THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 23, 1995 TAG: 9508230626
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBIN BRINKLEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
The Virginia School League took the conservative approach toward redistricting Tuesday and followed through on plans to merge Norfolk and Portsmouth in a reconstituted Eastern District.
The Redistricting and Reclassification Committee meeting in Charlottesville voted, 11-0, to adopt a modified form of Plan 2 that keeps the Eastern Region intact while remedying the Eastern District's scheduling woes.
The plan also moves Nansemond River from the Group AA Bay Rivers District into the Group AAA Southeastern District. Lakeland, which remained in Group AA in the plan's original form, will now petition to join the Southeastern District, principal William Hill said.
The committee's decision now goes to the Executive Board for approval at its meeting Sept. 20-21.
``I feel good about what was done,'' said Ken Tilley, VHSL executive director. ``I don't anticipate a lot of changes.''
The Redistricting and Reclassification Committee met July 31 and forwarded two plans to the overall membership for consideration. Plan 1 would have divided the membership into three equal parts forcing Norcom and Wilson to Group AA and moving Bayside and Tallwood from the Beach District to the Eastern District.
It also would have switched the Peninsula District to the Central Region.
Plan 2 should renew and revitalize some of the state's oldest foot ball rivalries. Maury and Wilson first met in 1919 and Granby and Wilson first met in 1940.
Those three schools were members of the Eastern District until Wilson left with the formation of the Southeastern in 1967. Booker T. Washington and Norcom will play for the 63rd time this season, but haven't been league rivals since the Virginia Interscholastic Association for black high schools disbanded in the 1960s.
The biggest beneficiary of the changes is the five Norfolk schools, which have increasingly struggled to fill schedules as the districts around them grew.
``This should make for a very competitive district, particularly in basketball,'' Maury basketball coach Jack Baker said. ``Churchland, as good as it has been the last four or five years, should fit right in in terms of a rivalry.
``And Maury and Wilson have played for a long, long time. I think we can renew those rivalries.''
The move into the Eastern District is not as popular with Portsmouth coaches. Norfolk football fans traditionally don't travel with their teams the way Chesapeake fans do and some Portsmouth coaches have expressed concern about losing money at the gate.
``We will accept the hand that has been dealt us,'' Norcom football coach and athletic director Joe Langston said. ``But I'm disappointed. We like the competitiveness that we have developed in the Southeastern. Every Friday night you feel like each game you play is for the championship.''
The changes will increase the size of the Eastern Region, already the largest in the state with 34 schools, to 37, including Lakeland.
Lakeland on the basis of its projected enrollment, has the option of remaining in the Bay Rivers District.
``We are very satisfied to stay in the Bay Rivers,'' Hill said. ``But as a school system we have to do what is consistent and equitable for all families in the City of Suffolk.''
Hill said he was concerned that possible regional scheduling would prevent Nansemond River and Lakeland from meeting in some sports should they be placed in different districts. Also Group AAA plays girls basketball, girls tennis and girls volleyball in different seasons than Group AA.
The decision to move with Nansemond River was agreed upon at a meeting that included Hill, Nansemond River principal Sam Jones and superintendent Joyce Trump, pending the committee's choice of Plan 2, Hill said.
Plan 2 would put 118 teams in Group AAA, 82 in Group AA and 85 in Group A. It does not address the question of inequity among the regions. The Eastern Region will have 14 more schools that the Northwest, for example.
The four Group AAA representatives on the Redistricting and Reclassification Committee proposed in July that consideration be given to expanding the number of regions from four to eight. For example, the Beach and Southeastern districts could be placed in one region and the Eastern and Peninsula districts in another.
``That was discussed and it was decided it should come from a region directly to the Group board,'' Tilley said. ``I'm sure the Northwest Region will propose it at the Group board meeting in October.'' ILLUSTRATION: REALIGNMENT PLAN
[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]
by CNB