Nearly two years after the Virginia High School League announced its new realignment plan, it appears more change could be on the horizon.
When the VHSL adopted its system of six classifications in October 2012, it did so with a plan of re-evaluating enrollment numbers every two years.
The VHSL’s Alignment Committee met last week to examine those figures and is recommending major changes to its current realignment that will go into effect during the 2015-16 school year and re-evaluated again after 2016-17.
If approved by the Executive Committee, 76 schools would be swapping conferences — with 34 of them changing classification entirely – according to the proposed plan. It is unclear when the Executive Committee will vote on this issue.
The proposed changes will be felt locally, as seven Bay Rivers District schools would move to compete in different conferences.
Most notably, Lafayette and Tabb will be shifting classifications, which are divided to match up schools with similar enrollment numbers.
Lafayette, which competed in Class 3A this past year, has grown in enrollment size and will bump up to compete in Class 4A Conference 18 along with fellow Bay Rivers District members Grafton, Jamestown and Smithfield — all of whom would be on the move after competing in Conference 19 this past school year.
Tabb, a member of Class 4A in the first iteration of the realignment, would drop to 3A Conference 27 and join York and Poquoson, who would be leaving the Colonial Rivers Conference 25.
Unaffected by the change would be Warhill and New Kent — who would remain in Conference 25 — as well as Bruton, the area’s only 2A school that would stay put in Conference 33.
Tabb Athletic Director Susan Wiker did not hold back her criticism when responding to the proposed change.
“This is terrible,” she said. “I wish [the VHSL] would just tell us that this nightmare is over and that we can go back to the old system.”
Wiker said her frustration stems from not only the financial burden she and almost every other school faced when the new system was implemented two years ago, but also from the lack of stability it offers. Instead of re-evaluating the enrollment size of its membering schools every two years, Wiker said she hoped they would look into changes every four years.
“We were just starting to make relationships with the new schools in our conferences and go in a positive direction,” Wiker said. “Now we [the schools that will change conferences] have to look at what new schools we’re partnering with and start building those relationships again. I think we were the smallest school in the 4A South Region, so I had a feeling this was coming. And it could very well happen again in two more years. It’s crazy.”
While most schools faced the issue of increased transportation cost when the VHSL adopted its new system — Tabb, for instance, was forced to exceed its transportation budget by $7,000 this past year because of postseason travel — Wiker said the move to 3A could cost her even more.
“We all pay money as part of our conference and region,” Wiker said. “And just because we’re leaving, we don’t get that money back. Instead we’ll pay more money to our new conference and region.”
Wiker added that Tabb was fortunate enough as a 4A member not to have to travel too far during the first conference and region rounds of the postseason. But if the new proposal is implemented, she says that will no longer be the case as a 3A member. With admissions already suffering under the new system, she fears the move to 3A would only hit the admissions revenue harder. Tabb’s new conference and region has more schools from Northern Virginia and the western part of the state than its previous 4A opponents.
“Our admission was already way down this year because everyone knew that the regular season didn’t mean anything,” Wiker said. “You could go 10-0 in the Bay Rivers District and then lose the first game of your conference tournament and be done. Now, I don’t know who’s going to come to some of our games. I think the one thing a lot of people don’t understand is that athletic directors treat their school’s finances like their own, and right now, a lot of us are scared.”
