Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
DAC expanding to 10 schools, adding two divisions
The next school year will mark the 25th anniversary of the Delaney Athletic Conference, and it will have a look like never before.
The conference's athletic director recently voted to expand by three schools, welcoming in Seton School, Fredericksburg Christian and Foxcroft School (Middleburg). Those additions increase the DAC's membership to 10 schools and add some intriguing new rivalries.
In hopes of leveling the playing fields, the DAC will split into an upper and lower division for six sports: volleyball, lacrosse, girls and boys soccer, and girls and boys basketball.
The higher-enrollment schools — which include local sports power Highland School — as well as Seton School (Manassas), Fredericksburg Christian and Foxcroft School (Middleburg) will play in the upper division in all sports. (An all-girls school, Foxcroft will then play only girls sports.)
Meanwhile, Wakefield Country Day (Flint Hill), Quantico and Fredericksburg Academy form the smaller base.
The remaining schools — Wakefield School (The Plains), Tandem Friends and Randolph-Macon Academy (Front Royal) — will make individual decisions, by sport, on which level to play.
“Enrollment was our first criteria, talent our second,” Highland Athletic Director Gary Leake said of the new division alignment process. “Our goal is to not put the teams in a situation where it is big school versus little school.”
Randolph-Macon will play in the DAC's top division in boys basketball and boys soccer.
Wakefield will also play up in boys basketball, as well as lacrosse and volleyball. Tandem Friends' girls basketball team will likely play in the first division, with the Badgers possibly choosing to elevate in soccer, as well.
“This allows the athletic directors to pick and choose without having the mandate to play,” Leake said. “Of course, each school gets transfers every year, and if we have to modify the schedule [based on a team's improvement], we have the ability to do that.”
DAC teams could still feed into different Virginia Independent Schools state playoffs, however.
The VIS divisional alignment is based on enrollment. Wakefield, for example, plays in the state's Division III and Highland in Division II. Those tie-ins will not change unless a school's enrollment does.
While it may be confusing, all the DAC growth is planned in the name of competition.
There have been some incredible mismatches between the conference's larger and smaller schools, like the Highland girls basketball team beating Fredericksburg Academy 89-2 earlier this year.
The realignment will, hopefully, eliminate those situations.
Leake added that the DAC would like to eventually expand to 12 teams — with six in both the upper and lower divisions. Which schools might fill the two remaining vacancies is unclear.
Both Seton and Fredericksburg Christian are prior members of the DAC. Seton plans to utilize dual conference membership between the DAC and Capital Area Athletic Conference (CAAC). Fredericksburg Christian is also a CAAC member, and may choose to do the same.
Seton and Highland had developed an exciting rivalry before the Conquistadors vacated the DAC three years ago. Their return should instantly spice up competition in several sports.
“Our primary goal isn't to win championships; our goal is to develop student athletes,” Leake said. “Playing schools like Seton that have solid athletic programs, that's what we want. We want our kids to be in exciting games.”
The two divisions will operate independently — each will crown a champion and name an all-conference team. The schools in the upper division and lower division will not compete against each other although they could schedule non-conference games against each other.
Highland, for one, will fill its sports slates with some public schools as it continues to seek out top competition in its best sports. The other upper division teams will likely do the same.
“We're experimenting with scheduling a lot of division I [private] schools and AAA public schools,” Leake said.
The realignment will be in place starting in the fall of 2008.
You must be logged in to post a comment.