Maintaining the best possible criteria for classifications remains a past, present, and, likely, future headache for those making decisions on which schools go where in West Virginia high school sports.
Traditionally, the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission used school populations as the sole guidelines. This system had the virtue of simplicity, but often left private schools with small populations, but the ability to recruit, at a strong advantage over other Class A programs.
In recent years, other factors had been included in determining classification. These included distance from the county seat and socio-economic factors. While unclear as to whether this created a better competitive balance, it also introduced degrees of subjectivity that led to challenges.
The WVSSAC reclassified 22 schools right before fall sports play last season.
Last year, those issues led to lawsuits that delayed the state volleyball and football playoffs. Pendleton County teams had earned spots in both. While both teams had played well enough to secure spots regardless of how courts decided, the lawsuits could have affected seeding in volleyball.
In April, the WVSSAC changed criteria again. The classification rules for this year, which return to using student populations between ninth through 12th grade as the only factor, created a system where AAAA schools have 1,050 or more, AAA has 625-1049, AA has 351 to 624, and A has an enrollment of 350 or less.
Pendleton County regional rivals appear everywhere except Class AAAA. In Class AAA, Hampshire and Keyser have 740 and 665 students, respectively, In Class AA, Frankfort has 488, Moorefield 480, Petersburg 401.
In Class A, Tucker County has 270, Tygarts Valley 211, East Hardy has 203, Union 59, Paw Paw 49, and Harman 31.
Pendleton County has 251, placing it in the middle of the category.
In almost all sports that use the format, Pendleton County will compete in the same region with East Hardy, Paw Paw, Tucker County, Pocahontas County, Tygarts Valley, Harman, Pickens, and the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind.
Pendleton County’s cross country region will consist of Paw Paw, Tucker County, Trinity Christian, Clay-Battelle, and Notre Dame. While PCMHS has a wrestling team that competed well in its inaugural season last year, the school was not included in the wrestling Division II list with A, AA, and AAA teams across the area included.
