By: Dan Sousa
(Apr. 14, 2008) – Stone Bridge High school won its appeal Monday to remain in the AAA Liberty District and Northern Region by a slim 7-6 vote by the VHSL’s Redistricting and Reclassification committee. Loudoun Valley and Heritage were not as fortunate as they lost their appeal to join Stone Bridge in the Northern Region by a 1-11-1 vote. Heritage will join Valley in the AAA Cedar Run District and Northwest Region starting in 2009-10.
“I’m very happy,” said Stone Bridge athletic director Dave Hembach after returning from the hearing in Charlottesville. “I’m a little surprised that we won the appeal but the fact is that we never requested to leave the Liberty and the district voted (for Stone Bridge) to stay.”
While the Bulldogs had requested all along to remain where they have been for nearly three school years in the Liberty District, which featues teams from Fairfax County, Valley was requesting a move back to the Northern Region after being placed in the AAA Cedar Run District and Norwest Region starting this school year.
Before that, Valley was in the Northern Region and the National District but travel distance caused the Vikes to not play full district schedules in all sports but football. Valley was asking to be placed in the Concorde Disrict this time around which features schools closer to Purcellville.
Heritage, meanwhile, had to find a new district as a rising student population is forcing the Pride to move up from the AA classification to AAA. Heritage wanted to join Stone Bridge in the Liberty District. The Pride, however, will now join Valley with several Manasass-area schools in a small Cedar Run District.
Hembach said that parents and coaches at his school wanted to stay put in the Liberty.
“The fact is that we get out at 3:48 p.m. and our teams are going against traffic to get to Liberty District games,” said Hembach.
The Liberty District will be expanded starting in 2009-10 as Fairfax High School has been moved into the district to create a nine-team league. Hayfield High School also won an appeal Monday and has been granted its request to moved from the Patriot District to the National District.
Starting in 2009-10, the Northern Region will look like this:
Concorde District (6 teams): Centreville, Chantilly, Herndon, Oakton, Robinson, Westfield
Liberty Distrtict (9 teams): Fairfax, Jefferson, Langley, Madison, Marshall, McLean, South Lakes, Stone Bridge, Woodson
Patriot District (7 teams): Annandale, Lake Braddock, Lee, South County, T.C. Williams, West Potomac, West Springfield
National District (8 teams): Edison, Falls Church, Hayfield, Mount Vernon, Stuart, Wakefield, Washington-Lee, Yorktown
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