April 28 - The move to six classifications a few years back was a bad decision. Dumping districts and the names that made them identifiable to student-athletes and fans was even worse.
In attempting to fix a system for non-football sports - a system that wasn’t broken in the first place - the Virginia High School League (VHSL) was attempting to generate more revenue for itself and its schools. The result? Everyone actually lost money, the state’s governing body received criticism for longer trips for road games, and the new alignment spat on traditions built over the 43 years of the previous three-tier system.
This past winter, the Virginia High School League (VHSL) had a chance to rectify its error. Sure, leave football in six classifications. That’s probably the right call. But admit your error, and go back to grouping other sports into three classes based on enrollment.
The VHSL's alignment proposal in January yielded some good news. They’re dropping the conference format and going back to districts. That's a fantastic development.
Now, the bad news. The VHSL is poised to begin the new two-year schedule cycle for the the 2017-18 school year once again with six classifications, and will split those six tiers of competition into four regions. What results from this decision is 316 schools playing in 24 regions, an average of just over 13 schools per region.
Why?
Well, by going to four regions in each classification, they’re cutting down on travel time for teams. That’s a good thing. High school kids need rest to stay on task and able to juggle studies with their athletic schedules.
The downside to that decision is with six classifications broken into four regions, we will be left with regions with half as many schools as in the past.
So, gone will be the one of the best aspects of high school sports in Northern Virginia - the 16-team region tournament. It’s very difficult for a baseball or basketball or softball or volleyball team to advance through a four-round region tournament and win a title. Teams that get through and win the region have a real sense of pride, and they should as it’s a great accomplishment.
That will be gone, likely replaced by an 8-team region tournament.
I’ll give you a snapshot of what we’re looking at with the new regions, using area 6A schools as the example.
They’re planning to take the Arlington schools and half of the Fairfax schools and put them with western Prince William schools - essentially, taking the current Conferences 5, 6 and 8 and creating a 16-team ‘Region 4’. The other half of the Fairfax schools will then be placed with the eastern Prince William schools in a 17-team ‘Region 3’ - comprised essentially from schools in the current Conferences 4 and 7.
There are a few schools being shuttled into new leagues, notably: Madison joining ‘Concorde District’ and ‘Conference 5” mainstays Centreville, Chantilly, Oakton and Westfield; Herndon taking Madison’s place with ‘Liberty District’ and ‘Conference 6’ schools Langley, McLean, South Lakes, Washington-Lee and Yorktown; Robinson returning to its roots with ‘Patriot District’ and ‘Conference 7’ rivals such as Lake Braddock and West Springfield in addition to new addition Fairfax and South County and W.T. Woodson; and a new district emerging featuring Annandale, Hayfield, Mount Vernon, West Potomac and T.C. Williams.
The proposed plan, which you can find on the VHSL website and is due to be finalized next month, also plans to create a megadistrict with all of the Prince William schools in the old (and now new) Cardinal District. Eleven schools. In one league. Where did the Cedar Run District go? Is it tucked away in some dark corner of the VHSL offices in Charlottesville?
It gets even better.
Some of those Cardinal District schools will be in 6A ‘Region 3’, some in 6A ‘Region 4’, and one - Potomac - will be in the 5A West Region, where the Panthers will get to travel to places like Halifax County, Albemarle and Roanoke for region games. So, apparently, that whole less-travel thing applies to almost all of the schools. Except, in this case, Potomac.
Here is what the VHSL accomplished with its initial realignment in 2013: 53 schools in the 6A, 5A and 4A classes, 52 at 3A, 50 at 2A, and 55 at A - with two regions in each classification. They made it easier for teams to win state championships. In our new society, everyone gets a trophy, right?
Now, they’re returning to four regions at each tier of competition, which was the case for four decades in the previous three-tier system. They identified that they made a mistake by creating more travel and less revenue in the current system, and they made a decision to correct the mistake.
But if you are going to go back to four regions at each classification, why not also go back to three classifications? It’s almost like the VHSL partially admitted its mistake, rather than fully admitting it.
Part of high school athletics is taking advantage of teaching moments to help your kids develop into better athletes and young men and women.
So, I’ll ask the VHSL, why not turn this into what could be a fantastic teaching moment, a great lesson for the thousands of student-athletes in the state? You made a mistake. Admit you made the mistake, and fix that mistake.
Completely. Not partially.
