When Group 5A Conference 16 playoffs begin in 2015, don’t be surprised if you need a color chart, much less a program, to keep track of the teams.
Monday afternoon in Charlottesville, Roanoke’s Patrick Henry High School was granted its appeal to move from the 6A ranks down to 5A by a Virginia High School League committee. The vote was 9-3 in favor of the PH request.
Just when last year’s realignment to a 6-Group format was being fully digested by fans and coaches, here we go again with a another alignment that has plenty of interesting sidebars.
Patrick Henry will move to Conference 16 North where it will join Albemarle, Atlee, Halifax County, Orange County and Patrick Henry-Ashland in the six-team group.
It could get interesting if PH-Roanoke goes head-to-head with PH-Ashland in conference play.
Not only are both named after the famous “Give me liberty or give me death” orator, both schools’ mascot and nickname are……you guessed it….The Patriots. Things thankfully are liberated by the school colors, with PH-Roanoke in purple, white and gold while PH-Ashland checks in with patriotic red, white and blue. Gives the game announcer something to think about before he bellows “Possession goes to the Patriots.”
The move to Group 5A also changes scheduling for a pair of PH-Roanoke’s fellow-River Ridge District local members. With PH as a 6A school, local 3A members Hidden Valley and Cave Spring were not required to schedule the Patriots because of the 3-classification differential. Now, the Titans and Knights will be forced to schedule PH in all sports.
Hidden Valley was already playing PH in most sports, including football and basketball. Cave Spring, with a significantly lesser enrollment, had not been scheduling the Patriots in either football or basketball.
Tuesday afternoon, Cave Spring head football coach Tim Fulton commented on the upcoming change.
“It is what it is,” Fulton noted matter-of-factly. “We’ll just line up and play ’em.”
The appeal came about after the Roanoke City Public School system claimed a clerical error skewed March enrollment figures by eight students who were supposed to be reported as students at William Fleming.
– Bill Turner
