Redistricting news




Okay folks, here it comes, for $1 million dollars ....
What groups' oxymoronically named "R & R Committee" has historically made the most enemies in SW VA?
(Sorry, you have no more life-lines).

DO-Do-do-do-do-do-doooo.

The Final Answer : the VHSL.


Yes, those folks up in C'ville have done it again. This time, though, they've updated their image - from Laurel & Hardy to Gallagher (watch the stuff fly!).

It seems like only a year or two ago that the VHSL's Redistricting and Reclassification Committee suggested splitting ONLY Group AA into 6 Regions, while leaving A & AAA at 4. (See the article from The Smyth Co. News in Marion.)

Well, this time around, they've come up with a plan that would re-align ONLY Group A, Region D. And, they're taking a bigger step in letting some schools "play-down" a level.

Under one of the proposals, Region D would form districts based on enrollment. This builds upon the idea of a "super District" that has been talked about for months in this neck of the woods. Un-named District 1 would include Gate City (whose declining enrollment has allowed them to drop to Group A), Powell Valley, J.J. Kelly & Honaker. District 2 would have Castlewood, Clintwood, Coeburn, Haysi & Hurley. District 3 would be J.I. Burton, Pound, Rye Cove, Twin Springs & Thomas Walker. District 4 would be the step-children : Appalachia, Ervinton, St. Paul, Council, and the soon-to-be-merged Garden & Whitewood (which would be the same size as Hurley).

Highlands District member Lee petitioned to "play-down", based upon geographical considerations. Their closest district rival is now over an hour away.

The VHSL has reportedly already allowed AA schools to "play-down". A couple of teams out East are supposedly competing in Group A because they're isolated from other Group AA schools and would have to traverse the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to get to them. I know that Northampton played in The Group A Eastern Shore District last year with Arcadia & Nandua. They were given permission to "play-down" starting in 2001.

But Lee's request was denied. According to one person, The Committee said that Lee met all of the criteria to "play-down" except they didn't have a "receiving district". (Hmmm..... I wonder... how CAN they have a receiving district when the district they would be playing in doesn't even have a name yet ?!?!?!?!)

The Committee DID approve 3 Group AAA schools request to "play-down": Albermarle (C'ville), and Halifax Co. (South Boston) & E.C. Glass (Lynchburg) from the Western District, leaving only G.W.-Danville.
(Halifax & Glass will join the Seminole District.. An appeal of this move is expected by many of the schools. See previous article in Lynchburg's News & Advance.)

In other AAA/AA action, William Fleming and Pulaski Co. will be dropping down to AA due to declining enrollments, leaving P.H.-Roanoke, Cave Spring & Franklin Co. in the RVD. They will be joined by GW-Danville for the new, 'lets keep a part of each name' district, the Western Valley District.

Patrick Henry-Roanoke had requested to "play-down", but it was the only Group AAA school whose request was denied, again because no AA District wanted the Patriots. Part of this is due to the fact that the most logical choice, the BRD, is now up to nine schools with the addition of William Fleming. The BRD didn't want Pulaski Co., either. But since the Cougars had to go to somewhere in AA, they were assigned to the SWD (which didn't want them, either), since "nearby" Carroll Co. is already a member.

In a semi-related matter, Carroll Co., bless their Cavalier hearts, requested that a new District be formed, which would also include Pulaski, Blacksburg & Christiansburg (can anyone say 'welcome back, New River District'?). Not the VHSL. No action was taken on the request, other than this quote from the VHSL executive director..."There's some merit to that". DUUUUHHHHHHH.

On a side note, Roanoke's new school, which will be located on the former "Woods End" property, is still unnamed, with groundbreaking set to occur this Summer. How this will affect the enrollment numbers for Cave Spring (and possibly Pat. Henry) is still unknown, as Roanoke is still undecided about where to draw the attendance lines.

One final Region IV note, Chatham has left Region III's Dogwood District for our Piedmont District.

Meanwhile, Region C came away with only a couple of minor changes. Shawsville High School, which is being replaced with a newer building closer to Elliston, will be called Eastern Montgomery H.S. And an old school is coming back. Mt. Rogers, with an enrollment of 15 in grades 9-11, will be re-admitted to the MED.



My thoughts :
First, re-aligning Region D is a farce. Putting three Buchanan County schools (which may end up as two or maybe even one combined school before too long) in the same District as Appalachia is crazy. If a new 'super district' is wanted by some schools, let them form one and leave everybody else alone. The LPD can survive without Kelly & PV, and the BDD got along for years without former Hogo member Honaker.

Now, to AA. Boy, to I have a lot to say here.

Let me say up front that I have a level of pity (or something like that) for "borderline" schools. Graham has been a Group A school for years, but has stayed competitive on the Group AA level. Now, Grundy is in the same boat (wrestling fans... they're actually smaller than Brentsville District). I wouldn't mind seeing Grundy get in on that 'Super A' district. I know a lot more people would travel the 2+ hours to Powell Valley and Gate City than the 2+ hours to Pulaski or Carroll.

Maybe there's some merit to the idea of what I affectionately call "the Va. Tech plan". Classify a school based on it's enrollment and make it stay in that Group for all sports EXCEPT football (and maybe wrestling ;-). Then, let the schools/districts/regions decide THEMSELVES how they want to be aligned for football. But I digress.

Let's start at the end of the state... and since this is about the VHSL, that would mean Roanoke.

I think the Blue Ridge District should be split. B'burg (882) & C'burg (711) joined a few years back after Radford, Narrows, Giles & Wythe dropped to single A. But now that Pulaski Co. (1108) has dropped to AA, humor us in SW VA by agreeing with Carroll Co. (814) and re-form the New River District.

That would leave 7 schools in the BRD; Alleghany, Rockbridge, and 5 Roanoke teams : Byrd, Botetourt, Fleming, Northside & Salem. Let PH (1265) "play-down". And when Cave Spring (1236) splits in a couple of years, put both of those schools in the BRD and send Alleghany & Rockbridge to Region II.

As for the Southwest District, Richlands (687) will be AA for a while, but Tazewell (554) is pretty close to the cut-off point (which starts with Va. High-532). The SWD could either stay AA with 4 schools, re-form the old SWD (Abingdon, Lee & Marion are all around 650 and Lebanon is smaller than Gate City), or drop to A and merge somewhat.

But with the playoff system we currently have, merging these 2 Districts would hurt SW VA schools financially. On the other hand, re-creating the NRD would mean more playoff money (and maybe more playoff games at the Cassell). Both Regions III & IV currently have 3 Districts, so adding one to either wouldn't cause a scheduling problem in the post-season.


On the other hand, maybe NOW is the time for the VHSL to institute that plan for reclassifying the entire state. I've not taken the time to look at this on a state level, but going to 4 classifications would work out a LOT better for us than any of the movements that have been cussed and discussed back up the page. Let's take a look.

With the creation of AAAA, the new enrollment break-points would be at 1240, 750 & 430. No SW VA schools are listed as 1240+. The closest one is PH-Roanoke. But with an enrollment of just 1265 and no other AAAA schools nearby, they would have no problem dropping to AAA, where they would compete with Salem, William Fleming, Northside, William Byrd, Rockbridge, Amherst, Pulaski, Blacksburg & Carroll Co. Lord Botetourt could petition to play-up, falling just 6 students shy of the cut-off point.

Group AA would look very familiar. The SWD could have Grundy, Richlands, Tazewell & Graham (which would petition to play up, falling just 12 students short of the cut-off point). The Highlands could have Gate City, Lee, Va. High, John Battle, Abingdon & Marion. Then Lebanon, Powell Valley & J.J. Kelly. could be added somehow. One possibility would be to form a new district with Gate City and/or Lee.

Also playing in Group AA would be Lord Botetourt (?), Christiansburg, Patrick Co., Martinsville, Bassett, Magna Vista, Tunstall & Fieldale-Collinsville.


Finally, let me say again, what I've been talking about here are PROPOSALS. These are (I hope) being distributed to all the schools. The Executive Committee will consider appeals at their Sept. 20th meeting. A final vote could be taken at that time.



Now, let we thank all the local sports-involved people (but not by name... you know who you are) who keep my grapevine hummin', and my ole buddy Bucky in Bristol. Since the VHSL doesn't volunteer a lot of information (like proposals outlined on their web-site or timely press releases for the smaller media outlets), Mr. Dent's two articles from the Bristol Herald Courier provided the meat of the above ranting, along with a couple of articles from recent Roanoke Times papers.

By the way, the VHSL DOES have the enrollment breakpoints posted, along with some of the info about how they make their decisions.



One thing I DID do over the Summer was come up with my own redistricting plan. Wanna see???.