The charter members of the district were Edison, Mount Vernon, Justice, Wakefield, Washington-Liberty, West Potomac, and Yorktown High Schools.
This process has been deemed very confusing due to the inter-twinning of regular season districts and post-season conferences.
In 1996, West Potomac moved from the National to the Patriot and Falls Church was added from the Liberty District.
In sports other than football, Valley played an independent schedule, usually against schools in the AA Dulles District.
Hayfield joined the National in 2009, as its population was cut nearly in half by the opening of South County in 2005 making it a struggle for the Hawks to compete with schools in the Patriot District whose student bodies were nearly double.