Thursday July 27 is the opening day of high school football practice and of course teams are already lifting . There are changes coming for the upcoming season. Teams are changing districts, changing classifications . They will be regions now. Six Classifications still remain but now there will be Region A, B, C and D . So six classes with four regionals. Things were West and East now it’s back to Regions. The Mountain Empire District will now consist of Fort Chiswell, George Wythe, Rural Retreat, Galax, Grayson Co., Bland Co. and Auburn.

Three Rivers District will have Radford, Giles, Glenvar, Floyd Co., James River (Buchanan), Carroll Co. and Alleghany . The Southwest District will consist of Graham, Tazewell, Marion, Richlands, Virginia High and Lebanon. Abingdon moves to the Mountain District .

Narrows and Eastern Montgomery will be moving to the Pioneer District. That district also will have Parry McCluer, Covington, Bath Co. and Craig Co. and Highland Co.

The district that lost the most teams is the Hogoheegee. That district will have only four schools; Chilhowie, Holston, Northwood and Patrick Henry -Glade Spring.

Pulaski Co. Cougars will still be in the River Ridge District as well as Salem, Hidden Valley ,Patrick Henry ( Roanoke) , Cave Spring, Christiansburg and Blacksburg. Blacksburg will now be Class 4 instead of Class 3 . 4-C will have 12 teams – Pulaski Co., Blacksburg, Carroll Co., Salem, Wm. Byrd, Bassett, Amherst Co., E C Glass, GW – Danville, Jefferson Forest, Charlottesville and LCA.

Other changes are both Fort Chiswell and Radford move from 1A to 2A. Changes and more changes but hopefully for the good.