Phoenix going to 4A in latest realignment
The numbers are set.
Now who knows exactly what the GHSA committee in charge of dividing the high schools in the state into the various regions, based on enrollment and geography, will do.
Once again, there will be seven classifications in Georgia starting in the 2022-23 school year with 7A being the biggest high schools enrollment-wise while Class A schools will be the smallest.
The only Gordon County high school that is being moved to a different classification is Sonoraville, which is headed to the 4A ranks after spending the past few years in 3A as Calhoun will continue to be at the 5A level and Gordon Central will remain
in the 2A division.
However, there were rumors flying around Sonoraville over the weekend that school officials may appeal the move to stay where they are.
(School districts have until Wednesday, Nov. 10 to appeal the current ruling).
Phoenix head football coach Denver Pate said Friday on his radio show prior to the Phoenix 48-18 win over Coahulla Creek that appealing the change was an option because the move would mean they have to travel farther to play their competition and face schools much larger than them.
Based on the numbers, Sonoraville presently has 1,266 students in Grades 9-12, which would tie with Pickens County for the smallest school in the AAAA division. And other than Southwest Whitfield and
Northeast Whitfield County Schools, it appears that the Phoenix would face a lot of long one-way trips to face their competition because there are no 4A schools really around here under the new listings.
And there is no guarantee the Phoenix will be partnered up with those schools anyway when the new Regions are announced in January.
The Phoenix are now in the nine-team AAA Region 6 and the move to 4A would mean school officials and coaches have to establish new relationships and rivalries because none of the other schools that the Phoenix presently play are moving up to 4A.
In fact, Sonoraville and Rockmart, which is the Region champ in football after defeating Ringgold, 18-6, Friday night, are the only school districts in Region 6 changing divisions with Rockmart about to drop to AA.
And there is talk that Rockmart would be placed in the same Region as Gordon Central.
If that does happen, that won’t be good news for anyone in the Warriors current region as the Yellow Jackets will become immediate championship contenders in just about everything.
If things hold as they are right now, 3A Region 6 may remain intact with just the seven teams left. If the realignment committee does decides to go in that direction, that would still be a very competitive district.
In all, 60 schools were put in 4A and there are 53 schools named as 3A.
For Calhoun, the Jackets are still a 5A school but their Region will definitely change with Cartersville and Blessed Trinity now headed to the 6A level.
The Jackets are just about in the middle in the 5A listings size-wise with 1,744 students, including 246 who live outside the zone.
Cartersville would, under the new format, be the smallest public school in the 6A classification with 1,944 students or one more than Hughes High,
which has the second smallest with 1,945 pupils. Blessed Trinity would be the third smallest enrollment-wise in 6A behind two other private schools — KIPP Academy (800 students) and Innovation Academy (855 students).
Calhoun is currently in 5A Region 7 and Hiram, Woodland, and Cass are still 5A schools under the current numbers. When the new Regions are made public early next year, it will be interesting to see if they are still with that trio of schools.
Calhoun archrival Dalton is also now a 5A school, dropping down from 6A, and it would seem likely that they will soon be Region foes as well.
Exactly who the alignment committee might team the blackand-Vegas gold with is still unknown obviously, but adding Kell would put them in a pretty decent six-team arrangement again regarding travel.
But we’ll see what they do with Calhoun in January.
According to the reclassification
count, Dutchtown is the largest 5A School in Georgia with 1,932 students and Whitewater is the smallest with 1,566 enrolled.
For Gordon Central, the Warriors are still a AA school and the fifth-largest in the state with 968 students.
Model, which is a Region 7 resident just like Gordon Central, is the biggest 2A school in the state with 998 followed by Thomson (986), Union County (975), Rutland (970) and then GC.
All seven of the teams in the Region will still be AA schools when new alignments are unveiled as this league may stay like it is.
Or Rockmart may be put in it and it becomes an eight-team league.
But these realignment are never a sure thing until they are finalized.
So the numbers are in. But who knows exactly what that means regarding future competition for Calhoun, Gordon Central, and Sonoraville?