Northern Region Results-5/22

NORTHERN REGION TOURNAMENT

First Round Games are on Friday, May 26 at 7:00PM
1) Fairfax @ Edison
2) Hayfield @ Stone Bridge
3) McLean @ Lake Braddock
4) Falls Church @ Robinson
5) Langley @ South County
6) Washginton-Lee @ Westfield
7) Oakton @ Wakefield
8) West Springfield @ Madison

Quarterfinals are on Monday, May 29
at Madison HS
9) Winner Games 1 & 2 @ 1PM
10) Winner Games 3 & 4 @ 4PM
at Robinson HS
11) Winner Games 5 & 6 @ 1PM
12) Winner Games 7 & 8 @ 4PM

Semis are on Wednesday, May 31 at Madison HS
13) Winner Games 9 & 10 @ 4PM
14) Winner Games 11 & 12 @ 7PM

Championship, Friday, June 2, 7:30PM at Madison HS

Good luck to all teams!

JBbaseball,

Please educate me on the northern region playoff system as I am confused.

In our region only 8 teams qualify for the "regionals" those teams are the top two from each District within the region. For us it's the regular season district champ (4 districts in each region of the state) gets an automatic bye to the regionals (what you describe as the quater finals). Then another team can qualify by winning the district tournament.

It doesn't seem to work the same way in the northern region as you seem to play inter-district(the games you list for this Friday as 1st round matchups). You have 4 districts but it appears that one district could concievably have 4 representatives in the regionals (quarterfinals) and another might have none.

Please educate me? I thought the playoff system would be uniform but obviously it's not.

Now I wonder how the east and central do it?

mrmom,

The Eastern District is as you described. Four district regular season winners get #1 seeds, and four district tournament winners get #2 seeds. If regular season champ is the same as the tournament champ, then the tournament runner-up gets the #2 seed. We play under VHSL rules. Northern Va plays under NVHSL rules. Different state ya know. Just kidding JBbaseball...but you have me confused also.

I have been told by our AD that the Northern Region baseball playoff is diffferent than any other sport.
I would like to note that there are differences in each district (Liberty, National, Concorde, Patriot) playoff as well.

Here is how the Northern Region Playoffs work:
First, 4 teams qualify from each district, making it a 4 round tourney (1st round, qtrs, semis and final). They are seeded based on the results of their respective district tournaments.

However, with the exception of the Patriot, the other 3 districts set up their playoffs where the first AND second place teams from the regular season automatically qualify for Regionals.

Best way for me to explain is to give a specific example.
LIBERTY district
Regular season finish
Madison
McLean
Stone Bridge
Langley
South Lakes
Woodson
Marshall
Thomas Jefferson

By virtue of their 1-2 finish, Madison and McLean automatically qualified for the Regional tourney. The district tourney was set up in four rounds.
Put another way, 1st and 2nd place teams automatically qualify for Regionals. 3rd and 4th had to win 1 game to qualify and 5-8 had to win 2 games to qualify.

First round, South Lakes (5) beat TJ (8)
Marshall (7) beat Woodson (6)
Second (quarterfinal) round,
Stone Bridge beat Marshall
Langley beat South Lakes

Now down to semis and 4 teams. Therefore, Madison, McLean, SB and Langley qualified for regionals. But the seedings going into regionals are set by the district tourney results. Madison beat Langley, Stone Bridge "upset" McLean. Since McLean finished higher than Langley regular season, they are the 3 seed for regionals and and Langley is 4 seed. Madison beat Stone Bridge last night in the championship securing the #1 seed. If SB had beaten Madison they would have had the #1 seed in regionals.

I am from Stone Bridge and the school moved from AA (Dulles District, Region II) to AAA this year. The decriptions you have mentioned is what we (SB) were familiar with since the school opened in 2000. So this format was new to us.

I hope I have explained the format in a way that is understandable. I don't have a specific explanantion as to WHY the Northern Region tourney is "different", but it is apparent that the Region Council does have the authority to set the tourney up in this manner. From bits and pieces I have gathered, the region tourney (and district playoffs for that matter) are set this way to prevent an average to below average team who gets one hot pitcher to upset a team who has played well all season. This format definitely favors teams that finish 1/2 in the regular season. Hope your head isn't spinning too much!!!!

PS. Don't know why but the Patriot district tourney was set up as a straight single elimination tournament. And it was my understanding that no one received an automatic bye into regionals. If Lake Braddock (#1) had been upset in the first round by RE Lee (#8), they would have been done for the season......

Thanks JBbaseball,

I think you've done as good a job a possible. On the surface I believe it makes for stronger representation from the north as it weeds out week district winners in favor of teams from tougher districts who may not have been 1 or 2.

I'm reminded of this years football playoffs, not that they worked like this but that the district with Robinson, centerville, westfield and oakton was very strong with Oakton ultimately advancing from the region while I think centerville didn't even make the playoffs.

Oakton went on to crush a Landstown team who had not really had a close regular season game in their region. Oakton had been beaten twice in their district.

I imagine this type of playoff should/would be welcomed in the Eastern region where there are more teams competing than any other region. I would think they'd be close enough geographically to pull it off without too much problem. But it wouldn't work as well in the other two regions because of the distance between schools.

Then again, we would have to factor in the NOVA trip time equivalency (TTE) algorithym to be sure. You know the one that says.

2 hour trip = 100 miles Northwest Region
" " " = 100 miles Central Region
" " " = 60 miles east region
" " " = 35 miles Northern Region



Plus, just think of all the eastern gamesmanship (read trash talking) if you did it this way. I mean no offense to the eastern region because they have a lot of talent and baseball has a better following IMO in that part of the state. That said, they'd really be bantering on this site if they thought everyone would play everyone so they be able to truly determine who the "strongest District" was.

jbbaseball,

what happened to Osbourn HS? I thought for sure they would be back at least in the regions.

Osbourn is not in the Northern region they're in the Northwest region and they will be back.

mrmom-
I loved your TTE algorithm.
It really is accurate!

There is a website you may be familiar with...VApreps.com....which has a TON of trash talking....mainly from the ER football teams.

As far as I know, the Northern Region football playoffs are like the other 3 regions. Your point about the Concorde (Westfield, Oakton, etc.) being a strong fball district is true. Where the D6 region playoffs are tough is that the Patriot district is mainly a D6 district, meaning their district winner gets one of the region berths. Concorde winner get one and then the other two seeds are based on power points. At least one strong Concorde team was shut out of the playoffs. The new expanded playoff system for fball just adopted by the VHSL will probably be used by the Northern Region....