The first thing a pitcher looks for is a hole in a batter’s swing. It’s crucial for his success in the battle between the two.
If a hurler were to look at the swings the Virginia High School League has taken in recent years, he’d find some rather large holes to attack.
The VHSL, which governs prep athletics in the state, determined two years ago that its was in the best interest of its 313 member schools to split the alignment for its athletic teams from three classifications to six, matching the format it had carried for football since 1986.
There is no question the state has grown since initially creating three classifications prior to the 1970-71 school year, especially here in Northern Virginia. But doubling the number of classifications was an absurd decision, one fueled by complaints of competitive inbalance by smaller schools and the VHSL’s desire to drum up revenue by holding more league, region and state tournament games.
Why did we have to double in size to six classifications? Wisconsin and Missouri are the states that sandwich Virginia in the National Federation of High Schools' 2013-14 summary of athletics particiaption: Wisconsin's governing body has its baseball teams split into four classiciations, Missouri has its divided into five. There was no reason for Virginia had to go to six.
The new realignment is failing, and here are just a few reasons why.
Dropped were district names, in favor of conferences which are identified by a number. There was something cool about winning a ‘Liberty District’ or Cedar Run District’ championship. It’s something you would always remember. Surely, more so than winning a ‘Conference 35’ title. In 20 years, who will remember what number your conference was that you won a championship in? There’s nothing intimate about that.
Schools were identified with the district they played in. When you wanted to know who your school was matched up against in regionals, someone simply had to say ‘the Concorde’ and you knew you’d be seeing either Centreville, Chantilly, Herndon, Oakton, Robinson or Westfield. Now, it’s ‘I think we’ve got Conference 14’. Uh, who’s in that?
I played in and coached in the Concorde District for years. On a whim, I could rattle off the baseball district champion in that league every year going back to the first season it was created for the 1993-94 season. Seeing all that wiped away in favor of the this new system hasn’t sat well with a number of folks who have been involved in the high school sports community.
That’s strike one.
Everyone gets a trophy. Isn’t that the motto now? Yes, it is, thanks to travel ball, AAU, and a society that feels everyone should be made to feel special as to stroke their ego (or their parents’ ego) ... the results be damned. I coached a travel team six or seven years ago that stunk it up at a tournament. After our last game, they line us up and drag out a ninth-place trophy. Are you kidding me?
The VHSL, apparently, feels the same way. A state title now requires you be the best of 50-60 schools, where beforehand winning that state crown meant you were the best of about 100 schools. Don’t get me wrong, I’d still absolutely love to be a part of a team that wins a state title one day. But man, it used to mean that much more when you’re climbing a mountain that much higher.
Strike two.
The scheduling format is a joke. Some ‘conferences’ play the normal home-and-home regular season series that has been a part of league play in sports going back maybe a century. Others have spent the past two seasons playing their former ‘district’ opponents the first time through their schedule, then their new ‘conference’ opponents the second time through. Only the second time through counts towards their league record.
So in a 20-game regular season schedule, those conferences have played just five, six or seven games that really matter, with outcomes that go towards determining seeding for their league tournament. A lot of those conferences get just one automatic berth into the region tournament. So this format is putting a huge weight on a very small number of games in a sport where anyone can beat anyone if you have one hot pitcher.
Other conferences have a third method of seeding for their league tournament: by power points. Yes, in baseball, power points. Not who-beat-who, which is how sports should be judged, but some formula put together by some keyboard jockey, determines who is seeded where in conferences that can't play a traditional league schedule because of travel or other factors.
Swing and miss, that’s strike three.
VHSL, you’re out. Go back to the drawing board, figure it out, and come back with a better-looking swing. My advice would be to go back to the one that worked just fine before.
It had a lot less holes in it, you made more contact, and there are less people pointing at you saying, 'I told you so'.
