Published Jan 5, 2021
VHSL Hoops Top Tens - 2021 New Year Edition
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Matthew Hatfield  •  VirginiaPreps
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Our first Top Ten since the season debuted on Monday, December 21st comes during this first week of January. We figured to skip a week with the holiday break. Ordinarily, there would be holiday tournaments all over the state, but not the case with COVID-19, which has caused 22 school divisions and 39 schools to opt out of the season altogether.

Additionally, there are 117 schools across 45 school divisions that have delayed play for the VHSL's Season 1. If they don't begin soon, it'll be hard to imagine many of them being able to string together enough games for a legitimate playoff run.

Nonetheless, a few have recently reversed course - such as Petersburg in Class 3, which jumps in the rankings after starting on the opt out list. Virginia Beach City Public Schools on Monday night also gave the go-ahead for its 11 programs to begin practice this week with games likely to commence around January 20th, so that bodes well for title contenders such as Landstown in Class 6 (State Champs in 2019) and Green Run in Class 5 (which shared the state title with Norview last year).

Even though the list of ranked schools that have played so far is just 22 out of a possible 60, we do have some changes in every division with the exception of Class 6, where there are a couple of unbeaten 4-0 teams on our 'Honorable Mention' section, waiting to jump in the Top Ten.

You can see each Top Ten below...

* Note - All records are through games played on Monday, January 4, 2021. *


Class 6 Hoops Top Ten:
RankPreseasonSchoolRecord

1

1

South County

1-0

2

2

Western Branch

3

3

Potomac

2-0

4

4

Lake Braddock

4-0

5

5

Centreville

1-0

6

6

Patriot

1-0

7

7

Landstown

8

8

James River

9

9

Oscar Smith

10

10

Thomas Dale

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Honorable Mention:
John Champe (4-0)
South Lakes (4-0)
Hayfield (3-1)


Class 5 Hoops Top Ten:
Dropped Out: #9 Freedom-South Riding (1-2) and #10 Potomac Falls (1-3)
RankPreseasonSchoolRecord

1

1

Green Run

2

2

L.C. Bird

3

3

Patrick Henry-Roanoke

4

4

Kecoughtan

5

5

Maury

6

6

Albemarle

7

NR

Stone Bridge

5-0

8

8

Norview

9

HM

Kempsville

10

7

Rock Ridge

3-2

Opted Out:
3. Varina
9. Douglas Freeman


Class 4 Hoops Top Ten:
Dropped Out: #4 Dominion (2-2) and #10 Loudoun County (2-2)
RankPreseasonSchoolRecord

1

1

King's Fork

2

2

Menchville

3

3

Halifax County

4

5

GW-Danville

5

NR

Broad Run

4-0

6

6

Woodrow Wilson

7

7

Monacan

8

8

Jefferson Forest

9

9

Smithfield

10

NR

Courtland

2-0

Class 3 Hoops Top Ten:
Dropped Out: #6 Goochland (1-1) and #9 Independence (2-1)
RankPreseasonSchoolRecord

1

1

Charlottesville

2

2

Western Albemarle

3

3

Northside

4

4

Hopewell

5

5

Cave Spring

6

7

Skyline

3-0

7

NR

Fluvanna

3-0

8

8

Spotswood

9

10

Abingdon

2-0

10

10 (Opt Out)

Petersburg

Honorable Mention:
Liberty Christian
Broadway
Central-Woodstock (2-1)

Opted Out:
7. Armstrong


Class 2 Hoops Top Ten:
Dropped Out: #9 Gate City (1-2) and #10 Richlands (1-1)
RankPreseasonSchoolRecord

1

1

East Rockingham

2

2

Radford

2-0

3

3

Dan River

4

4

Union

1-1

5

7

Graham

2-0

6

6

Martinsville

7

NR

Ridgeview

3-0

8

8

James River-Buchanan

9

5

Floyd County

2-2

10

NR

Tazewell

1-1

Opted Out:
1. John Marshall
6. Brunswick


Class 1 Hoops Top Ten:
Dropped Out: #8 Eastside (2-3)
RankPreseasonSchoolRecord

1

1

Auburn

2

2

Parry McCluer

3

3

West Point

4

4

Grundy

1-0

5

6

Mathews

1-0

6

NR

J.I. Burton

3-0

7

7

Colonial Beach

8

9

Altavista

9

10

Lancaster

10

5

Twin Springs

2-1

Honorable Mention:
Charles City (1-1)
Chilhowie (1-0)



Matthew Hatfield serves as Publisher for VirginiaPreps.com, part of the Rivals.com Network, and is a regular contributor to the ACC Sports Journal. Check out Hatfield’s Twitter page for more sports related updates, and you can also read his work in the Suffolk News Herald. To contact Matthew, please e-mail hatfieldsports2k4@yahoo.com, and don’t forget to listen to him from 10 AM to Noon on 757 Saturday Sports Talk on ESPN Radio 94.1.