By Michael A. Lough

centralgasports@gmail.com

Thomaston

            The meeting room a few steps into the GHSA’s office was full a solid 15 minutes before the scheduled start.

            Most wore the black and gold of Peach County. Head coach Chad Campbell was dressed up with a suit coat and tie, with principal Ken Hartley to his right and superintendent Daryl Fineran a few rows back in the middle of a crowd that ranged from Peach County players to a few who have been watching the Trojans, no doubt, since before their head coach was born.

            The meeting started a minute or two early, and last nearly 50 minutes, mostly Campbell but with about five minutes of comments from the audience and assorted explanations from GHSA president Glenn White and GHSA counsel Alan Connell, who is at virtually all trustee meetings.

            Connell explained the purpose of the meeting at the outset.

            “There is no appeal under the Georgia High School Association rules or under the national federation rules in regards to a judgment call by an official,” Connell said, reiterating what has been reported much of the time since the game. “Peach County is a member of the Georgia High School Association and has requested a meeting with the trustees. The trustees have agreed to meet them for an informational meeting only.

            “There won’t be any action taken at this meeting. Whatever Peach County elects to present will be taken under advisement and considered at a later meeting. I just want to make sure everybody understands that before we get started.”

             For more on the meeting, read the story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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             As the crowd rose to leave, some in it weren’t quite done expressing themselves, complaining of “no credibility at all” and “no respect” and “they’re just putting it off, they’re not gonna do anything” and “the state just needs to take this over and start over” among other comments.

            That continued as the Trojans left the building and mingled outside, further unhappy that the GHSA’s board took no action.

            Coming Tuesday afternoon: an expanded analysis version of the story with much more from Campbell’s presentation.