2013, their press release, interpretations and comments.
7-5-10 : pass interference in now "just" a 15 yard penalty...
no more loss of down for OPI or automatic first down on DPI
2-4-1 : tweaks last year's tweak of a catch ("...receiver is required to
establish possession of the ball and contact the ground inbounds
while maintaining possession, regardless of the opponent's action.")
by adding... "an airborne player who has forward progress stopped
inbounds and is CARRIED out of bounds by an opponent before contacting
the ground IS awarded a catch at the spot of forward progress".
3-4 : tweaks the clock rules relating to 2-4-1 : When an airborne receiver
is carried out of bounds, the clock shall stop,. UNLESS the receiver
is carried out backwards and his forward progress was stopped inbounds.
9-3-8c : Last year's new rule "On free kicks, the kicking team cannot touch
the opponent until the ball has been caught, touched, or goes 10 yards
downfield" has been modified to add on 'or the receiving team initiates
a block within the neutral zone'
6-5-6 : Changes "Kick catching interference" to add a 15 yard penalty option
from the spot of the foul on a fair catch
8-3-3 : clarifies that only the offense can score on a try
1-5-3a(5)a : allows solid-colored towels (other than white, pigskin tan, or
'hankie yellow'), and states that all towels worn on the field
must be the same color
1-6 : allows the use of communication devices during authorized conferences
outside the nine-yard marks, on the sidelines and during the halftime
intermission by coaches & nonplayers. (So, iPads & tablets are OK
as long as they aren't used while the clock runs)
9-4-3l : Initiating contact with a helmetless opponent is now an illegal
personal contact foul.
9-6-4 : It's now "illegal participation" if a helmetless player continues
to participate beyond the immediate action in which they're engaged
3-5-10d : clarified to include loss of helmet during subsequent dead-ball action
related to the down
1-5-2b : all football gloves must meet the NOCSAE test standard at the time of
manufacture, unless made of unaltered plain cloth.
Once again, I gotta give two thumbs up to Mississippi's MHSAA for a GREAT Adobe show.
"Football is the No. 1 participatory sport for boys at the high school level with 1,121,744 participants in the 2011-12 school year", according to the NFHS. (That's about a 10% drop from the previous year.) There were also 1,805 girls playing football that year. (That's about a 10% rise.)
And since some fb guys also wrestle, I thought I'd mention these NFHS Wrestling tweaks ....
1-4-2 : forfeits no longer count towards the daily match limit of 5
1-1-4 and 10-1-2 : changed to allow the use of electronic devices for video
recording and review by the wrestler or coach unless prohibited by
the state high school association.
COLLEGES / pros / others
NCAA regulations permit all Division I programs to play 12 regular season games in 2013 and 2014. And the NCAA is no longer selling jerseys with player's names on their web site.
Here's the major NCAA rules changes :
"Targeting fouls" now include automatic ejection
At least three seconds must remain in a half to spike the ball
and stop the clock
A player may remain in the game after his helmet comes off IF
his teams calls a timeout.
Replay officials can adjust the clock at the end of each quarter
(not just of each half)
Deregulated camps and clinics employment rules so players can get
paid for these Summer jobs
media changes
NBCreg / NBCsn (CSN) was Vs. was OLN
Fox Sports 1 was Speed
Fox Sports 2 was Fuel
in SW VA
WXSM (The Sports Monster) switched from ESPN Radio to CBS Sports
ESPN Radio is now on WKPT 1400/94.3 & WOPI 1490/97.9
980 WFHG is still Fox Sports
All of the other college stuff is on my college schedule page.
The No Fun League has me scratching my head on this one... they now allow a team's video scoreboard to encourage the home fans to 'MAKE SOME NOISE' when the visiting team has the ball.
NBC's Sunday Night Football gets a new opening, as former Idol Carrie Underwood replaces Faith Hill, giving us a new take on "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night". (Remember back when P!nk did the opening?) Meanwhile, the NFL Network has glitzed up their Thursday Night Football opening by replacing Cee-Lo with Bollywood icon and former Miss World Priyanka Chopra singing "In My City".
In late 2011, the Virginia High School League's Redistricting and Reclassification Committee came up with an idea to use combination Districts in an effort to relieve travel issues for the AAA schools in the Roanoke-to-Danville Western Valley District. Following some loud complaints and finding out they had used some 'bad' numbers in the realignment process, a new idea was formed... let's (FINALLY) go to a TRUE 6-Class system.
Following a lot of talking and tweaking, the new system debuted this Summer, but it's still a work in progress.
Districts still exist, but they have nothing to do with the playoffs. District tourneys CAN still occur, but will only be for bragging rights (and maybe some bonus seeding points). They can be played ANYTIME (like over Christmas break for hoops) and will NOT count towards the regular season contest limitations. "Combination" Districts, which had been as rare as hens teeth, are now the norm.
Schools aren't required to play District rivals "that exceed a three classification differential". I would explain this more, but this is just one of the many changes that the VHSL (which told me last year that they don't have unpublished rules) has yet to add to the official Handbook. Apparently, by looking at the football Master Schedule, this means that 3A schools don't have tp play 6A schools, as 6A Patrick Henry (Roanoke) doesn't play 3A Blacksburg & Cave Spring, and 6A Franklin Co. doesn't play 3A Patrick Co. & Tunstall. In other words, exceed seems to also mean equal to.
While the regular season won't change much, any post-season action is now REQUIRED to happen in your ACTUAL Class, meaning that Phoebus can/will still be in the "AAA" Peninsula District, but will be in the Div. 4 ... opps, I mean 4A... playoffs in all sports, and Abingdon can/will be the only 3A-sized school in a District otherwise filled with 2A's, but will be in 3A in the post-season. On the other end of the scale, Williamsburg's Bruton HS (2A-East) has NINE larger-Classed Bay Rivers District opponents.
Regions as we have known them will disappear for playoff purposes, but will remain for legislative/financial purposes. To avoid confusion, the term "Regionals" was supposed to become "Sectionals", but that hasn't happened yet. As a matter of fact, the 2013 VHSL Handbook STILL uses the term "Regional" for football, and other sports have NO playoff info. (Handbook Section 58 covers Basketball. In 2010, it required 3 pages... this year, it's half a page, with NOTHING about the playoffs or ratings scale.)
Conferences were created across the state for post-season groupings. They're similar to Districts, but some have a bigger geographical footprint. Conferences are numbered from 1 to 48, with Conf. 1 being the Eastern-most largest schools and Conf. 48 the Western-most smallest schools.
(Conf. 39 has Grayson Co. & Grundy, Conf. 47 has Holston & Hurley.
Conf. 3 has PH-Roanoke. Franklin County, and 4 Richmond schools.
Conf. 33 has Nandua & Richmond's Maggie Walker, which was refused a request to "play up" from 2A to 4A.
Conf. 16 started out with just Albemarle, Orange and Halifax County, but Patrick Henry (Ashland) was granted their request to move from a jam-packed Conf. 11.
[PH-A & Orange MAY drop to 4A next time, so I can't wait to see who gets stuck with Halifax Co. next.])
I'm not sure if every one will eventually need a name, but Conf. 40 has decided to call itself the Clinch Mountain Conference, and, to ?? avoid confusion ??, the Clinch Mountain District was renamed the Mountain District (not to be confused with the Mountain EMPIRE District). Conf. 43, which is the Northern Neck District (which includes Rappahannock HS) and 'islander' Rappahannock County (NW of Culpeper) will be called the - and I'm NOT kidding here - the Rappahannock River Conference. Here's the ones that have names as of Oct. 20th...
6A 7 - Patriot 2A 34 - Quad River 1A 43 - Rappahannock River
5A 13 - Capitol 37 - Courthouse 45 - Western Gate
4A 18 - Ironclad 38 - River Run 46 - Mountain West
40 - Clinch Mountain 47 - Crooked Road
If I haven't confused you enough yet, let's look at the new ratings scale set-up. (If I HAVE confused you, take a break and come back tomorrow.)
Football teams still get 12 points for a win, 2 points for every win by a team they beat, and 1 point for every win by a team they lost to.
The "base" points have changed so that playing a 1A team is worth 4 points, then the value increases by 2 points for every level above that... 1A = 4 2A = 6 3A = 8 4A = 10 5A = 12 6A = 14
And a brand-spanking NEW component has been added, which REALLY makes this harder... teams now get EXTRA ratings points for playing SMALLER-Classed schools. If it's a District game, you get 2 bonus points per class difference, which basically means that, when it comes to the ratings, you NEVER play a lower-Classed District opponent. If it's a non-District game, you get 1 bonus point per class difference.
Now, I kinda understand the reasoning here... it's to help the 'island' schools. But it's not unusual for a new 'cure' to have some unintended side-effects. NONE of the 2A West Conf. 40 teams will earn any Dist. bonus points. In neighboring Conf. 39, Richlands & Tazewell will earn 0 Dist. bonus points this year while former SWD rivals Graham & Grundy will earn 8 Dist. bonus points (as will Grayson Co.) and Marion will earn 12 Dist. bonus points. Across the state in 2A Conf. 33, King William (which probably doesn't need them) will earn 10 Dist. bonus points.
This also means a school can/will be worth different points to teams vying for the same playoff spots.
Example 1 : 2A Lebanon will get ONE extra bonus point for playing county-rival Honaker (1A), but 2A Grundy will get TWO extra bonus points for playing District-rival Honaker.
Example 2 : 4A schools Bassett and William Fleming both beat 2A Martinsville. Since it's a District game for Bassett, they get 22 points, but Fleming only gets 20 points.
Example 3 : 5A Halifax Co. beats 2A Martinsville (663) for 24 points, but only gets 23 points for beating a school twice that size - 4A Jefferson Forest (1329).
For football, all six Classes will go to a set-up like the one recently started by Group A... ratings points will determine the seeding for the 16-team half-state bracket. Each of the six Classes is divided in half, with each half containing four Conferences, and each Conference has 4-8 teams. Classes 1A, 2A & 3A were divided into “East” and “West”, while 4A, 5A & 6A were split into “North” and “South”. But because of the geograpic concentration of certain sized schools, we have the oddities of NC border-huggers Bassett, Carroll Co., Halifax Co. & GW-Danville being in the NORTH while close-to-the-Capital-Beltway schools Stafford & Woodbridge are in the SOUTH.
The original plan was that each half-state would have the top 16 teams make the playoffs based on the Ratings Scale. Those 16 teams will be bracketed like the NCAA basketball tourney... the 16 at 1 winner plays the 9 at 8 winner in the second round, with the highest seed hosting. After the third round, when you have 2 teams left in each half-state, the state semis would be cross-bracketed, with the highest seed from "my half" hosting the lowest seed from the other half, and the winners advancing to the state finals at long-standing neutral sites (Salem, Liberty & UVA).
But, surprise, surprise, some of the AAA schools didn't like that idea. And since the VHSL likes to let the 'regions' make decisions based on what works best for them, the format won't be used by everyone. 4A, 5A & 6A will NOT cross-bracket in the semis... instead, they'll have two de-facto half-state champs, which means the two best teams in the state might have to play in the semis. (But, honestly, that might have happened anyway.)
Meanwhile, 6A South & 5A South also decided they didn't want a lot of early-round travel, so they're keeping the Regional feel. Both will split in half for the first two rounds, with the top 8 from the 2 Tidewater-area Conferences grouped together and the top 8 from the other 2 Conferences grouped together. In the 3rd round, 5A South will play a 'regional title game', with the winners meeting in a state semi somewhere TBD. But 6A South will re-seed the remaining 4 teams (in a way TBD) before their state semi.
And with this new format, 192 of the 305 VHSL football teams will make the playoffs.
For sports other than football, a new ratings point systems has been created. Teams will get 7 points for a win, no points for a loss to a smaller school, a few points for a loss to bigger schools (1 point per Class difference), and no rider points. So a Div. 2 hoops team that goes 0-6 vs. Div. 3 schools, 3-8 vs. Div. 2 and 4-1 vs. Div. 1 schools will get (7 x 7) + (6 x 1), or 55 total points over 22 games for a rating of 2.5. An odd side-effect is you can have more wins than me but I'll have a higher rating. Let's say Dogwood/2A rivals Gretna & Chatham play the same basketball schedule, with the same results, but with one exception... Gretna splits a home-and-home with 2A Glenvar, earning 7 points, while Chatham loses 2 games to 6A PH-Roanoke, earning 8 points. Also, the old home-and-home series with your District rivals in sports like basketball may disappear if a school decides to start new rivalries with their Conference foes. The VHSL Handbook says you have to play everybody in your District, but it doesn't say you have to play them twice in certain sports. So don't expect all District schools to play the same number of District games.
The post-season will begin with Conference tourneys, where the top 2 advance to the half-state (or sub-state or sectionals or regionals). Those 8 will play 2 rounds, with the remaining 2 going to state, where they'll cross-bracket in the semis. Some sports, like wrestling and track/field, may expand the number of Sub-state qualifiers.
With the Piedmont District adding some former AAA schools, they now have eight teams that could win 5 of the 6 state titles, since the members include 6A Franklin Co., 5A Halifax Co., 4A GW-Danville & Bassett, 3A Magna Vista, Patrick Co. & Tunstall and 2A Martinsville. They've decided to form their own sub-sections for scheduling in most sports, with the 6A, 5A & 4A schools forming the 'large' group and the 3A & 2A schools formng the 'small' group.
And not all sports will have 6 champs. In order to hold a state tournament, you have to have at least half of the schools participating. For example, since 1A Boys Tennis is only offered at 19 schools, they'll be bumped up into a 1A/2A tourney. When that happens, the 2A Conference numbers will be used and the 1A schools will be temporarily assigned to those 2A Conferences... and it way not make sense. Like, the east-of-Lynchburg Conf. 37 (2A-West) only has two teams... they'll be moved to DIFFERENT Conferences in the EAST, and Conf. 37 will consist of a bunch of 1A Ky-border schools. Or Conf. 46 schools Galax and Fort Chiswell will be in Conf. 38 in Girls Soccer & Conf. 39 for Boys Tennis. This new six-class setup increases the number of state championships from 92 to 150.
Here's the links to the important stuff at vhsl.org...
Here's where last year's state finalists are now ...
Div. 1 - George Wythe 1A, Honaker 1A Div. 2 - Goochland 2A, Essex 1A Div. 3 - Brookville 3A, James Monroe 3A Div. 4 - Briar Woods 5A, Heritage 3A Div. 5 - Lake Taylor 4A, Stone Bridge 5A Div. 6 - L.C. Bird 5A, Ocean Lakes 6A
Now that they aren't so important, there were changes to a lot of Districts... AAA's Cedar Run & Western Valley, AA's Southside and A's venerable Lonesome Pine, home of "LPD Pride", have all disappeared. AA adds the new Potomac District (which makes Reg. II the first to ever have FIVE Districts) and loses the Southwest to 1A. Group A (Class 2A) also has a renamed District as the Clinch Mountain dropped their geographic qualifer to become the generic Mountain District.
Here's an interesting story about how the big schools out east view this new system.
Now, let's look at some of the misconceptions spread by various newspapers across the state...
The Martinsville Bulletin said ... "However, no team will be able to play all the others in the new eight-team district."
That's just plain wrong. There's nothing stopping any team from doing so.
As a matter of fact, Bassett and GW-Danville (both 4A) DO play all seven District opponents.
The Chesterfield Observer confused apples and cherrys by saying "Because teams no longer are required to play every other team in their conference,..."
Schools ARE still required to play all of their DISTRICT opponents;
Conferences didn't exist until this year, and were designed for the playoffs, not the regular season.
From the Richmond Times-Dispatch...
Praise ... "Under the new alignment, every 9-1 team will make the playoffs. So will every 5-5 team."
Probably, but not guaranteed. Most likely, any 5-5 team "left home" will come from 6A, 4A or 2A.
"...because L.C. Bird is 5A and Thomas Dale is 6A, Thomas Dale risks more by playing the game." "It would help the Knights’ playoff chances to play as many 6A schools as possible."
Not really... what would help more would be to schedule as many WINS as possible. Dale is risking "more" because Bird is a stronger team which could give them a loss, not because they're a smaller team.
"landscape"... "The region championship will be the equivalent of a state semifinal".
Actually, what the Richmond-area schools have set up as a quasi-RC game would be a state QUARTERfinal game. The Sectional (half-state) championship will be a semi-final.
"Financial"...
"They comprise one conference in the [3A] east region, which meanders from Richmond to Southampton to South Hill to Front Royal."
Someone confused Warhill (Williamsburg) with Warren County (Front Royal).
Rivalries...
(Highland Springs and Varina) "were placed in higher classes than Dinwiddie."
No, NO, NO! While HSHS & VHS ARE in higher classes than Dinwiddie, it's because Dinwiddie is now where they actually belong... in 4A. And they weren't "placed" there... their ADM PUT them there.
"Out-of-district rivals will be difficult to maintain, But, you can if you are dedicated to it."
What a CROCK!!! Nothing has changed concerning scheduling (yet. Some coaches feel that a move to make Conferences the new districts, with mandatory scheduling, is just down the road. But not yet.)
From Newport News' Daily Press... "Kecoughtan and Hampton are never going meet in the playoffs or district tournament."
If a District wants to continue having District tourneys, they can. I can't see a district getting rid of their district tourney in EVERY sport.
"If it's not broke, why try to fix it?"
Seriously ?!?!?!? It WAS broke!
"Now, they've messed it up for the majority."
I can make a pretty good guess which party this guy belongs to.
Okay, maybe not, so let's change that to - didn't he mean to say they MADE IT FAIR for the majority???
"Triple-A schools had 48 percent of the student body..."
I started to say 'Well, I'm glad someone finally sat down and figured that out', but I realized that these guys all have the idea that THEY'RE RIGHT and never mind everybody else, so I thought I'd pull a Dem. move and present FACTS...
112,683 in 6A 202,162 in 6/5 202,162/367,352 = 55% 89,479 in 5A 67,954 in 4A 116,485 in 4/3 48,531 in 3A 31,581 in 2A 48,705 in 2/1 17,124 in 1A 367,352 total
Now, that's using the latest (March, 2012) ADM's and the new alignment. Last year, AAA had 24 more schools than 6A & 5A have now. Estimating that they had an average ADM of, say, 1300, adds 31,200 students and ups the number to 63.5%, which is why AAA always acted like THEY should have the most power... they had nearly 2/3rds of the students. (Meaning the guy was UNDERestimating by a LOT.)
So, we had 128 AAA schools last year, but Classes 6A & 5A contains 104 schools, which meant about 24 schools were playing up. But most people didn't realize that MANY more schools were 'really' playing up. As local sportswriter Lloyd Combs has said to me, and anyone else who will listen, "When you have AA schools out East playing up into AAA, they're going to be in Div. 5, so some 'true' Div. 5 schools in that Region are being forced up into Div. 6". So I decided to take a look at last year vs. this year.
Last year, the Central Region had 33 AAA fb schools... 16 in Div. 6 and 17 in Div. 5. This year, those 33 were spread out this way... FOUR in 6A, 15 in 5A, and 14 in lower Classes. And only SEVEN of the 33 schools are playing in the same "Division" again. That means 26 schools were actually playing up in the Central Region. Only 6A Varina, Thomas Dale, Cosby & James River and 5A Atlee, Lee-Davis & PH-Ashland didn't move.
Last year, the Eastern Region had 39 AAA fb schools... 19 in Div. 6 and 20 in Div. 5. This year, they have 13 in 6A, 14 in 5A, and 12 in lower Classes. 21 of the 39 schools are playing in the same "Division" again, so 18 schools were actually playing up in the Eastern.
So, even thought it's those big, out-east schools that have the most/loudest complaints, it's THEIR kids that are benefiting the most, because the Central and Eastern Regions had 44 out of 72 schools playing up.
Then I added up the ADM's of all the schools that were playing up. I got 36,092 in the Central and 25,617 in the Eastern, for a total of 44 schools and 61,709 kids playing in the wrong place, or 1/6th of all HS students in Va. By comparison, the 123 smallest schools, from #193 Waynesboro on down, have a combined enrollment of 61,406 (17,125 in A, 31,581 in 2A, 12,700 in 3A). So, I'll counter "they've messed it up for the majority" with 'they made it fair for those 16%'. (And that's not counting the 1A schools that went up against the bigger Div. 1 schools from Region B.)
Back before the season started, a lot of Loudoun parents were complaining about the schedule. Thing is, LV has 4 non-District games to get started, and they could've played smaller schools if they wanted to. (In late Oct., LV was 7-1.)
A couple of final things... the schools I want to take a serious look at in mid-November are 2A's Bruton & Martinsville, and 3A East's Loudoun Valley, John Champe, and the Richmond 3A's, as they all have just one or two opponents that aren't in a larger Class. I'm curious as to how things will turn out for them come seeding time. I'm definitely going to compare that to the Massey Ratings.
2A Conf. 39 has five former Southwest District members who now reside in four different Districts - SWD (Richlands & Tazewell), BDD (Grundy), MED (Graham) & Hogo (Marion).