The Loundon Schools are having great years but have had little to no success against teams from the Western end of the state.. What is lacking? What is needed? I don't know how Jefferson Forest is going to be next year but Salem may be just as good.
What does Loudon County need to do to take next step?
- Thread starter southbottomU
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I think next year's Salem team will definitely be better and the following year might be another step up.
As for your question I am not sure. Salem and JF both seemed to be quite a bit better up front AND had more speed and talent in the backfield/secondary.
They just need to stop growing so their schools stay in 4A. It hasn't been that long ago when they won 5 in a row with Broad Run & Briar Woods. Tuscarora moved to 5A quickly and established themselves as perennial powers. Stone Bridge also 5A is good every year. The best Loudoun Co schools are 5A. Woodgrove & Champe may be 5A next cycle as well.
Nothing can be done, it's not a problem that plagues the area that everyone else has figured out. Sometimes you win games, sometimes you lose. JF and Salem were the West's 2 best teams this year regardless of seeding, that's all there is to it. I'm more than confident if you switched opponents the results would still hold to form. Much the same, if both LoCo teams won it wouldn't mean they had figured out this part of the state either.
Mike hot it on the nose. If these schools wouldn't grow so much they might win a state championship every year. The population and schools are always being built splitting schools etc. imagine if they stayed in one school for 10 years it would be some dynasty schools in Loudoun county.
They were winning 4A with 5A and 6A size schools. That's still the way to go. Now that they don't have to realign every two years (every four), they're likely to have 4A schools playing with 2200 students at some point.
I agree with you that under the old classifications loudoun schools did benefit from numbers... but so did other schools...Didn't Bird win it in 6a with 5a numbers, not sure when that took place but I know for a lot of years 5a was as tough or tougher than 6a (especially when phoebus and hampton where in that class), sometimes playing up is an advantage.
we are getting closer----don't be suprised the next few years.Talent level is cycling up at Salem not down after last year. By the way --Great job Spartans getting to the semis for the third straight year.
Flat out, having 600-1000+ more kids to find players in is an enormous benefit. Especially on the line. You can find skill players anywhere but if you could find 5-6 kids with legit size to play line you can dominate 90% of the teams you'll see from the get-go. You can have FBS talent skill players but if they're surrounded by nothing they can only do so much. The 1A vs 6A matchup isn't impossible from a skill sense but it almost is from a line sense. Trying to find 5 good linemen in a school of 500 kids is way, way harder than a school of 2,000 kids.
I would agree...but this is no longer the case, hence phoebus is now a 3a, the number argument is now no longer relevant. The playing field is now level... as it should be. Fans of certain teams should be glad the system was what it was for so long...otherwise there might not be so much talk about "winning state" when the teams that were winning were playing in a watered down classification.
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Even though realignment will happen every 4 years there will still be some movement up and down, just not as much. There is a 5% rule put in place (if a school's enrollment drops or gains 5% from their originally placed enrollment number then they will be moved).
Derp. That question his literally been asked on here multiple times with long threads.
agree, and loudoun is one of like 90 counties in Va. we can't win it every year...
Exactly! We got there early today and the Champe AD was kind enough to allow us to use the restroom before the gates opened. Really nice guy. I talked with him a few minutes, he's an old Loudoun County boy. He talked about the growth in that area. They were in the playoffs last year with a 7-3 record I think. They were in 3A. I asked him how many students Champ was built for and he said 1,800 and we're at that now. By the time the next alignment rolls around we'll 6A.
GO SALEM
GO MULES
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