Why is The Boys Varsity Soccer Team Division Four?

A lot of people were very confused at the beginning of this school year as to why the boys varsity soccer team was bumped to Division 4 (D4) where as all the other teams stayed at Division 3 (D3). Divisions can seem very complicated to understand, or maybe you just haven’t had the time to learn how they are determined.

The divisions are based on how many enrolled boys and girls there are. A school gets evaluated by the Vermont Principals Association (VPA) every two years to find out how many boys and girls are enrolled in the school system. For example, if we had 150 girls at the school, compared to the 72 there are right now, the varsity girls team would be a higher division than the division they are in right now (D3). The boys team, on the other hand, could have a lot fewer boys than the 74 enrolled to choose from, meaning they would be in a lower division.

If your evaluation makes a bracket where the team could be in the top of a lower division, or the bottom of a higher division, then the head coach and the athletic director of the school decide where the team is placed. When the team is placed into a division, it is locked into that division for two years before being reevaluated again. "The Rivendell boys varsity team was reevaluated this year and fell into a bracket where they could either be placed low in Division 3 or placed high in Division 4," explained Rivendell's Athletic Director, Ross Convertino. According the the VPA, at the beginning of the season, with 76 boys, Richford was the school with the least amount of boys to chose from in D3. Rivendell had the most boys in D4 with 74.

The choice was made that the boys should be in D4. Robert Thatcher, the boys varsity coach, told us that there are not as many boys at Rivendell as there were last year, and that is why the VPA placed us in a D4 and D3 bracket. Mr. Thatcher also said, "I have always thought that Rivendell should be a D4 school". The Rivendell boys varsity team is first in the standings as of Thursday, October 19th.

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