🏀 Va High School State Champs John Marshall 91 - Radford 34. Controversy!!! [View all]

‘NEED TO FIGURE IT OUT'
Richmond's John Marshall built its basketball juggernaut by the books, but VHSL chief is open to rule changes

https://richmond.com/sports/high-school/john-marshall-built-its-basketball-juggernaut-by-the-books-but-vhsl-chief-is-open-to/article_eb56a682-c35a-11ed-8264-5f76ca9dd019.html

John Marshall’s boys basketball team finished the season ranked No. 1 in the country, polishing its elite resume with a 91-34 victory in the state title game over Radford High.

On Wednesday, VHSL executive director Billy Haun said he is open to changing the rules governing high school sports in Virginia, which created the system where John Marshall, one of the Richmond area’s smallest schools, legally built a basketball powerhouse but could not play against larger schools that might have offered more competition.

John Marshall plays in Class 2 and has an enrollment of 576 students, per the VHSL classification table. Schools in Class 6 have more than 2,000 students, whereas Class 1 schools max out around 450 students.

Schools are allowed to petition the VHSL to move to a different division. The catch is that there is currently no process for a singular sports program to appeal to move up. So if John Marshall wanted to compete for a Class 6 boys basketball title, all of its other teams would have to make the jump too.

So anyone who lives within the city limits can chose to attend John Marshall even if they are zoned for one of the city’s other four public high schools: Thomas Jefferson, Armstrong, Huguenot or George Wythe. Hence, the Justices are essentially a Richmond city all-star team to begin with.