Differences between levels 1A-6A

[mike salem]

I'm no expert on statewide football across all levels, but I thought it would make for an interesting discussion. I generally only keep up with 3A/4A because that's what the majority of the Roanoke Valley schools consist of.

The biggest difference I've noticed is depth. Some of the bigger schools have 120+ on their Fr, JV, and Vars teams. I think the bigger rosters offer competition within the team that makes them better. I think there is a distinction between roster number and depth though.

Depth consists of numbers, but also quality, and cross training. A lot of smaller teams have 2 way starters, a bigger team may not have any. Another difference is quality of backups. Some teams #2 is as good or better than other teams #1. Good teams will rotate a good #2 in to gain experience, bring in fresh legs, and keep guys motivated. By cross training I mean having players that can play multiple positions. It may just boil down to quantity increases the odds of quality?

A good team can play opponents that are considerably bigger and consistently win, but if you look at teams that have moved up after having success at a lower level, in most cases it's difficult to maintain that level of success.

Briar Woods and Broad Run are 2 examples of teams that won at 4A ('08-'12 Champions between the 2) and then moved up and haven't been able to reach that pinnacle. Briar Woods reached the title game and have been 24-14 in the 3 years since they moved up. Broad Run has gone 39-20 since they moved up to 5A in the last 5 years. Neither was bad (BW was 3-8 last year, but their schedule was insanely hard- opponents were 100-40, 2 were runner-ups & 2 were semifinalists) It's just hard to maintain that level of success moving up levels.

So what do you guys think? Give me some opinions and perspective from 1A -6A.

 

[reg b]

Good points but I disagree with your #1 reason. I think it's shear numbers to pick from. If a 1 a school has 350 kids then you figure it's 175 boys..a team would have to draw from 175. The odds of you getting 15 solid ball players are OK. But a 6a school has 2000 give or take and 1000 boys. So of you play the odds all the way around it favors the larger schools. Just plain odds

 

[mike salem]

Good points but I disagree with your #1 reason. I think it's shear numbers to pick from. If a 1 a school has 350 kids then you figure it's 175 boys..a team would have to draw from 175. The odds of you getting 15 solid ball players are OK. But a 6a school has 2000 give or take and 1000 boys. So of you play the odds all the way around it favors the larger schools. Just plain odds

Sheer numbers was one of my points and I agree with you on that. I've noticed depth being a big factor from 4A-6A, but depth could just be illustrative of numbers as you mention for 1A.

 

[HS-SportsFan]

2A Clarke County has a freshmen team that usually averages 22 players, with 8th graders being allowed to play on the freshmen team. In some years the 8th graders can make up almost 30-40% of the freshmen team. There is no separate JV program, though the non-starters from the varsity team play 2 or 3 JV games early in the season. The varsity team averages 50 players with many starters playing both offense and defense. The top 15 or so players determine how well the season will go. After you get past the starter at each position, unless another one from that top 15 is moved in as a replacement, there is a noticeable drop off in skill level.

 

[Marshall-Dillon]

And Clarke is one of the largest 2A schools in the Commonwealth. Many 2A schools have 200 or so less students than Clarke so the disparity is pronounced even within a classification.

 

[MntnrMark]

I'm no expert on statewide football across all levels, but I thought it would make for an interesting discussion. I generally only keep up with 3A/4A because that's what the majority of the Roanoke Valley schools consist of.

The biggest difference I've noticed is depth. Some of the bigger schools have 120+ on their Fr, JV, and Vars teams. I think the bigger rosters offer competition within the team that makes them better. I think there is a distinction between roster number and depth though.

Depth consists of numbers, but also quality, and cross training. A lot of smaller teams have 2 way starters, a bigger team may not have any. Another difference is quality of backups. Some teams #2 is as good or better than other teams #1. Good teams will rotate a good #2 in to gain experience, bring in fresh legs, and keep guys motivated. By cross training I mean having players that can play multiple positions. It may just boil down to quantity increases the odds of quality?

A good team can play opponents that are considerably bigger and consistently win, but if you look at teams that have moved up after having success at a lower level, in most cases it's difficult to maintain that level of success.

Briar Woods and Broad Run are 2 examples of teams that won at 4A ('08-'12 Champions between the 2) and then moved up and haven't been able to reach that pinnacle. Briar Woods reached the title game and have been 24-14 in the 3 years since they moved up. Broad Run has gone 39-20 since they moved up to 5A in the last 5 years. Neither was bad (BW was 3-8 last year, but their schedule was insanely hard- opponents were 100-40, 2 were runner-ups & 2 were semifinalists) It's just hard to maintain that level of success moving up levels.

So what do you guys think? Give me some opinions and perspective from 1A -6A.

A good question/discussion. The examples of Briar Woods and Broad Run are good ones. We'll find out on a local level the next couple of seasons ('17 and '18) with Blacksburg moving up to 4A. Not that Blacksburg was tearing up 3A the last few years, but Thad Wells has followed Dave Crist and generated renewed enthusiasm for the program. A 6-5 first season under Wells was a decent start after implementing the spread offense. There was hope they could return to upper echelon status in 3A had they stayed there, but with the enrollment increase they'll be another interesting example to study.

I think it's somewhat analogous to baseball. The jump from Rookie League to Single A, Single A to AA, AA to AAA, and AAA to the majors are significant steps up. I've talked to two guys that got as high as AA and they told me a few guys can make the transition and maintain a similar level of success but a far greater number can't.

Greater numbers of bodies (kids playing football) doesn't always translate to more wins - we've all seen lower classification schools trounce higher classification schools - but most any coach would welcome bigger quantities of kids to compete with each other.

Like most things, it is a combination of factors - school size (enrollment), quality of head coach, quality of assistants, tradition/passion, weight training emphasis, etc. - that contribute to success, but there is a reason state high school governing bodies set up different classifications, with enrollment being the differentiator.