Northwestern District's Class 3, 4 schools to merge schedules in 2023-24

With its member schools voting to play each other in all sports beginning in the 2023-24 school year, the Northwestern District will no longer seem like two separate districts.

The Northwestern District expanded from five to 13 schools for the 2017-18 school year, and over the last six years the district has featured a nearly equal mix of Class 4 schools and Class 3 schools. (The district had seven Class 4 and six Class 3 schools the first two years and the last two years, and eight Class 4 and seven Class 3 schools the middle two years.)

Next year, all the Class 4 schools will play each other and all the Class 3 schools will play each other, just like always. Class 4 and Class 3 schools can opt out of playing against each other if they both agree to it next year, and this has already happened in some cases with football. But more events between Class 4 and Class 3 schools will be scheduled in response to the Virginia High School League’s new four-year alignment plan that will run from 2023-24 through 2026-27.

The departure of William Monroe to the Valley District means the Northwestern will have 12 schools (the smallest it has been since 2016-17). And with Fauquier and Kettle Run dropping from Class 4 to Class 3, the district now has five Class 4 schools, the smallest number for one class since the district’s expansion occurred in 2017-18. Handley, James Wood, Millbrook, Sherando and Liberty are in Class 4 and Brentsville, Fauquier, Kettle Run, Manassas Park, Meridian, Skyline and Warren County are in Class 3.

Sherando coordinator of student activities Jason Barbe said the VHSL requires districts to have all their schools play each other in each sport unless a district unanimously chooses to opt out of that requirement. The district had unanimously chosen to opt out the previous six years, but this time, the schools felt it was best to lock in games with each other to help with scheduling.

Barbe said eight of the 12 schools — including all five Class 4 schools — supported playing everyone in the district, but it would have only taken only one school to insist on that to make playing everyone in the district a reality.

“I believe the Northwestern District was the only district in the state that was fielding two different district schedules. One for the Class 3s and one for the Class 4s,” Barbe said. “With the amount of teams we had in there, it was certainly a beneficial system to use.

“As the Class 4s have dropped to only five schools next year, we were kind of at a little bit of a disadvantage. If [Winchester/Frederick County] only played the 4s, we were going be down to four football games and eight [games in all the other team sports], with very little options on places to go get games because other districts are filling their schedules within their districts.”

No school in the district is required to play Manassas Park in football. The Cougars canceled their season in August due to low participation numbers, and the only Class 3 schools they’ll play next year are Skyline and Meridian.

Among the Winchester-Frederick County schools, only James Wood plans on playing a football schedule made up exclusively of Northwestern District schools for the next two-year scheduling cycle. (Football schedules can still be altered since they’re not due to the VHSL for several months.) Handley, Millbrook and Sherando will each play two non-district schools.

The Judges and Pioneers will both play Harrisonburg, and Millbrook and Sherando will both face West Virginia’s Jefferson. Handley has played the Blue Streaks 84 times, while Millbrook played Harrisonburg in the most recent two-year cycle. With the exception of the 2020-21 COVID year and 2008, the Cougars have played the Warriors every year since 2003. They’ve played the Pioneers every non-COVID year since 2011. Handley’s non-district schedule will also feature West Virginia’s Musselman and Sherando will also take on Lightridge.

Two of the more intriguing aspects of the 2023 football schedule are how it begins, and how it ends.

James Wood and Sherando have opened the season with each other every non-COVID year since 2017, but they will meet in Week 7 next year at James Wood. The last week of the regular season will feature Handley at Sherando, two schools who have never ended the season against each other, in addition to James Wood at Millbrook. The Colonels and Judges typically end the year against each other but will play in Week 5 on Sept. 22, their first September matchup since 2000.

Schedules haven’t been finalized for the other sports. In the team sports of volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball, the Class 4 schools will play each other twice each, the Class 3 schools will play each other twice each, and the Class 4 schools and Class 3 schools could play each other once each. Class 4 schools would be guaranteed 15 games and Class 3 schools will be locked into 17 games with that approach. Some Class 4s and 3s could also opt to play each other twice.

In soccer and tennis, Class 4 schools will do a double round robin with schools in their own classification and could play several Class 3 schools. If Class 3 schools hold a double round robin with their schools, they could only play a maximum four of the five Class 4 schools, though. Playing each Class 4 school once each would give them 17 matches, one over the VHSL limit of 16 matches for those sports.

As far as the postseason, there is still much to be determined for the Winchester-Frederick County schools.

The five Class 4 Northwestern District schools are moving to Region 4D next year, which is significantly more spread out than Region 4C (which currently consists of Winchester, Frederick County, Fauquier County and Loudoun County public schools). The other schools in the 15-school Region 4D are Amherst, Blacksburg, Charlottesville, E.C. Glass, George Washington-Danville, Halifax County, Jefferson Forest, Mecklenburg, Orange County and Salem.

Handley director of student activities Reed Prosser said Region 4D will not meet again until 2023. With football, he anticipates that playoff qualification will be based on Region 4D’s current format, which takes the top eight teams ranked by VHSL power points. With the region’s 15 schools spread out over five districts, power points could also be used for seeding the other team sports at the regional level.

Clarke County football

With East Rockingham leaving the Bull Run District, Clarke County’s schedule will also look a little different next year. The Eagles will play five Bull Run District games instead of six, and they will also play six home games.

Clarke County’s five-game non-district schedule will feature four new teams in Class 4 Rock Ridge, Class 2 King William, Class 1 Buffalo Gap, and Catoctin (Md.). Class 3 Warren County is the only holdover team.

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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