How do I know which games are "within conference"

[Anonymous]

So my kid goes to a smaller school and they're doing pretty good but they've lost a game.

One of the parents claimed they are undefeated within their conference. Wtf is she talking about?

[Anonymous]

Step 1. Ask your child
Step 2. If your child doesn’t know, that means they don’t care and you can then decide if you care
Step 3. Look up “”your state name” high school athletics” and look at the divisions/conference to find your school.

[FPYCparent]

(Assuming the OP is asking about high school sports ...)

Short answer: Usually, matchups between schools in the the same district (or conference) are considered to be "in-conference," and may eventually result in a school earning a district/conference championship for a given sport. Teams can still play matches against other schools that aren't in the same district/conference during the season. Chances are that these non-conference contests occur early in the sports season.

Look at the banners in the gym or trophies in the trophy case. For public schools, you will probably see some "conference/district," "regional," and/or maybe even some "state" championships. You can also look for your kid's school and then sport on Maxpreps (mostly works for private and public high schools):

https://www.maxpreps.com/va/
https://www.maxpreps.com/md/

Longer answer: On the Virginia side, sports in public high schools is usually governed by the Virginia High School League. This body groups schools by student population (mostly). VHSL Class 6 has the largest high schools in the state, including ?all? FCPS (~25), Arlington (3), Alexandria (1). VHSL Class 5 is the next tier down, LCPS and PWCPS mostly resides here. The classes continue down to Class 1, which may have schools under 500 students or so. Meridian in Falls Church is Class 3, I believe, but they are basically an island with no similarly-sized public schools anywhere nearby.

Once you figure out the VHSL Class, the schools get broken down into regions and the regions are broken down into districts. District matchups are usually considered to be in conference. There are four regions in VHSL Class 6 with two of those regions covering Northern Virginia (Occoquan and Northern). The Occoquan Region has the Patriot and National Districts while the Northern Region has the Concorde and Liberty districts.

I am far less familiar with Maryland schools, but I think they do a bit of intra-county grouping in PG and Montgomery. Public schools in DC are likely their own conference.

Privates do their own thing. For example, some of the Catholics schools align themselves into a single conference.

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