Snow fouls up district tourneys
Tuesday was supposed to be a big day on the high school hardwood. Instead, the weekend’s snowfall made it another day for hard shoveling and some fairly hard decision-making.
The Cardinal, Cedar Run, Commonwealth and Bull Run districts had all planned to have their boys and girls championship tournaments underway by Tuesday or Wednesday, and completed by Saturday night.
Instead, the starts of those tournaments are up in the air as none of the districts have their regular seasons complete or champions determined.
School has been out since Friday, the day when most teams were scheduled to play their final regular-season games. Saturday was available for playback games to break any ties in the district standings. The regular-season district champion receives an automatic berth in the regional tournament, as well as the No. 1 seed in the district tournament.
According to Potomac Activities Director Frank Higgins, Prince William County Schools will decide around noon today (Wednesday) whether basketball teams can play tonight or Thursday night.
Higgins says there are two plans being discussed that will allow for the district tournaments to be completed without affecting the Tuesday, March 25 start of the regional tournaments.
If games can be played tonight, the regular season games will be completed and Thursday will be available for playback games. The four-team district tournaments can then be held on Friday and Saturday.
If games cannot be played until Thursday, the regular season will be completed then. Friday will be open for playbacks and the district tournaments will take place Saturday and Monday.
There’s more.
If no playback games are necessary, a particular tournament could be held over the standard three days at a single site. The boys and girls first rounds are held on different days in that scenario, and then the championships are held on the same day.
If it is necessary to make the district tournaments just two days, as in any scenarios with playback games involved, the first rounds of both the boys and girls tournaments can be held at the site of the highest seed, followed by championship games the next day.
“There isn’t going to be any rest,” Higgins said.
Brooke Point AD Chris Courtney said Commonwealth District ADs are meeting today at noon.
“Hopefully, we’ll get some answers,” he said.
The Culpeper boys, which lead Albemarle in the district standings by two games, have regular season games remaining against both the Patriots and Stafford. In the girls standings, Stafford, just a half-game ahead of Albemarle, has yet to clinch the district title.
Courtney said the ADs in his district are rescheduling tournaments, working backward from the state championships. If the VHSL is open to pushing back its March 8-15 state tournament, then ADs could tinker with the dates of regional and district tournaments. If not, they’ll have to come up with a plan to fit the games in.
The Bull Run District had planned to play its tournament on Thursday and Friday at Madison County. Brentsville clinched the regular-season crown, No. 1 tournament seed and Region B berth with a win over Madison this past Thursday.
District tournament champions, when different from the regular-season champion, also advance to the regional tournament. If the same team wins both championships, the district tournament runner-up advances to the regional tournament.
Both the Group AAA, Northwest Region and Group A, Region B tournaments were originally scheduled to begin Feb. 25, or a week from yesterday. Semifinals were supposed to be played on Thursday, Feb. 27 and finals Saturday, Mar. 1.
According to its web site, the Delaney Athletic Conference, whose tournament was supposed to begin Monday, has canceled first-round games. They plan to begin the tournament with quarterfinals on Thursday.
The boys tournament will feature three local teams hitting the road. Fifth-seeded Seton is scheduled to travel to No. 4 Shenandoah Valley Christian Academy, No. 6 Emmanuel Christian is supposed to play at Fredericksburg Christian and No. 7 Quantico is scheduled to play at Highland School.
Semifinals and finals are scheduled to be played Friday and Saturday nights at the Highland School in Warrenton.
In the DAC girls tournament, No. 1 Seton hosts No. 8 Fredericksburg Academy on Thursday and No. 5 Quantico will be at No. 4 Emmanuel at 6:30 p.m.