hoard

I'm not so sure he would have stayed long regardless of the issues with the program, for a number of reasons: 1) He said in the story he had a number of other offers to advance his career, including a college job. 2) He had no ties to the area (from Mississippi, played and coached at WVU) 3) Tazewell County is not exactly a high-paying school system 4) A lot of people (particularly younger ones) from outside SWVa find the area lacking from a cultural / "things to do" standpoint. I know a lot of teachers whose first jobs were in more rural systems who were looking to leave at the first opportunity. I don't know if this indeed the case w/Tate; I'm just generalizing. Does anyone know who interviewed for the position when Tate was hired? Who might be interested now?

BDT story w/statement from Tate: http://bdtonline.com/localsports/x1437241229/Tate-resigns-Tazewell-seeks-another-football-coach

Carroll County has it even better. Their opponents: EC Glass Jefferson Forest Pulaski Salem GW-Danville Bassett

That would be perfect; I just hope someone at one of the schools will propose it to the VHSL. It would save a ton on travel because the regions would be more compact and you'd only need two rounds to determine a region champ. It helps with bad weather, too, because if the first round gets rained/snowed out on Tuesday, you can still play Wednesday or Thursday (or even Friday if needed, with a final on Saturday). Plus, if the region championship game was "win or go home" it might improve attendance. As it stands now in hoops, baseball, etc if you lose the region, big deal, you still move on to state quarterfinals.

Based on that presentation that someone else linked early in the thread, the East and West champs and runners up advance to the Final Four with East winner vs West runners up and vice-versa. IMO this is the worst part of the proposal. They should just have the two West finalists and two East finalists meet in the Final Four and not even bother with a regional final.

Here's a more simplified look at what the regionals for 2A West would look like. Again, this would be for all sports BUT football, with: TWO out of each conference. Conf 39: Tazewell, Richlands, Graham, Grayson, Marion Conf 40: Grundy, Lee, Gate City, VHS, Battle, Union, Central Conf 37: Gretna, Appomattox, Nelson Co, Chatham, Dan River Conf 38: Floyd, Giles, Glenvar, James River, Martinsville As I mentioned earlier, the proposal indicates that the region could opt for a sub-regional format in which Conf 39 & 40 is one half of the bracket and Conf 37 & 38 is the other half. That would essentially guarantee far SWVA of having a final four participant every year in sports like basketball, softball, volleyball, etc. since the winners and runners up from each half advance to the final four.

Exactly.....Richlands wouldn't even have to travel to Grayson...or vice versa..in many years. First off, they would have to be paired against each other. Secondly, it would have to be in a sport where the conference tournament or playoff is held at home sites rather than a central location. Again, it's not much different than having a post-season tournament game at Carroll County--and all the SWD members have been playing them in the regular season PLUS the tournament for over a decade.

You're looking at this from Graham's perspective and ignoring the big picture. So lets say you get Grundy, Graham, Richlands, Tazewell and Lebanon in one conference as you suggest. I left out Honaker because they won't even be 2A, they will be 1A. The other one, I presume, would be Gate City, Lee, Marion, Central, Union, VHS and Battle. I'm not sure why you mentioned AHS/Abingdon because they are 3A. -- What's a worse trip---Marion to Lee, Central AND Union, or Grayson to Richlands?? -- Then Grayson ends up in C38 with Floyd, Giles and Glenvar, which isn't too unreasonable--until you factor in that Martinsville and James River are also in it. So I ask again, how would you align the conferences? More specifically, where would you put Grayson? For years Tazewell, Graham, Marion and Richlands were all in the same district--with Carroll County--which geographically is about the same distance from all those as Grayson. Now suddenly it's some type of absurdity to put them all in the same playoff grouping???

Are you referring to the geographic alignment or the fact that it's numbered (in an INITIAL plan, BTW). If it's geographic, how would you align the teams?

The problem with doing the other sports like football is the travel distance. In basketball, baseball, etc. you pretty much have to play at least one or two post-season games midweek whereas in football all the games are on Friday or Saturday. This affects attendance also--for example, the furthest Grundy is going to have travel for its first post-season game will be to a CMD or LPD school. Under the half-state/football-type setup they could be going to a Dogwood school. Also, you have take into account sports with individual champions like wrestling, tennis and golf because there has to be a way to narrow down the field of competitors at the regional and state levels. While I agree that the VHSL has done some dumb stuff over the years, it looks as if they have finally come up with a plan that addresses the enrollment disparities while keeping travel at a minimum AND one that can get enough votes statewide to pass. There's no plan out there that will satisfy everybody.

So how would you reclassify the state?

This is a great setup overall IMO. The only real issue I have is with both the regional champ and runner up advancing to the state final four. It's kind of dumb for the two regional runners-up to get a do-over at a neutral-site, state semi-final game--you're playing for absolutely nothing in the new regional final. I'm not a fan of the current setup where the region runner-up goes on to the state quarterfinal either, but at least in that, the regional finalists have something to play for--a quarterfinal game closer to home. Also, having only the finals (instead of the Final Four) in Richmond on a Friday or Saturday would greatly cut down the travel expenses and missed class time because the teams involved would have to stay overnight only once (and maybe not even at all).

Couple of observations.... #1 It'll be possible for the new Clinch Mountain District to have 4 of the 8 teams in the 2A West regional since Richlands, Tazewell and Marion will be in a different conference than the other CMD teams. For example: Richlands wins the Conference 39 tournament and Tazewell finishes 2nd; both advance to region. Virginia High wins the Conf 40 tournament and Lebanon finishes 2nd; both advance. #2 As I understand it from looking at the presentation, the regions would be allowed to divide themselves in half geographically if the chose to reduce post-season travel. So we COULD end up with something like 2A West (western half): Conf 39 (Richlands/Tazewell/Marion/Grayson/Graham) Conf 40 (Grundy/GC/Lebanon/VHS/JSB/Lee/Union/Central) 2A West (eastern half): Conf 37 (Appomattox/Chatham/Dan River/Nelson/Gretna) Conf 38 (James River/Floyd/Giles/Glenvar/Martinsville) So basically, the far SWVA schools MIGHT end up only seeing the 37/38 teams once--in the 2A West final. More or less the 39/40 schools would end up being like the old Region D with the 37/38 schools being like Region C.

Graham and Grayson would still be in the MED for the regular season. Richlands, Tazewell, Marion, Graham and Grayson will be competing against each other in the first level of post-season play (kind of like a sub-regional).

Some schools prefer to play rivalry/big gate games early in the season for financial reasons. There's less chance of bad weather ruining fan turnout.

After thinking about it, I wonder if Lee might remain in the CMD simply for scheduling purposes. Right now, they have four guaranteed CMD opponents (GC,Leb,VHS, JSB), with the LPD and Cumberland schools available for non-district games. If they go to the LPD, those schools become district opponents and Lee would need to look to CMD schools for non-district games. There's a good possibility most of the CMD schools wouldn't play Lee, or have enough room to schedule them if they did want to play.

If Lee doesn't petition to move to the LPD now, it proves that lawsuit they threatened to file back when the Highlands and SWD merged had nothing to do with travel and everything to do with just dropping to Single A. Sure, they won't have to go to Graham or Grundy but they'll still be faced with trips to Marion and Tazewell. I agree it makes more sense for Lee and Gate City to be in the LPD now, if for no other reason than to give that league more than four members, though GC fits well in either one. Why would Lebanon want to move out of the CMD? They're pretty much central to all the other members now.

Link to summary of all the modification requests to initial 6A plan: http://www.vhsl.org/doc/upload/rr-modification-requests.pdf

Interesting....six consecutive games at Mitchell to open.

I wonder what the procedure will be for settling disputes over the alignment. One example that comes to mind... Let's say 2A Marion appeals to join the Hogo rather than remain in the SWD. The Hogo has six 1A schools and some (or even all) of them won't want Marion in the league because of their enrollment. What then? I assume if all six agreed to let Marion in, it would happen. But what happens if it isn't unanimous? Do they get in with 5 of 6, or 4 of 6 approving? When does the VHSL get involved? Now multiply that scenario times, I don't know, dozens?? I also wonder if the VHSL isn't making a mistake by not having the playoff qualification process for each sport ironed out BEFORE the appeals are heard. Some of the smaller schools that will be in a district with larger schools might want to know how difficult their road to the post-season will be before agreeing to play in a mixed district.

I'm just speculating here, but seeing as how John Champe is a brand new school, they may not have a senior class their first year and the expectation is that they will eventually be 3A or 4a in a year or so. I know this has been the case with new schools in the past.

What people need to realize here is that this initial plan is just that---an initial one. It looks as if the VHSL just needed to put together a starting point that's relatively close to the current district alignments, then give the schools the chance to appeal the placements. I doubt the SWD will end up with only four schools. If nothing else, I think Carroll County will want to stay rather than move to the River Ridge. If they wanted to move, they would have tried to do so before now. It's going to be interesting how the RRD and Blue Ridge end up....I doubt Franklin County is going to want to go to the Seminole with so many Roanoke area schools close by.

Based on the VHSL figures, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Dogwood schools get moved back to the East if they plan on keeping a relatively even East/West split in the new AA (old Division 2). You'll have former D3 schools Marion, Tazewell, Richlands, Martinsville and RE Lee all moving down and clearly in the western half geographically. There are five Dogwood schools in the new 2A: Gretna, Appomattox, Dan River, Chatham, Nelson County. I'd imagine the western half of 2A to look something like this (using the district affiliations on their site): BDD: Grundy CMD: Battle, Gate City, Lebanon, Lee, VHS LPD: Central, Union MED: Graham, Grayson TRD: Floyd, Giles, Glenvar SWD: Marion, Richlands, Tazewell PIED: Martinsville PIONEER: James River VALLEY: RE Lee SHENANDOAH: Buffalo Gap, E. Rock, S.Jackson, Luray, Page, Riverheads, Wilson Memorial It's possible the VHSL might try to do the sections in fourths (basically just like regions) rather than halves. A regional-type setup isn't a necessity for football, but it probably will be for the other sports where you play more than one game a week.

Is it possible that maybe Warner/Pineville played a playoff game at Mitchell against a team other than Bluefield?

I'm sure Northwood would be thrilled also...leaving the Hogo with all five opponents within a half hour or so, to travel to Buchanan, Scott and Lee counties. Yeah, that makes sense. Sounds like this Norton plan is just suited to whatever benefits Norton the most.