Thursday, October 23, 2008
VHSL considers big class changes
The organization will present a plan for five divisions and change the postseason play format.
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The Virginia High School League made a radical alteration of its state basketball tournament format in March when it crowned five separate boys and girls champions.
That might just be the beginning of major change.
The VHSL might overhaul its entire enrollment classification system based on a proposal the league has developed for a five-division setup for all of its athletic and academic activities, beginning with the 2011-12 school year. The full plan will be unveiled Tuesday in Charlottesville and might not come up for a vote for at least 12 months, but the basic divisional breakdown would be as follows:
- Division 5 -- Enrollment 1,801 students and above (67 schools).
- Division 4 -- 1,301 to 1,800 (66 schools).
- Division 3 -- 801-1,300 (68 schools).
- Division 2 -- 451-800 (63 schools).
- Division 1 -- 450 and below (48 schools).
VHSL communications director Mike McCall said the proposal is far from set in stone.
"This is just an idea," McCall said. "We don't have any rush."
McCall said the proposal was crafted by the VHSL office staff after the league received vast input from its members over concerns about the inequity of enrollments of schools competing for state titles within the same current classifications.
For example, the state's smallest football-playing school -- St. Paul -- had an enrollment of 158 students based on the Sept. 30, 2007 figures the VHSL is using to divide schools in the current two-year cycle. Yet St. Paul competes in Group A Division 1 with Manassas Park, which has 634 students.
Nelson County won the Division 1 boys basketball championship in March with a higher enrollment than Division 2 champion George Wythe, illustrating the disparity.
Patrick County High School principal E.G. Bradshaw, a member of the VHSL Executive Committee, believes the new proposal attacks the problem.
"It addresses things we're concerned about, the issue of numbers and playing schools of your own size," Bradshaw said Wednesday.
The most significant aspect of a five-division setup as opposed to the current three classification system that has been in place since 1970-71 would be the elimination of the current district and regional postseason format.
It would be replaced with a format that would include two sections within each of the five divisions and two sub-sections of approximately 12-16 schools within each main section, McCall said.
Also, the proposal could change the makeup of many of the VHSL's districts.
McCall said the proposal does not call for current districts to be dissolved, but schools would be free to set their own regular-season schedules and the method of qualifying for postseason tournaments would be drastically altered.
"The big concern is what happens to the districts," McCall said. "As far as determining playoffs, criteria would be set for all sports."
Teams would begin postseason play at the sub-section level, advancing to the sectional level and then the state tournament level.
Each section would determine its own criteria for reaching the postseason.
The VHSL would no longer place teams in districts, allowing schools more latitude in scheduling regular-season opponents.
William Fleming and Patrick Henry, for instance, would not be forced to make 240-mile round trips to Halifax County like the Colonels and Patriots do now for district games.
"In the regular season, travel should be reduced," McCall said. "In the postseason, travel is travel."
Conversely, some schools could find themselves left out of current alliances, making regular-season scheduling difficult. For many years Pulaski County's football program had to play teams from Washington or North Carolina to fill out a 10-game schedule.
Pulaski County athletic director Mike Goff said the VHSL will hold a question-and-answer forum for local schools in Salem on Nov. 18.
"I want to reserve comment until everything is put out there," Goff said.
McCall said schools no longer would have the option of playing in a higher classification.
Nine schools that would fall into the proposed Division 3 range currently choose to play in Group AAA, which this year includes 129 schools.
With the exception of Division 1, the proposed divisions are relatively equally divided.
"So many schools are playing up because geography forces them to," McCall said. "But you've got to have a hard number."
McCall said he hopes the proposal will receive favorable reviews from administrators of the member schools.
"You would hope they'd see the big picture," he said. "We think it's fair. They may determine that what they have is what they want, or they may determine what they want is something different."
