The Central Region is one of the four AAA regions in the Virginia High School League. It is made up of four districts: the AAA Capital District, the AAA Central District, the AAA Colonial District, and the AAA Dominion District. Group AAA is the largest enrollment class for VHSL schools, and typically AAA is the most competitive level as well.

The Central Region comprises most of the public schools in the Greater Richmond Region, including public schools from Richmond City, Chesterfield County, Henrico County, Hanover County, and Petersburg, Virginia.

[edit] Classification Issue

Though AAA schools in Virginia are supposed to be around 1,500 students or larger, a considerable amount of schools in the Central Region are below this size and petition to play up in Group AAA. In fact out of the 32 Central Region member schools, 13 are Group AA size, and one is Group A size. Usually, the VHSL accepts petitions from schools that choose to do this. However, most members that play up to AAA usually have enrollments close to the AA/AAA cutoff. However, schools such as Colonial Heights High School and Maggie L. Walker High School in Richmond City enroll under 1,000 students; Walker High School is at around 600 and would be classified in Group A if they did not petition to play up.

The main reason why these schools play in AAA is to play with district schools that are nearby, rather than drive out farther away to play similarly sized schools. However, the region has enough AA sized members to create two AA districts (except for Walker) made up of smaller sized Central Region schools. Though it is not considered a "hot" issue at the moment, some VHSL officials are not particularly pleased with the fact that many schools in the Central Region that are small AA size or smaller continue to play up in AAA. This to some degree has caused Group AA to be the smallest group of the three classes (A schools tend to stay in Group A and not play up), and AAA to be the largest. This has also caused crowding in the AAA Eastern Region, which currently has 39 schools, and only five of them have elected to play up.

[edit] Member Schools

AAA Capital District Armstrong High School of Richmond, Virginia Atlee High School of Mechanicsville, Virginia Hanover High School of Mechanicsville, Virginia Henrico High School of Richmond, Virginia Highland Springs High School of Highland Springs, Virginia Lee-Davis High School of Mechanicsville, Virginia Varina High School of Richmond, Virginia

AAA Central District Colonial Heights High School of Colonial Heights, Virginia Thomas Dale High School of Chester, Virginia Dinwiddie County High School of Dinwiddie, Virginia Hopewell High School of Hopewell, Virginia Matoaca High School of Chesterfield, Virginia Meadowbrook High School of Richmond, Virginia Petersburg High School of Petersburg, Virginia Prince George High School of Prince George, Virginia

AAA Colonial District Deep Run High School of Glen Allen, Virginia Douglas S. Freeman High School of Richmond, Virginia Mills E. Godwin High School of Richmond, Virginia Patrick Henry High School of Ashland, Virginia Hermitage High School of Richmond, Virginia Thomas Jefferson High School of Richmond, Virginia John Marshall High School of Richmond, Virginia John Randolph Tucker High School of Richmond, Virginia Maggie L. Walker High School of Richmond, Virginia

AAA Dominion District L. C. Bird High School of Chesterfield, Virginia Clover Hill High School of Midlothian, Virginia Cosby High School of Midlothian, Virginia Huguenot High School of Richmond, Virginia James River High School of Midlothian, Virginia Manchester High School of Midlothian, Virginia Midlothian High School of Midlothian, Virginia Monacan High School of Richmond, Virginia George Wythe High School of Richmond, Virginia

[edit] External links

• VHSL-Reference