The AA River Ridge District is a district in Region IV of the

Virginia High School League The Virginia High School League (VHSL) is the principal sanctioning organization for interscholastic athletic competition among public high schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The VHSL first sponsored debate and also continues to sponsor sta ...

. It is centered around the

Roanoke Valley The Roanoke Valley ( ) in southwest Virginia is an area adjacent to and including the Roanoke River between the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east and the Appalachian Plateau to the west. The valley includes much of Roanoke County, as well as the ...

and

New River Valley The New River Valley is a region along the New River in Southwest Virginia in the United States. It is usually defined as the counties of Montgomery (including the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg), Pulaski, Floyd, and Giles and the ...

Southwest Virginia Southwest Virginia, often abbreviated as SWVA, is a mountainous region of Virginia in the westernmost part of the commonwealth. Located within the broader region of western Virginia, Southwest Virginia has been defined alternatively as all Vir ...

History

The River Ridge District was formed for the 2003–2004 school year out of the

AA Blue Ridge District The AA Blue Ridge District is a district in the Region III of the Virginia High School League. The district is centered around the Roanoke Valley in Southwest Virginia and is named for the Blue Ridge Mountains, which feature prominently in the reg ...

in Region III. In the 2002–2003 school year, the student body of Group AAA Cave Spring High School in Roanoke County was split into two Group AA sized schools with the opening of Hidden Valley High School. These two new schools gave the Blue Ridge District eleven members that year except in football, where Cave Spring remained in AAA and Hidden Valley played a limited, solely non-district schedule. The district was separated for the 2003–2004 school year when both schools played a full schedule as AA members. The assignment of schools to the two districts was not without controversy. The Roanoke County school board wanted all of its schools to be in the Blue Ridge District. However, other schools objected because this alignment would have created a competitive imbalance in football with the prospective River Ridge District having stronger teams than the Blue Ridge District. Eventually, a compromise sent the two southwest Roanoke County schools to the River Ridge and

William Fleming High School William Fleming High School is a public school, one of the only two public high schools in the Roanoke City area school division, the other being the Patrick Henry High School. The edifice itself is located at 3649 Ferncliff Ave. Roanoke, Virgin ...

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is lo ...

to the Blue Ridge. In the 2007–2008 school year, the River Ridge District was moved into Region IV because many of the former Group AA member schools in the region had lost enrollment and dropped into Group A. The Blue Ridge District remained in Region III. The River Ridge District was preserved in the 2013-2014 VSHL reclassification. Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke and Carroll County High School in Hillsville joined the district. This made it so the District included schools from group classifications 3A to 6A. Each school will compete only against members of the same group classification in post-season play. Carroll County left in 2017, joining the

Three Rivers District Three Rivers is a local government district in southwest Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Rickmansworth. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by the merger of Rickmansworth Urban District ...

Geographic Makeup

The River Ridge District is located in

. It takes its name from member schools being located in the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virgin ...

and in close proximity to the

Roanoke River The Roanoke River ( ) runs long through southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the United States. A major river of the southeastern United States, it drains a largely rural area of the coastal plain from the eastern edge of the App ...

and New River. The district currently includes two schools located in

Roanoke County Roanoke County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 96,929. Its county seat is Salem, but the county administrative offices are located in the unincorporated Cave ...

, two in Montgomery County, and one each in Roanoke City, Pulaski County, and Salem City.

Regional and State Competition

While the VHSL uses District formatting for regular season contests and determining postseason eligibility, the teams are divided into different classes and regions for Regional and State-level competitions. As such, River Ridge District members compete in the following formats (as of 2022): *Class 5, Region D (Patrick Henry) *Class 4, Region D (Blacksburg, Pulaski County, Salem) *Class 3, Region D (Cave Spring, Christiansburg, Hidden Valley)

Member schools

* Blacksburg Bruins of Blacksburg * Cave Spring Knights of Roanoke * Christiansburg Blue Demons of Christiansburg * Hidden Valley Titans of Roanoke *

Patrick Henry Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): " Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first an ...

Patriots of Roanoke * Pulaski County Cougars of

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

* Salem Spartans of Salem

Former Members

* Carroll County Cavaliers of Hillsville

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aa River Ridge District Virginia High School League