ball team finished up with a 418 record, and

ball team finished up with a 418 record, and the boys’ team came in at 2-19.

Pury^ar said a number of students had expressed frustration with the losses.

“It’s hard to ask an athlete year after year to come and get beat by 20 or 30 points,” Puryear said. “I think we have to build confidence and skill level in, these sports.”

Pulling the teams out of the district would also free Rappahannock from rules governing off-season training. Puryear expressed interest in spring and summer training camps, though said there no concrete plans at the moment.

“We have a lot more flexibility to train and condition in and out of season,” she said.

But by not completing in an official district, the football and basketball teams will not be eligible to enter regional and state tournaments. Puryear noted, however, that the teams have not made it that far in at least the past seven years.

Puryear’s decision comes about a month after the Virginia High School League denied her request to switch Rappahannock from the Bull Rim to the Shenandoah District. She and Rappiahannock high school athletic director Bob Czekaj had hoped the move would give the Panthers a competitive foothold, but schools in both districts opposed the proposal and it was shot down.

Czekaj helped Puryear develop the current plan to pull just the football and basketball teams from the Bull Run District and play independently.

“The decision that was made here recently was the right decision,” he said.

“You can see it in the kids’ attitudes and the piarticipjation levels,” he said. “That’s the thing that I'm most concerned with.”

Czekaj said that some of the sports programs might have to be cut if participation levels were to drop any further.

“I don’t want to see these kids lose the opportunity to play,” he said.