VHSL looks to revamp

By Brian Hunsicker

Published: October 28, 2008

CHARLOTTESVILLE — The Virginia High School League unveiled a preliminary plan on Tuesday that would revamp the postseason and could change the way high school championships are contested in the state.
The proposal, developed by VHSL staff, is merely that; executive director Ken Tilley openly solicited comments and suggestions at the league’s general membership meeting on Tuesday, which included principals and activities directors from across the state.
Currently, the postseason is broken into three enrollment-based classes, Groups AAA, AA and A. The new proposal would create five classifications based on a number system, one through five, also depending on enrollment. Each classification would be comprised of an eastern and a western section, generically called a super section. Each super section, then, would have two sections of its own, labeled by letters: A and B for eastern sections, C and D for western sections.
In the most prominent sports — football and basketball — Manassas Park, for instance, would find itself in Division 2 — the second-lowest enrollment grouping — in the western super section and the B section. Most of Prince William County’s largest schools would be lumped together in the B section of Group 5’s western super section.
The biggest change would be for Brentsville, currently in Group AA. According to the VHSL’s presentation, Brentsville would become a Division 4 school, playing in the A section of the western super section. That group would include several current Group AAA schools like Potomac and Freedom and other current Group AA schools like Broad Run, Loudoun County and Potomac Falls.
The new proposal is only for the playoffs; schools would be able to remain in their current districts if they desired, though that too could change. Tilley said that some schools have already suggested that district alignments be frozen to prevent schools from forming their own districts while leaving others out in the cold.
Moreover, the number of classifications could change depending on the level of participation in a given sport. According to the presentation, gymnastics has only seven teams among schools at Division 3 or smaller; those seven would participate in the Division 4 playoffs. In lacrosse, the 50 boys’ teams and the 43 girls’ teams across the state would vie for one of two boys championships or one of two girls championships.
Tilley and VHSL deputy director Tom Zimorski, who made Tuesday’s presentation, said the new proposal was to help correct problems that continually come up with the league’s redistricting and reclassification committee, including the distances that certain teams travel to away games.
That’s a distinct area of concern for Prince William County schools. Group AAA schools are part of the vast Northwest Region, which stretches from the Maryland border to the North Carolina border. Region II and Region B, of which Brentsville and Manassas Park are members, also encompass a large swath of the state and regional playoff games can entail long road trips.
“It doesn’t look like there’s much of a change for us,” Woodbridge activities director Dan Forgas said. “Our region, our super section, our section is still going to go from Prince William County all the way down to Halifax and Franklin County. So I’m not sure where there’s a change for us. We’ll play the same folks we always would and what was our region still looks like it’s going to include many of the same folks we had before.”
That, Tilley said, was one of the biggest challenges. Throughout his presentation, Zimorski reminded attendees that the VHSL could not change the locations of the schools themselves. Schools in the Western Valley District, located in places such as Roanoke, Danville and Lynchburg, must still be associated with a larger entity of schools near their own enrollment size — even if they don’t fit into the convenient geographical areas like most other Group AAA schools.
Two of those schools, Franklin County and Halifax County, would be in the same section as Woodbridge and the largest Prince William schools on both ends of the county. The county’s Division 4 schools, however, would be spared the long trips; the longest possible trip in that section is from Loudoun County High School to Potomac.
The VHSL has set up four dates in November to hold a question-and-answer session for administrators. The only session in Northern Virginia will be held on Nov. 17 at Osbourn Park.