It will work

By Jim Sacco

Published: October 29, 2008

Someone call Geico.

Thanks to the Virginia High School League’s proposal to split championship play into five divisions, turning Augusta County into the epicenter of high school sports in the Commonwealth could be so easy that, yes, even one of those cavemen could do it.

I can already envision Riverheads at Stuarts Draft in football’s Western Super Section final with Wilson Memorial at Buffalo Gap in the Eastern bracket. The winners would play each other for the Division 2 state championship.

Others see only another drastic change to their beloved, old-school high school sports.

I see Augusta County going bonkers. Heck, I almost need to wear Depends to even type that dream Final Four, in any sport.

With five of the area’s seven schools slated to be in Division 2 and Waynesboro and R.E. Lee in Division 3, Augusta County can basically have its own district — an option that is allowed under the VHSL plan.

Yes, throw the two Division 3 schools in the mix. There are six games of your football schedule and 12 games of your basketball schedule devoted to this new “district.” Call it what you wish, it doesn’t matter, just don’t call it the Southern Valley. (Let’s kill that debacle of a district now, please.)

Hand out a trophy to the team with best record after “district” play is done. Oh, and do it right (you know, like the Shenandoah does it now) and play all those district games in a row to end the year.

Fill up your other games with holiday tournaments and other football games, and it’s not much of change from the way it is now.

Rockbridge? Heck, let the Wildcats worry about themselves, Augusta County. This is your time to shine, your time for the rest of the state to look at you and say, “Wow, they did it right.”

Sure, other schools can schedule cupcakes so, with a better record, they can have an easier road to the playoffs. But who says we have to follow suit? They only stack hay bails six high in other rural counties. Around these parts, we stack ‘em in eights. We’re gritty. We farm. We brave icy mountain roads each winter to drain local Quickie-Marts of bread and milk.

Run to your local AD or principal and urge them to back this change right here and right now.

Of course, they won’t.

Instead, some local ADs will pine for the days of the old Valley District when R.E. Lee, Turner Ashby, Harrisonburg and the like rocked the stands in gyms and at football fields throughout the year. Thanks to the proposal’s option of allowing district play to continue — though it will have no bearing on the postseason — the Valley District can rise from the ashes of the split. There are those who can’t let the past go and will fight to revamp what was taken away two years ago when the Valley split.

Leave it, I say. This is no time to saddle the current and future crop of high school athletes with Grandpa’s dream of the good old days.

No sir.

Not now.

Trust me, I feel for principals such as Waynesboro’s Tim Teachey who admitted after Tuesday’s mind-boggling presentation that he can’t imagine a Valley without districts. I do feel his pain. I’m being sincere. This guy was dropping jumpers in Harrisonburg players’ eyes when I was still dropping drool onto my bib in a high chair.

But the past is the past.

This is the future and with a little creativity, this split will work in Augusta County.

No, you’re not taking away rivalries here. Buffalo Gap and Riverheads football players will always want to hammer away at each other. That’s why guys like Travis Morris and Jacob Hutchinson call it the best rivalry not only in Augusta County, but the state. Fort Defiance will never want to lose to Wilson Memorial. Waynesboro and R.E. Lee will still sell out basketball games and talk trash all year after a win.

The onus for this is on the area ADs. They need to wake up. They need to realize we don’t use carbon paper any more and text messaging is king. The future is now.

They need to realize the experiment of the Southern Valley District was an epic failure. They need to right those wrongs. Not attempt to relive them, through watering eyes with soft touching music in the background. But with an eye toward the future and the quality of play in Augusta County.

The Valley District as we knew it is dead with the Shenandoah set to follow it into the abyss.

Thinking of a county championship awarded every year and, of course, that sweet, sweet Final Four in Division 2 (I’ll type it again: Stuarts Draft vs. Riverheads and Wilson Memorial vs. Buffalo Gap), I say good riddance.

It’s time to move on and the VHSL has paved the road. We already have insurance. Now somebody, anybody, start the car so fans can sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.