The Virginia High School League (VHSL) is charged with establishing and maintaining standards for athletics in 27 State Championship sports participated in by 300 Virginia high schools involving approximately 165,000 students. Participating public high schools are divided into three Groups; A, AA and AAA in the Redistricting and Reclassification Plan adopted by the VHSL.

Every two years the VHSL calculates new classifications and redistrictings. Those were announced for the 2009 through 2011 seasons last Friday. The Powhatan Indians will remain in the AA Southside District for the 2009 through 2011 seasons. Neighboring Goochland High School will move up to AA and into the Jefferson District from their previous A classification and James River District alignment.

The formula for establishing the floors and ceilings within the three classifications is ridiculously simple. “We take the total enrollment of grades 9 through 12 in all the schools and divide it into thirds,” said VHSL Administrative Assistant Lora Bickley. Current brackets are 741 and under for Group A, 742 to 1580 for Group AA and over 1580 for Group AAA. Powhatan High School’s current enrollment is pegged at 1325 which makes it the largest in the Southside District as opposed to Brunswick being the smallest at 641. Goochland’s 757 qualifies as the smallest in the Jefferson District with Louisa the largest at 1399.

Floors and ceilings change as areas experience population fluctuations, although increases or decreases significant to skew the bracket criteria are rare. Powhatan has seen a growth of approximately 260 students since 2006 keeping pace with growth in most of the rest of the state while Goochland is an anomaly with an increase of approximately 415 during the same period, more than double their 2006 enrollment.

On the surface it would appear that going up in classification would detract from the competitiveness of the smaller school; a larger enrollment should indicate a larger pool of athletes from which to draw. For example, Hermitage High School’s 2027 student enrollment obviously allows it to put more skilled athletes on the playing fields, in more sports, than Charles City High School’s 266 or Jamestown’s 1301.

Powhatan High School Athletic Director Jim Woodson experienced the impracticality of such an imbalance when Powhatan was a part of the Dominion District in the 1980’s. Competing against AAA schools made it almost impossible to maintain a winning football program. “It was very difficult,” said Coach Woodson not looking forward to ever having to do so again. He contends that the opening of Route 288 could have stimulated a population growth in the County sufficient to push the PHS enrollment into AAA status, but the resultant inflated prices of new homes in the county may have counteracted the effect.

Powhatan Head Basketball Coach Steve Washburn has a different viewpoint. In some respects he would welcome the elevation to AAA. Although he admits that top to bottom the AAA districts are stronger “we could be competitive with the two or three top teams in their district.” Citing the success his squad has had in tournaments featuring AAA Deep Run and Midlothian, “We could adapt and compete” he stated. Coach Washburn also points out some other advantages to a AAA schedule; travel and natural rivalries. Geographically the Southside District is spread out over a wide area and unlike football; played on a Friday night, basketball games are generally on school nights. Often twice a week Powhatan basketball teams travel to Greenville, Parkview or Bluestone. Evening games and two-hour one way bus rides get the students back home as late as 11.30. These long distances and evening games also reduce the amount of parental participation and student fan support on the road. Plus ongoing competition with more local schools would lead to natural rivalries. “It’s hard to have a strong rivalry with someone as distant as Bluestone or Greenville while James River and Midlothian would be natural rivals.”

Powhatan Volleyball Coach Clark Menger has similar thoughts. “We are already competitive” Coach Menger said citing the Lady Indians’ seventh place ranking in the metro Richmond area. From a practical standpoint he also points out the tremendous amount of time spent on just getting to Southside District games. “There is nowhere we travel that takes less than an hour. That’s a lot of wasted diesel fuel” he said. A triple A schedule would “cut my hours in half.”