GHSA sets new regions for Classes 1A-3A before appeals

Another round of appeals is slated for Dec. 15

This past Wednesday, the GHSA Reclassification Committee heard appeals of the newest incarnation for the reclassification for Classes 3A, 2A, and 1A for the upcoming two-year cycle.

Gordon Lee, which had been placed in Class 2A in the classification re-do, unsuccessfully appealed to drop back to Class 1A. Trion also had its appeal to go drop from Class 2A to the new Class 1A Small School Division (Div. 2) denied, although the GHSA instead allowed Trion to move to the Class 1A Large School Division (Div. 1).

Both of the schools moved up from Class 1A after the GHSA recently reversed its course and applied the new 3.0 multiplier to all schools in the organization. Because public and private schools are currently split in Class 1A, those schools had been exempt from the multiplier after the initial reclassifications last month.

However, the bottom three classes had to be reconfigured after several small Class 1A private schools announced that, for a number of reasons, they were leaving the GHSA for the GISA at the end of the current school year.

Some 12 schools have announced their intentions to leave, which left the GHSA struggling to find a solution to come up with privateschool only regions and a viable playoff system for those small private schools remaining in Class 1A of the GHSA.

Ultimately, the decision was made to enforce the multiplier to everyone — moving schools up if necessary — and separating the remaining Class 1A schools by enrollment rather than have a public-private split.

The GHSA also released what the new regions are slated to look like for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. However, schools will have a final chance to appeal for lateral transfers in the same classification on Dec. 15, meaning the new regions may still be altered prior to the GHSA Executive Committee ratifying the new regions in the second week of January.

Where there was once 11 teams slated for Region 6-AAA, that region is currently down to just six teams with Adairsville, Coahulla Creek, LaFayette, LFO, Ridgeland and Ringgold.

Bremen, who had been placed in this region less than a month ago, has been placed into Region 5-AAA with Carver-Atlanta, Cedar Grove, Douglass-Atlanta and Sandy Creek, while Pickens and Gilmer, who had successfully appealed for lateral transfers into Region 6-AAA last month, has now been placed in 7-AAA along with Dawson County, Lumpkin County, Wesleyan, West Hall and White County.

Two more Region 6-AAA members, Murray County and North Murray, were moved down in classification and will now be part of a Region 7-AA also currently includes Fannin County, Gordon Central, Gordon Lee, Haralson County, Model and Rockmart, another school that is currently in 6-AAA.

Region 7-A (Division 1) will now feature Armuchee, Chattooga, Coosa, Dade County, Dalton Academy, Darlington, Pepperell and Trion. Dalton Academy is the only school that does not play football.

Meanwhile, Region 7-A (Division 2) will be incredibly spread out if it remains as it currently stands with Bowdon, Christian Heritage, Mount Zion-Carroll, Pinecrest Academy and Towns County making up a region that literally stretches from one side of the state to the other. These are the only footballplaying schools in this particular region.

There are 10 other schools earmarked for the region, most of whom play basketball. It is shaping up to be a strong basketball region with Southwest Atlanta Christian, Greenforest Christian and Towns County.

Towns County won the Class 1A public school state championship last year and private school power Greenforest having claimed three Class 1A private school state titles since 2013.

The new realignments applied to only Classes 1A-3A. Classes 4A-7A remained untouched from their most recent alignment meaning Heritage is still slated to remain in Region 7-AAAA with Cedartown, CentralCarroll, Northwest Whitfield, Southeast Whitfield and Sonoraville, who will be moving up from Region 6-AAA.

Due to newspaper deadlines, results of Wednesday’s appeals were not available as of press time.