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(Dec. 11, 2012) - Just about a year after the Virginia High School League proposed an overhaul of its classification and playoff system, final approval was given by the Executive Committee Monday for a Conference Alignment plan for 2013-14 and 2014-15 two-year school cycle.
The plan basically doubles classifications for Virginia public high school sports from three to six levels and starts postseason play at a new conference level. Currently only football holds championships in six classifications with most sports crowing state titles in three classifications.
As expected, Loudoun's 13 schools fell into three classifications: 5A (Briar Woods, Broad Run, Freedom, Potomac Falls, Stone Bridge, Tuscarora), 4A (Dominion, Heritage, Loudoun County, Park View, Woodgrove) and 3A (Champe, Loudoun Valley).
District play will no longer be the gateway to the postseason but teams will start at a conference level.
The Loudoun 5A schools are in 5A North and will all play in Conference 14 together.
The other schools in the 24-school 5A North region include Conference 13 (Edison, Falls Church, Marshall, Mount Vernon, R.E/ Lee, Stuart, TJ, Wakefield), Conference 15 (Brooke Point, Freedom-Prince William, Massaponax, Mountain View, North Stafford, Potomac) and Conference 16 (Albemarle, Halifax, Orange, Patrick Henry-Roanoke).
The Loudoun 4A schools are in 4A North and will play in Conference 21 along with James Wood, Millbrook and Sherando.
The other schools in the 28-schools 4A North region include Conference 22 (Chancellor, Courtland, Eastern View, Fauquier, King George, Liberty), Conference 23 (Amherst County, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Handley, Harrisonburg, Louisa County) and Conference 24 (Bassett, Carroll County, E.C. Glass, George Washington-Danville, Jefferson Forest, Pulaski County, Salem, William Fleming).
The Loudoun 3A schools are in 3A East and will play in Conference 28 along with Central-Woodstock, Skyline, Warren County, William Monroe).
The other schools in the 27-schools 3A East region include Conference 25 (Colonial Heights, Lafayette, New Kent, Park View-South Hill, Poquoson, Southampton, Warhill, York), Conference 26 (Armstrong, George Wythe-Richmond, Hopewell, Huguenot, John Marshall, Petersburg, TJ-Richmond) and Conference 27 (Brentsville, Culpeper, James Monroe, Kettle Run, Manassas Park, Spotsylvania).
(View all conferences from across the state.)
Regular-season district play will help determine seeding based most likely on a ratings scale similar to what is used for football currently. All teams will advance to conference play regardless of regular season records unless otherwise changed by a unanimous vote among conference schools.
Conference tournaments will then determine teams advancing to region and region tournaments -- each classification is split into two regions -- will determine the four teams that advance to the state tournament Final Four.
Football is the exception as football starting next year will start with a 16-team regional format.
For district play, all Loudoun schools, except for Stone Bridge, will be in two districts together with the 5A schools in a new Potomac District (Briar Woods, Broad Run, Freedom, Potomac Falls, Tuscarora) and the Dulles District (Champe, Dominion, Heritage, Loudoun County, Loudoun Valley, Park View, Woodgrove).
Stone Bridge remains in the Fairfax County-based Liberty District for regular season but will advance to face Loudoun schools in the playoffs in the new conference alignment.
Where will the Power Be?
A look at what conferences/regions the state champions from the past four years are located
Baseball
2012 - Lake Braddock (#7/6A North), Powhatan (#19/4A South), William Monroe (#28/3A East), Galax (#46/1A West)
2011 - Great Bridge (#10/5A South), Northside (#31/3A West), Honaker (#47/1A West), Page County (#35/2A East)
2010 - West Springfield (#7/6A North), Poquoson (#25/3A East), Rappahannock (#43/1A East)
2009 - Menchville (#10/5A South), Poquoson (#25/3A East), Chatham (#37/2A West)
Boys Basketball
2012 - Hampton (#10/5A South), Christiansburg (#32/3A West), Brunswick (#34/2A East), Lancaster (#43/1A East), Galax (#46/1A West)
2011 - I.C. Norcom (#17/4A South), Potomac Falls (#14/5A North), Brunswick (#34/2A East), Radford (#45/1A West), Galax (#46/1A West)
2010 - I.C. Norcom (#17/4A South), Potomac Falls (#14/5A North), Cave Spring (#32/3A West), James River-Buchanan (#38/2A West), Madison County (#35/2A East)
2009 - King's Fork (#18/4A South), Courtland (#22/4A North), Cave Spring (#32/3A West), Radford (#45/1A West), Colonial Beach (#43/1A East)
More sports updated later ...
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
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LCPS should have overuled Stone Bridge's AD and made SB move out of the Liberty District and into the new Loudoun District. No need for SB to travel all over Fairfax County when they can play in their own area!
ReplyDeleteHow does a school with an actual enrollment of 1,998 students "lose" 250 students when re-alignment occurs? Briar Woods should be division 6 with more students than 17 other Division 6 schools, especially considering that their enrollment will continue to increase - the Freshmen class size is 560 students. That's 120 more kids than Stone Bridge.
ReplyDeleteI've read in other places that VHSL uses old numbers - but the process allows for corrections to new schools (Woodgrove, Tuscarora, Champe) - why not corrections to existing schools?
Why are new alignments done only every other year? We who went through the Heritage experience can tell you it is not a positive experience for our kids to play up a division or two when enrollment dramatically decreases.
What are we after when we pit two schools against each other when Briar Woods has nearly double the population of Heritage? Is it so remarkable that Briar Woods beat Dominion? Does it tarnish Briar Woods' last two state championships knowing that they have almost double the students that the opposing team had in the state championship games (Heritage-NN 1100, Christianburg 1000)?
Why don't we let Stone Bridge play Division 4 next year, or Woodgrove Division 3? Then we can have more state titles coming back up here.