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Lee High wouldn't be playing down, at least in the usual sense, because they would still be competing for a Group AA title in all sports. Given the fact that the Loudoun Valley proposal will probably pass, I really don't see how the VHSL couldn't let Lee do the same thing. The VHSL just doesn't want Lee competing for a Group A title. I agree that Virginia High belongs in the Hogo, however they already tried to go and Region C didn't want to add another school. Whether or not Virginia High is in the SWD/Highlands doesn't really affect this plan anyway. In fact, if VHS drops, it makes merging the two districts a necessity. Plus, I see no reason why Lebanon would go back to AA short of a significant enrollment increase.

Actually, I think Lee might go for this proposal. They want to play in the LPD anyway and would be doing so in all sports but football. Their travel concerns are based more around the other sports which have weeknight games. By being in combined SWD in only football, they would have to travel to Grundy or Carroll County once every two years.

I also posted this on Virginia Preps. Anyone have any thoughts on this idea? Refer to the thread about Loudoun Valley and Stone Bridge on Virginia Preps for more details, but this setup offers a solution to the problem Lee High faces. As background for those who don't know, Lee is a Group AA school that plays in the Highlands District in Region IV, but has requested to play down in the Group A, Lonesome Pine District due to geographic location. The five-team Southwest and four-team Highlands had planned to merge a couple of years ago but Lee threatened to sue over the move because of travel, notably to such places as Carroll County, Graham and Grundy. The idea for NOVA could actually work for Lee; here's how: 1) Merge the Southwest and Highlands districts as originally planned (just call it the Southwest, as it used to be before it split in 1986). This would eliminate the four-team Highlands and prevent a lot of .500 and below teams from making the playoffs in all sports. 2) Have Lee play as a full member in the Southwest in FOOTBALL ONLY but be in the Lonesome Pine in all other sports for the REGULAR SEASON. This eliminates the "combination district" setup which often hurts teams in the football power ratings. 3) Beginning in post-season tournaments in all sports but football, Lee would participate in the Southwest District; however the only way they could advance to the Region IV playoffs is by winning the SWD tournament. Lee would not be allowed to knock out the SWD regular season champion from an automatic berth in Region IV simply because it won the LPD. There would, of course, need to be some sort of method devised to determine where Lee would be seeded in the SWD tournament. This isn't ideal, of course, but it does solve the travel problem, at least as far as the regular season is concerned. Lee would still be playing the same teams plus the current SWD schools in football, but the travel is not as much of a factor since the games are played once a week on weekends. Some would say this is "unfair" to Lee in that it couldn't automatically advance to regionals based on a regular season LPD championship, but it's better than them having to stay in the Highlands.

Why do you think combo districts are the worst idea ever? What happens if the VHSL goes to a four-class system and you end up with, say, one or two Group A-sized schools geographically isolated from everyone else of their size? Do you force them to play in AA (if that's even a possibility for them) or do you have a two-team district? Do you force them to travel two hours for all their district games? What's worse, the combo district, or any of the scenarios listed above? I agree that they're not ideal, but in some cases they might be necessary.

The reason this happened is because in the first year of the six division setup, the VHSL didn't divide the regions in half. Instead, it took the average enrollment of all the schools in the region and put the above-average ones in the higher division and the below-average ones in the lower division. In Region B, most of the schools had relatively high enrollments and therefore brought the average up. In this particular case, only three schools, George Mason, Manassas Park and I think Brentsville, were even eligible for the lower division playoffs and everyone else was in the upper division. Four playoff spots, and only three eligible teams. The VHSL changed the format the following year. To make things worse, in the first year of the six-division setup, a district champion qualified for the playoffs in the upper division despite its enrollment. Case in point, Radford, one of the smallest schools in Region IV at the time, played Tazewell in the Region IV, Division 4 championship. The VHSL changed this the following year also, making schools compete in whatever division their enrollment qualified them for.

They have a two-division setup just like Virginia, but have four classes, so they end up with EIGHT state champions. To boot, 32 teams make the playoffs in each division (256 total) and you have PLENTY of sub .500 teams in the playoffs, including a few 2-8 ones in 1A. NCHSAA

I'm not opposed to the combination district (A/AA, AA/AAA) concept as long as the playoff system is tweaked enough so that the larger schools in the district aren't penalized too much for having play teams in a lower classification. I think combo districts would work well in Southwest Virginia because the AA schools aren't that much larger than the A schools, which is also a big reason why schools such as Graham and Grundy compete well in AA despite A numbers. From a statewide perspective, they are the exception and not the rule. The combo district might be a necessity if the VHSL does to go a four-class system. Longtime district rivals like Tazewell, Graham, Grundy and Richlands would fall into different classifcations in a 4-class system but the combination district might allow them to still play together while keeping them from having to travel excessively for district games.

Get out a map of Virginia and the enrollment figures for all schools in the state and reclassification isn't so easy. If it works out OK in Southwest Virginia it doesn't necessarily mean it will in the rest of the state. For instance, someone posted that the Single A cutoff be 200 students. According to the VHSL divisional breakdowns for 2004, there are only 14 football-playing schools in the state with an enrollment of 200 or less, and all but three are west of Roanoke. The problem is that unless you can get the majority of schools to support a reclassification plan, it isn't going to pass. Even with a 4-class system you end up with numerous instances where certain schools end up geographically isolated in their own classification, resulting in increased travel, more expenses and missed class time. Keep in mind, the classification covers all sports, not just football which is played on the weekend.

Division 4: Richlands has a decent shot of getting to the finals given home field advantage. If they beat Bassett, I think they would probably match up better with Amherst than Salem. Although they run different types of offenses, Salem is like Magna Vista in that it has speed in the backfield as well as a good passing game. Richlands had some trouble vs. the pass last week but did make good adjustments after halftime. Division 3: Not much to be said here, as very few Division 3 teams statewide could match up with Gretna. Christiansburg has had problems defensively this year, but lost to two power running teams in Pulaski and Hidden Valley. That being said, if they were to upset Gretna this week, I think Tazewell would match up favorably against the Demons, provided they beat VHS Friday. Division 2: Whoever comes out of this end of the state has a great shot to win the title. Region C or D has won the D-2 title the last two years. Essex, a wing-T team (at least last year; I think they run the same thing), and Manassas Park, with a wide-open offense, are the favorites to get there from Region A/B. Both are good teams but I don't think either is as talented as some of the other squads to come out of the eastern half in recent years. Either would have an edge in speed but PV, GC, Lebanon or Giles have enough speed overall to where it wouldn't be overwhelming as it was a few years back when W&L stopped Floyd. Division 1: Sussex Central has to be a solid favorite for the title; their toughest game will probably be this weekend against Franklin and they could have a meeting with William Campbell, though Sussex dominated the Generals last year when WC had Cedric Peerman. The only thing that even remotely helps the Region C/D winner here is Sussex's offensive style of play--a power-type wishbone game. Problem is, their defense is so good they can probably score 14 and win. WC on the other hand runs a wide open spread offense. I know nothing about the other teams in that half of the state.

On the way to the MV game Friday, the WGTH radio announcers mentioned Richlands might try to play it this Friday AFTERNOON at 1:30??? Reason given was that they didn't want to play it Saturday due to the Tech/UVa game but preferred to play during the day in case of bad/cold weather.

Are Larry Hypes' "sources" correct regarding Graham/Tazewell, or do we have to wait for the pairings to become official before the times are announced?

That thought crossed my mind also, although Wyatt hasn't been that successful since Pocahontas moved to the Mountain Empire District. Is Sam Angles still an assistant on the Tazewell staff? I know he applied for several head coaching positions in the 1980s, including Tazewell before Dave Litz got the job. Angles got out of coaching at that time, then came back sometime in the 1990s; it may have been when Hart took over.

Years ago I looked through some Clinch Valley News editions from the 1960s on microfilm. I'm not sure how far back they go, however.

Who beat George Wythe bad last year? It wasn't William Campbell. By the way, George Wythe is not double A. Also, are you saying William Campbell is a "large school". They have under 300 students in 10-12. They played up in Division 3 for years because there weren't enough Group A schools to form a district. Only when the combined Dogwood District was created did they drop to Group A.

If you ever drive across Lover's Leap on Rt. 58 between Hillsville and Stuart, you'll know why Carroll County doesn't want to play in Piedmont District. Going to Grundy and Richlands might be longer distance-wise but at least the drive covers two interstates and 460. As for Carroll County being in the River Ridge, that could have been possible prior to the start of this season, but they backed out at the last minute because of the uncertainty over how the Blue Ridge split would take place. From what I understand they were worried that the district they would end up in would NOT contain Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Pulaski County. At one time there was talk of splitting the Blue Ridge by enrollment, which may have kept all four of the New River area teams from being in the same district.