Region D principals vote for change in football's divisional format
If the Virginia High School League approves emergency legislation proposed by the Region D Principals Association, Region D will have 11 Division 1 football schools and 11 Division 2 football schools when the next high school gridiron season begins in August.
The region's principals voted Thursday by a narrow 4-2 margin to ask the VHSL's Executive Committee to remove rule 68-8-3 (4) from the league's handbook and policy manual. A total of 14 principals at the meeting abstained from the vote.
Under VHSL rules, football teams in each region are divided evenly every two years based on enrollment with the larger Group A schools in the region being classified as D2 teams and the smaller schools being classified as D1. However, under the exception commonly referred to as the "Rye Cove rule,"? schools which are classified as Division 2 with enrollments half or less than the largest D2 school in the region can appeal to the VHSL Executive Committee to be placed in Division 1.
With the addition of four new schools to Region D in the next school year, the region will have 23 schools and 22 that have football programs.
Although official enrollment numbers won't be released until late March, principals have a general idea of what they will be based on the numbers used last year by the VHSL's Reclassification and Redistricting Committee.
Those numbers show that Lee High would be the largest Group A school in Region D and the state with 840 students. With Lee's number at 840, Coeburn (391), Honaker (381), Clintwood (344) and Haysi (304) would all be eligible to appeal reclassification from D2 to D1 under the Rye Cove rule. If the appeals were approved by the VHSL, Region D would have 15 Division 1 teams and seven Division 2 teams.
Such a scenario did not sit well with J.I. Burton Principal Scott Keith, who has seen his school's football team win the D1 regional title for four consecutive years.
"The whole reason the VHSL did this redistricting was to see balance in the regions,"? Keith said. "If we split 15 to 7 then that's not balanced.
"The big schools don't object to the split because they would only have seven schools in Division 2. They would have seven teams and four of them would make it to the region. That's pretty good odds. Some of these other schools want to drop down, but that's not fair to us. With a school with 200 students it's a lot harder for me to field a team then it is for a school with 400.
"If I'm one of you all, I'm fighting to come down too. But, it's not right."?
A motion by Keith to split the region evenly with 11 teams in each division was defeated by a 5-2 vote with 13 abstentions. However, Keith made a motion later in the meeting to have the region ask the VHSL do away with Rye Cove rule and it was approved.
In other action, the association approved motions to hold the Region D Division 1 and 2 football championships and the regional tennis tournament at UVa-Wise and to hold the Region D boys and girls basketball semifinals and championships at Virginia High in Bristol.
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