Are there too many divisions?

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

I don't follow the private school ranks but congrats to Fredericksburg Christian on their first ever state title.

I see that there are four state champs crowned in the private school ranks. How many teams are in each division? Seems like there are so few private schools in the grand scheme of things that they could trim the number of state champs that are crowned to make them mean more.

Just curious to see how it's broken down.

 

[va dandy]

Yes there are too many divisions. There should be only 2. You either play with the big boys, or you don't. This can lead to a lot of recruiting "mischief " . The small schools are the ones that are particularly susceptible to this practice. There is a rather simple solution. Unless a player transfers to your school for geographic reasons i.e. new family moves to town, you will not be eligible to play your first year at your new school. Once instituted this rule will fix a lot of this. FCA should be very careful with their new found success. Unless they like very long bus rides to other states.

 

[Chief62]

Yes for sure too many divisions. Maybe three instead of the current four. Remember, it is not just the number of schools but also the size disparity between the largest and smallest.

Not sure where you give larger schools a pass on recruiting. With their size, perhaps the effects of the recruiting does not show as much but I think it is safe to say that every school competitive in their Division as at least several students that' were attracted to that school in large part due to sports. Is this necessarily recruiting? Watch FCS and see if the seven or eight kids that came over from Spotsylvania graduate. Do they go to college? More important, do these players identify as members of the school. Would they commit to the honor of playing for their school if the coach leaves? In short, are the Fredericksburg Christian students or are they one or two year hired guns. If it is the latter, we will know. Look how fast Norfolk Christian went from the penthouse to the outhouse.

I will congratulate FCS on great year despite the beat down they put on my North Cross team in the semis. State championships are not a birthright and teams go on roles where they are competitive for several years. Programs come when you compete in the years when your talent levels are thin or young. A coach that brings in that many new players every year most likely will wear out his welcome and will leave after a couple of years.
Either that or the school gets tired of having their upper school athletic culture dominated by mercenaries. Happens all the time. Happened at NorthCross six years ago and they are still paying the price of dropping sixty on a cross town rival with players that did not represent the school.

As for transfer rules, my guess is that schools use athletics as a way to attract students in order to gain tuition money. Every time a kid transfers or re lasses, it means more tuition. Can't see schools turning down money in these tight time.

A 70 spot against Church... Maybe I feel a little better about the 53 we dropped to FCS in the semis. I look forward to seeing the Spotsylvania seven graduate and go off to good schools. That and my kids hitting puberty and the weight room!

Can't wait until next year.

 

[va dandy]

good points Chief. A lot of states do have the eligibility rule that I mentioned in my previous post. It does help cut down on the mercenary factor. You will always have transfers who are attracted to sports programs or facilities.

 

[thomasjones12]

How is a team crowned state champion with ten teams in a division? Pretty sure there are public schools districts with more teams. So winning a private school state championship is on par with winning a public school district?

 

[JOEWM2004]

Yes, there are too many divisions. Having a fourth division was a big mistake and I'm pretty sure they are going back to three soon. I think any less than three though will put schools that are so different from each other in the same division and that just wouldn't work.

 

[Chief62]

In Louisiana, every private school is paired with a public school. As long as the player transfers within that attendance zone, they were eligible immediately. Otherwise sit out just like public schools. But private and public schools played in same association and public schools angry that private schools win too many championships. See John Curtis Christian School and Evangel Christian School...

 

[solseeker]

I had heard that they were strongly considering going back to 3 divisions this year also. The attendance disparity is huge in private schools and there are still boys or girls only schools. A lot actually that play football. that skews attendance even more and is why they class a school by the amount of boys or girls and the same school can be in different divisions for each. Some of the NOVA schools are as large as mid size public school, some are tiny. you used to see the enrollment numbers on the VISAA website but I haven't quite found everything on their new site.

Oh, I actually found it now, http://www.visaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/fb-divisions-2014-2015.pdf


This post was edited on 11/18 4:07 PM by solseeker