High school athletics are about more than wins and losses. They teach students perseverance, teamwork, accountability and how to compete within established rules; skills everyone needs to be successful in life.
We tell student-athletes that grades matter, boundaries matter, rules matter and deadlines matter. When a student falls on the wrong side of one of those lines, we expect that student to accept the consequence.
That life lesson is consistent with the Virginia High School League’s (VHSL) own stated vision. VHSL says competition is desirable and is best conducted under the “spirit and letter” of the rules governing each activity. It also emphasizes “fair play, honesty, and respect for others” and specifically identifies “ensuring fairness and equity through safe competitions” and “promoting sportsmanship, ethics and integrity” among its core beliefs.
Those principles should apply not only to the student-athletes competing under VHSL rules, but also to the adults responsible for administering them. That is why the VHSL Executive Committee should hold firm to the established enrollment cutoffs and not grant any school’s request to play “down” into a lower classification.
As Superintendent of Craig County Public Schools, the second-smallest school division in the Commonwealth, I have serious concerns about allowing any school assigned to a higher classification to appeal down and compete in a lower class. In practical terms, “appealing” or “playing down” allows a school to compete outside the classification in which its enrollment would otherwise place it.
For VHSL classification, school size is determined using Average Daily Membership for students in grades 9-11. Classification exists to group schools of reasonably similar size and create the fairest competitive environment possible. Enrollment is not a perfect predictor of athletic success, but it matters. A school with 300 students has a much larger pool of potential athletes than a school with approximately 100.
Small schools have talented athletes, outstanding coaches and successful programs. But when a high school has roughly 100 students, there are only so many students available to play football, basketball, volleyball, run track, participate in band or join the FFA. That basic math is precisely why classification lines exist.
For Craig County, the consequences of allowing schools to play down are not hypothetical. Last year, our varsity football team had a historic season, earning 10 victories and the first playoff win in school history. That remarkable season ended against a school with nearly three times our high school enrollment. The opposing school had originally been assigned to Class 2 based on its enrollment. However, the school appealed that classification successfully during the previous realignment cycle; VHSL allowed the larger school to compete in Class 1.
That observation does not diminish the opposing players, coaches or their accomplishments. They competed under the classification VHSL permitted. The concern is with the system that allowed the exception.
Consider wrestling. If the cutoff for a weight class is 150 pounds and a wrestler weighs 150.5, we do not say, “That is only half a pound, close enough.” We do not consider whether competing in the next class would be inconvenient. Rather, the wrestler makes weight or competes in the higher class.
Half a pound may seem insignificant, but the line has to be somewhere. Once the line becomes negotiable, it is no longer a cutoff.
There will always be a school just above a classification line. Regardless of whether the school is over by half a student, ten students, or fifty, the cutoff should remain firm. Someone will always be the largest school in one class, and someone else the smallest in the next. That is unavoidable, but it does not make the cutoff unfair.
What is avoidable is establishing an objective enrollment standard and then treating it as negotiable.
A significant enrollment disparity already exists within Class 1. The proposed cutoff for Class 1 is 343 students in grades 9-11. Craig County High School has only 107 students in those grades. Further, our entire combined middle and high school, grades 6-12, enrolls 258 students; 85 fewer than the Class 1 cutoff alone.
Seven of Virginia’s smallest high schools enroll 125 students or fewer, while the seven largest Class 1 schools each enroll at least 315. As such, some Class 1 schools are already competing against schools with more than two-and-a-half times their enrollment before any higher-classified school is permitted to move down.
Travel is often cited as a reason for reclassification. Craig County understands the burden of travel. Our student-athletes routinely make long trips for district, with some contests requiring approximately two and a half hours of travel each way, often on a school night.
But long travel is not unique to Craig County, as nearly every school division in Southwest Virginia is faced with some level of travel. Notwithstanding, we do not believe travel is a valid reason to move down. An exception may shorten one school’s trips, but it requires every smaller school in that classification to compete against a school whose enrollment placed it in a higher class. That does not solve the problem; it transfers it.
Moreover, there is an obvious competitive benefit to being among the largest schools in Class 1 rather than among the smallest in Class 2. But what about the schools at the bottom of Class 1? Where can they appeal to go? Nowhere. There is no Class 0.
Virginia’s smallest schools already operate with fewer students, smaller staffs, fewer bus drivers, fewer resources and smaller pools from which to fill athletic rosters. Yet they compete. They do not get to add students because their enrollment is low, move a boundary because the field is too wide, receive an extra second because the buzzer came too soon or grant a wrestler an extra half-pound. And they certainly do not get to appeal to play down to Class 0. Rather, they show up and follow the rules.
If enrollment numbers are going to be treated as a starting point for negotiation, classification becomes less about an objective standard and more about who can present the most compelling case for an exception. That produces a system that is less predictable and less equitable for all schools.
If VHSL believes its enrollment cutoffs are wrong, it should review the data, publicly debate the structure and establish new cutoffs if necessary. But once those numbers are adopted, they should apply to everyone.
No classification system will satisfy every school. What works in Northern Virginia may not work well in Southwest Virginia, the Alleghany Highlands, Southside or Hampton Roads. But fairness does not mean eliminating every inconvenience or guaranteeing a preferred outcome. It means establishing reasonable standards and applying them consistently to all member schools.
On August 25, the VHSL Appeals Committee upheld those standards and voted not to allow any school to play down. When the full Executive Committee considers the final appeal on September 23, it should respect that decision. Overturning it, simply because a school disagrees with the outcome, risks undermining confidence in the classification system, the appeals process and VHSL itself.
In short, we should not expect Virginia’s student-athletes to respect established lines if the adults governing their athletics are unwilling to do the same.
The line has to be somewhere. Once we establish it, we need to hold to it.
