AAA Central Region

The Central Region is one of the four AAA regions in the Virginia High School League. It is made up of four districts: the AAA Capital District, the AAA Central District, the AAA Colonial District, and the AAA Dominion District. Group AAA is the largest enrollment class for VHSL schools, and typically AAA is the most competitive level as well.

The Central Region comprises most of the public schools in the Greater Richmond Region, including public schools from Richmond City, Chesterfield County, Henrico County, Hanover County, and Petersburg, Virginia.

Classification Issue

Though AAA schools in Virginia are supposed to be around 1,500 students or larger, a considerable amount of schools in the Central Region are below this size and petition to play up in Group AAA. In fact out of the 32 Central Region member schools, 13 are Group AA size, and one is Group A size. Usually, the VHSL accepts petitions from schools that choose to do this. However, most members that play up to AAA usually have enrollments close to the AA/AAA cutoff. However, schools such as Colonial Heights High School and Maggie L. Walker High School in Richmond City enroll under 1,000 students; Walker High School is at around 600 and would be classified in Group A if they did not petition to play up.

The main reason why these schools play in AAA is to play with district schools that are nearby, rather than drive out farther away to play similarly sized schools. However, the region has enough AA sized members to create two AA districts (except for Walker) made up of smaller sized Central Region schools. 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 to some degree has caused Group AA to be the smallest group of the three classes (A schools tend to stay in Group A and not play up), and AAA to be the largest. This has also caused crowding in the AAA Eastern Region, which currently has 39 schools, and only five of them have elected to play up.

Member Schools

AAA Capital District
*Armstrong High School of Richmond, Virginia
*Atlee High School of Mechanicsville, Virginia
*Hanover High School of Mechanicsville, Virginia
*Henrico High School of Richmond, Virginia
*Highland Springs High School of Highland Springs, Virginia
*Lee-Davis High School of Mechanicsville, Virginia
*Varina High School of Richmond, Virginia
AAA Central District
*Colonial Heights High School of Colonial Heights, Virginia
*Thomas Dale High School of Chester, Virginia
*Dinwiddie County High School of Dinwiddie, Virginia
*Hopewell High School of Hopewell, Virginia
*Matoaca High School of Chesterfield, Virginia
*Meadowbrook High School of Richmond, Virginia
*Petersburg High School of Petersburg, Virginia
*Prince George High School of Prince George, Virginia
AAA Colonial District
*Deep Run High School of Glen Allen, Virginia
*Douglas S. Freeman High School of Richmond, Virginia
*Mills E. Godwin High School of Richmond, Virginia
*Patrick Henry High School of Ashland, Virginia
*Hermitage High School of Richmond, Virginia
*Thomas Jefferson High School of Richmond, Virginia
*John Marshall High School of Richmond, Virginia
*John Randolph Tucker High School of Richmond, Virginia
*Maggie L. Walker High School of Richmond, Virginia
AAA Dominion District
*L. C. Bird High School of Chesterfield, Virginia
*Clover Hill High School of Midlothian, Virginia
*Cosby High School of Midlothian, Virginia
*Huguenot High School of Richmond, Virginia
*James River High School of Midlothian, Virginia
*Manchester High School of Midlothian, Virginia
*Midlothian High School of Midlothian, Virginia
*Monacan High School of Richmond, Virginia
*George Wythe High School of Richmond, Virginia