Feeling a bit frustrated today.

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

Good morning all.

Welcome to the end of the regular season. The greatest time of the year goes by way too quickly.

You're probably wondering...what's the deal with my subject line? Well here we go.

I'm posting this on this board since by far, the Class 4 Board has way more visibility and discussion than the other boards. And as a Class 4 guy, that makes me happy.

And I will say that what I'm going to mention does not affect my school or my district. Well remotely it does...I guess you can say indirectly as we live in the era of the power points system. So I'm mostly relieved about that.

But as head into the final week of the regular season, I can't help but feel heartbroken for the schools who canceled their seasons outright, canceled their seasons part of the way through, or just recently canceled their seasons. I'm not going to get into the reasons as to why schools canceled at least a part of their seasons. That's not the reason of this post. However, it's disheartening.

I feel bad for these schools and the opponents of those schools...especially over the last few weeks of the regular season. Schools that don't have time to find an opponent. Schools that don't have an opportunity to provide a true Senior Night experience for their kids...and that includes the band, cheerleaders, and others who deserve recognition. I also feel bad for these schools due to the gate(s) that they lose out on which go a long way in helping support other athletic programs within those schools. This causes these athletic departments to scramble to find those funds they were counting on from their gates and concessions. I don't know officially, but I would not be shocked if there were schools that lost multiple home games for whatever reason. That's painful.

This is why I think the VHSL (yes, I know...people are like, he's whining about the VHSL again), should once again step up (that's asking much I know) and state that they must be informed by the March before the upcoming season if schools are going to field a team or not. This will allow them to compile a list of schools that will not be fielding teams for that upcoming Fall so that affected schools can have a little bit of time to find replacement opponents. It's not like these schools do not know their enrollment numbers already and; therefore, know the potential pool of athletes that they can pull from. They should know if they are going to be able to adequately field a team or not.

A line has to be drawn in the sand here and action must be taken. There's no shame in saying, "you know what..we're only going to have 13 kids this Fall...we're not going to field a team". I'd rather know that earlier than right before the season. Kind of like a bad relationship. I'd rather have it end early, then end later after having time and effort invested in it.

By the way, I think this should apply to all sports. For Fall sports, you can have a March 1 drop dead date. For Winter sports, you can have an August 1 drop dead date. And for Spring sports, you can have a November 1 drop dead date. Those are just examples of what you can do.

So that's me on my soap box this morning. We know that sports participation is down. But these forfeits and cancelations are becoming way too common. And it's sickening and disappointing to see.

Here's a chance for the VHSL to step in and do something right and show leadership to help ease the pain of any schools which may be negatively affected.

 

[BleedingNavy]

@Virginia HS Football Fan, I think that your post is well thought out and a reasonable request for an amendment. This is something the VHSL should research and offer the membership alternatives.

Personally, I think Virginia should have five traditional classes for football and one for eight man football. Teams who are in Class 4 and below who have less than 20 players on the roster may play in this division. Going with your theory teams should have to request admission to this division by March. The state could be divided into two sections/regions for the regular season.

This new addition could extremely reduce the stress associated with fielding a team and allow for continued revenue.

 

[EPJr]

@Virginia HS Football Fan, I think that your post is well thought out and a reasonable request for an amendment. This is something the VHSL should research and offer the membership alternatives.

Personally, I think Virginia should have five traditional classes for football and one for eight man football. Teams who are in Class 4 and below who have less than 20 players on the roster may play in this division. Going with your theory teams should have to request admission to this division by March. The state could be divided into two sections/regions for the regular season.

This new addition could extremely reduce the stress associated with fielding a team and allow for continued revenue.

you beat me to it.
Several states have 8-man football for small public schools and VA is one of the few that don't.
I am wondering how practical it would be for public schools to join Virginia Independent 8 Football League?
Maybe some more small public schools can join them since VHSL don't seem interested.
Big picture thinking would be to have the VHSL partner with them instead reinventing the wheel.

 

[BleedingNavy]

If the VHSL lives by the motto of fair play they will start considering this or football is going to die a quick death in a lot of areas in the state. It's makes sense financially as well.

 

[knightfan64]

Here’s my issue with 8 man as is in the state of VA. Check some of the pictures after their state championships. Last year VES had 30+ kids in pads. This year Brunswick Academy, 25+ kids. I personally get what you’re saying about announce by March 1 if you’re fielding a team and I get that, but you have some small schools who legit don’t think about football until summer or may have a walk on head coach. They may have a random year of low numbers should they get to play 8 man? It’s a lot of imperfect qualifications. If you have consistent rosters 25+ I say play 11 man. (Then you may have some schools say they’ll cut kids so they can play 8 man and win a title instead of 11 and be mediocre). We all complain about the VHSL, myself included, but lord I don’t envy the job, because they’ll never be right

 

[DinwiddieProud]

Good morning all.

Welcome to the end of the regular season. The greatest time of the year goes by way too quickly.

You're probably wondering...what's the deal with my subject line? Well here we go.

I'm posting this on this board since by far, the Class 4 Board has way more visibility and discussion than the other boards. And as a Class 4 guy, that makes me happy.

And I will say that what I'm going to mention does not affect my school or my district. Well remotely it does...I guess you can say indirectly as we live in the era of the power points system. So I'm mostly relieved about that.

But as head into the final week of the regular season, I can't help but feel heartbroken for the schools who canceled their seasons outright, canceled their seasons part of the way through, or just recently canceled their seasons. I'm not going to get into the reasons as to why schools canceled at least a part of their seasons. That's not the reason of this post. However, it's disheartening.

I feel bad for these schools and the opponents of those schools...especially over the last few weeks of the regular season. Schools that don't have time to find an opponent. Schools that don't have an opportunity to provide a true Senior Night experience for their kids...and that includes the band, cheerleaders, and others who deserve recognition. I also feel bad for these schools due to the gate(s) that they lose out on which go a long way in helping support other athletic programs within those schools. This causes these athletic departments to scramble to find those funds they were counting on from their gates and concessions. I don't know officially, but I would not be shocked if there were schools that lost multiple home games for whatever reason. That's painful.

This is why I think the VHSL (yes, I know...people are like, he's whining about the VHSL again), should once again step up (that's asking much I know) and state that they must be informed by the March before the upcoming season if schools are going to field a team or not. This will allow them to compile a list of schools that will not be fielding teams for that upcoming Fall so that affected schools can have a little bit of time to find replacement opponents. It's not like these schools do not know their enrollment numbers already and; therefore, know the potential pool of athletes that they can pull from. They should know if they are going to be able to adequately field a team or not.

A line has to be drawn in the sand here and action must be taken. There's no shame in saying, "you know what..we're only going to have 13 kids this Fall...we're not going to field a team". I'd rather know that earlier than right before the season. Kind of like a bad relationship. I'd rather have it end early, then end later after having time and effort invested in it.

By the way, I think this should apply to all sports. For Fall sports, you can have a March 1 drop dead date. For Winter sports, you can have an August 1 drop dead date. And for Spring sports, you can have a November 1 drop dead date. Those are just examples of what you can do.

So that's me on my soap box this morning. We know that sports participation is down. But these forfeits and cancelations are becoming way too common. And it's sickening and disappointing to see.

Here's a chance for the VHSL to step in and do something right and show leadership to help ease the pain of any schools which may be negatively affected.

That was well stated and heartfelt about what kids lose out on when seasons and games have to be cancelled.

I know that the League has tried a number of times to get an 8 man league formed, but only a very few schools would commit to participating. The League already sanctions and supports 8 man, but the participants are so scattered that logistically, regular scheduled competition is nearly impossible.
Chincoteague plays 8 man, and a few schools that are 11 man have played them 8 man so they would have a reasonable number of games.

It’s coming. It’s just a matter of time. Numbers are not going to improve going forward.

As far as declaring that you will or won’t have a team, by default, that requirement exist now. All member schools are required to have their schedules to the League Office by either May 1st or 15th, I can’t remember which. That’s a bit later than you desire but that at least gives other schools a few months. The problem is, those schools that are close in player numbers are hoping that they will have enough, but they have no realistic way to be sure.

Remember, most schools are signing contracts a year ahead for their OOD opponents. So, take Charles City for example, I’m sure they have been it talks with several other schools for next year and probably signed contracts with a few. They will forge ahead with the hope and expectation that 15-20 kids will come out for football next year. That’s a big gamble, but what do they do? You make a schedule and pray. You don’t want to prematurely throw in the towel and takeaway any chance of playing for your own kid’s.

It’s very, very tough to make the call that you will have a team or not. Honestly, you really don’t know until about the first week of August.

You are right though, 8 man league would sure help.

 

[EPJr]

That was well stated and heartfelt about what kids lose out on when seasons and games have to be cancelled.

I know that the League has tried a number of times to get an 8 man league formed, but only a very few schools would commit to participating. The League already sanctions and supports 8 man, but the participants are so scattered that logistically, regular scheduled competition is nearly impossible.
Chincoteague plays 8 man, and a few schools that are 11 man have played them 8 man so they would have a reasonable number of games.

It’s coming. It’s just a matter of time. Numbers are not going to improve going forward.

As far as declaring that you will or won’t have a team, by default, that requirement exist now. All member schools are required to have their schedules to the League Office by either May 1st or 15th, I can’t remember which. That’s a bit later than you desire but that at least gives other schools a few months. The problem is, those schools that are close in player numbers are hoping that they will have enough, but they have no realistic way to be sure.

Remember, most schools are signing contracts a year ahead for their OOD opponents. So, take Charles City for example, I’m sure they have been it talks with several other schools for next year and probably signed contracts with a few. They will forge ahead with the hope and expectation that 15-20 kids will come out for football next year. That’s a big gamble, but what do they do? You make a schedule and pray. You don’t want to prematurely throw in the towel and takeaway any chance of playing for your own kid’s.

It’s very, very tough to make the call that you will have a team or not. Honestly, you really don’t know until about the first week of August.

You are right though, 8 man league would sure help.

but numbers should not matter if you are partnering with an already established league. The league actually functuates. For instance STAB plays 8-Man when numbers are down and goes back to 11-man when numbers are up and anybody else can do the same. That would be an alternative to just closing down shop and nobody plays and those left will play a game that is fairer and less prone to injury.