Accordingly, the Central Region was eliminated, while the districts were retained for regular season competition.
Though AAA schools in Virginia are supposed to be around 1,500 students or larger, a considerable number of schools in the Central Region are below this size and petition to play up in Group AAA.
Indeed, Maggie Walker Governor's School is at around 600 and would be classified in Group A if they did not petition to play up.
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 has also caused crowding in the AAA Eastern Region, which currently has 39 schools, only five of which have elected to play up.