In Hollywood, where movies are made and fantasy thrives, it is common for underdogs to overcome impossible odds to triumph and celebrate.

But Richmond isn’t Hollywood.

And football in Central Virginia isn’t fiction.

And endings aren’t necessarily happy ones.

The cold, hard facts are that Richmond’s five public high schools have struggled mightily on the gridiron this autumn, mostly against much larger schools.

Starting this week, the RVA-5 had a combined record of two wins and 36 losses against non-Richmond opponents.

Few games are close. The five schools have been outscored by 1,060 points — 1,614 to 554 — heading into the 10th week of a disturbing season.

And it could be worse. Often, a “running clock” is implemented in the second half to shorten games and lessen the anguish.   

Background: For decades, Richmond schools competed in districts against county schools with considerably higher enrollments.

Armstrong, and previously John F. Kennedy high schools, were in the Capital District with schools in Eastern Henrico and Hanover counties.

John Marshall and Thomas Jefferson high schools were in the Colonial District with Western Henrico County schools and Patrick Henry High School in Ashland.

George Wythe and Huguenot high schools were in the Dominion District with Chesterfield County schools.

That all changed — sort of — three years ago when the Virginia High School League realigned into conferences based on school enrollment.

The five city schools were pared with Hopewell and Petersburg high schools in Conference 26, Division 3A. This year Spotsylvania was added to Conference 26.

All the old county district foes are 4A, 5A and 6A.

This year, Huguenot High, the Richmond school with the largest student enrollment, was placed in Conference 20, Division 4A, with similarly sized Powhatan, Monacan, Midlothian, Hanover and Dinwiddie high schools.

The Falcons, however, do not play those Conference 20 opponents, preferring the old Dominion District slate.

The fallout: Schools are not mandated to play conference foes. The new classification system doesn’t come into full effect until postseason playoffs.

The city schools have chosen to continue to play basically their old district schedules, passing on conference foes Hopewell, Petersburg and Spotsylvania high schools.

Results have not been pretty.

All five city high school athletic directors — Ksaan Brown at Armstrong, Lamont Davis at John Marshall, Bill Holt at Thomas Jefferson, Shea Collins at Huguenot and Shervi Barnes at George Wythe —were interviewed by the Free Press on this subject.

Their explanations for maintaining the old schedules were similar.

Here are some reasons given:

Old rivals: It’s hard cutting decades-old ties with schools/coaches/athletic directors.

City schools are fearful that if they sever football relations, they may lose those opponents in all other sports, particularly in basketball.

Richmond’s schools are competitive — and even dominant — against county opponents in basketball, and the games draw large crowds.

Transportation/travel time: Busing teams to play schools in the old district is rarely more than a half hour. All schools want to avoid longer trips that might require late-night returns.

Finances: City schools often share revenue, after expenses, when playing on the road. This provides valuable income.

“It ranges from $1 to $3,000,” said George Wythe High’s Barnes of the Bulldogs’ road trips.

“We’ve received close to $5,000 at times,” said John Marshall High’s Davis, who schedules games at Prince George every year with no return home match. “If we play at home, we lose money.”

Armstrong High’s Brown says he has “requested” to play at homecomings in order to receive the larger gates on the road.

Often when city schools play each other or at home against non-city foes, they wind up in the red.

“It costs us $2,000 to run a football game,” said Thomas Jefferson High’s Holt. “On one of our Saturday games last year, we sold 72 tickets. Now figure that – 72 times $7.

“It’s predicated on the almighty dollar.”

Trying to schedule weaker/smaller schools further from Richmond is no easy — or cheap — matter.

“You can go broke chasing a victory,” said Davis.

Possible games with Hopewell, Petersburg and Spotsylvania high schools are not viewed as profitable.

Playing at home may increase the chance for victory, but often results in lost income. Only Huguenot and Armstrong have lights for night games, which garner higher attendance.

Without lighting, Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall high schools play in the afternoon. Wythe, with no lights or permanent seating, has hosted only a handful of on-campus games since opening in 1960.

There’s hope in hoops: The only sport in which city schools flourish against their old district foes is boys’ basketball.

John Marshall boys won the basketball State 3A title in 2014 and George Wythe won the title for the 2015 season. City schools are a juggernaut in boys’ hoops also against Division 5A and 6A schools.

So there is good news on two fronts.

First of all, football is about to end. Phew.

And second, basketball is about to commence. Hooray.

“I call that get-back,” said Davis with a chuckle.