Central Region Redistricting

The problem is that you have AA-sized schools who are too stubborn to agree to move down from AAA.

All the difficulty here is that you have people who are on the one hand complaining of the unfairness in having to compete against larger schools, while simultaneously objecting to moving down to AA.

What I'd like to see the VHSL do here is adopt straightforward population brackets for each class and then tell schools your class will be determined by your student population in grades 9-12, end of story. No debates, no arguments, you just make the determination each year for the following year and there you have it.

What they're proposing here really only puts a bandaid on a situation that arises only in football. I realize football is king in the minds of many, but it's a lot of headache to rain on a lot of other sports just to appease people who are being unreasonable in the first place.

If you just told the Richmond city schools, Hopewell, Colonial Heights and such that they were now AA, the problem would be solved immediately.

What you'd end up with is three AAA districts in the region, which would allow for playoffs involving three district winners plus a wild card. At the same time, you'd have an AA district in the greater metro area -- not as compact as the other districts in the AAA Central Region, maybe, but surely more compact than your typical AA district.

We could also solve the issues with Powhatan sticking in AA when it could clearly make a good addition to AAA and specifically the Dominion District.

All these arguments are caused by a decision making process that invites lobbying for special consideration. If you have clear and fair rules and you just plain follow them all the time, all the arguments disappear.

That Div. 6 South District is going to be brutal for anyone not named Cosby or James River.

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Papelbon said...That Div. 6 South District is going to be brutal for anyone not named Cosby or James River.

Not only in baseball (which JR and Cosby have owned), but also in football and basketball. In football terms, Bird has won the district outright over the last 13+ years and counting. I would expect that to end with TD, Meadowbrook being inserted into that division. Basketball will be very competitive as well. If you win that district in ANY sport, it could really mean something. My guess is Midlothian, Monacan and Dinwiddie are loving this proposal as it has become a three horse race instead of 5 or 6 horse race.

I agree with MidloDad that there are too many interests & lobbying involved in this decision. The VHSL needs to make this a cut and dry decision based upon logical criteria (such as populations), but leave themselves some wiggle room to make adjustments if needed.

I can't help but wonder if this will have an effect on the coaching landscape in the region?

It would be nice if VHSL would at least consider the adverse impacts this would have on baseball.

If you look at the numbers, you have 2 districts with 9 schools and 2 districts with 8 schools. That seems balanced, right?

Except that in the proposed Div. 5 South district, 2 of the 8 schools listed don't have baseball programs at the moment, haven't for some time now, and as far as I know have no hope of getting any anytime soon. Which means you have a 6-team district for baseball in Div. 5, while you'll have a 9-team district in Div. 6.

That 9-team district is going to have teams with 16 district games and, in all likelihood, the other 4 games being in a spring break tournament (if Chesterfield lets them go back to the full 20-game schedule, which isn't assured yet to my knowledge). Which means they will never play non-district games in the region, unless they go to some sort of unbalanced in-district schedule where you don't play everyone twice.

Meanwhile the 6-team district will be searching for games to fill out their schedule, which will have only 10 district games and 8-10 more slots to fill. And they won't be able to look to their Div. 6 neighbors, because they won't have game slots to give.

It's just a big old mess for those of us who focus on baseball.

I wish they would at least force Powhatan into that Div. 5 South district. That would help, though it wouldn't solve the Div. 6 South's problems.

Chesterfield is allowing the 20 game schedule again...

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I can't help but wonder if this will have an effect on the coaching landscape in the region?

It really could. Couple that along with the teacher pay scale in Chesterfield being 10,000 less than that of most surrounding counties scales and there could be some guys moving around....

You really think a coach, or I should appropriately say Teacher (in most instances) is going to go jumping around because there team is in a different Div? Please remember that coaching is essentially a volunteer position.

My personal opinion is this won't have any effect on coaches.

Maybe I'm missing something.

Rich
www.playinschool.com

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Chesterfield is allowing the 20 game schedule again...

Well, at least there's SOME good news!