Countifs help... I think

I have the words "I think" in the title because I believe what I'm doing, or trying to accomplish is a "countifs" formula. Let me give you some background and we'll go from there...

I'm using Excel 2010. I have 45 rows of students names, followed by columns of dates. I want to input a "V" or a "JV" or an "E" into a cell. I want one of my cells to keep a running total of these. So no matter what I put in the cells (V, JV or E) I want it to add up in one cell.

The cells i'm utilizing are: D3:AN3 and obviously the next rows down for each of the 45 students will have the same formula. The running total will be kept in cell: A3, A4 and so forth again for each student.

Right now, I have the cells from D3:AN3 as drop down boxes with the V, JV & E that I'm wishing to use. When I tried using the =countifs formula, I entered all the criteria and ranges as it showed and when I enter the criteria (V, JV or E) no total is given.

Please help! Thank you in advance for any help!