GHSA committees come up with fairly drastic adjustments amid private-school departures
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
The soap opera that is reclassification in the Georgia High School Association took another dramatic turn on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Another round of shuffling, sparked by the exodus of smaller private schools back to the GISA, has led to a fairly drastic change in philosophy with a proposal that eliminates the mandate to keep Class A schools in Class A and not be affected by any multiplier.
The plans calls for two Class A divisions based on enrollment and combines public and private schools into regular-season regions – as it was before the last reclassification round for 2020-21 and 2021-22, the current grouping – and separate divisions for the postseason.
Some Class A programs – like Wesleyan and Hebron Christian – would be pushed to Class 3A, with others – like Athens Academy, Eagle’s Landing Christian, and Calvary Day – would jump to Class AA.
The GHSA recalculated Classes AAA, AA, and A to keep the same number of schools in each, and the rise of private schools pushes other schools down a classification.
There are no separations for public or private in any classification. The multiplier is 3 for out of zone students. Example: A school with 1,000 students has 250 out-of-zone students. They count once in the original figure, and as 500 for reclassification, thus giving them a 1,500 reclassification enrollment.
Under the new plan, Bleckley County, Northeast, Southwest, East Laurens, and Jasper County drop in Class A’s upper division, along with Class A Dublin and Crawford County, current Class A Public programs
GMC, Hawkinsville, Taylor County, Wilkinson County, Macon County, Hancock Central, Twiggs County are in Class A’s Division II.
ACE jumps from A to AA, thanks to a multiplier with 240 out of zone students.
Those are the only Central Georgia schools affected by the proposal in terms of moving from a class to another.
The Class A committee met on Tuesday to come up with a plan for that classification. In that meeting, associate director Don Corr said he estimated at least six more private schools were indicating they would leave the GHSA for the GISA and its new athletics venture. FPD, Stratford, Tattnall, and Mount de Sales made the announcement last month they were leaving, and were followed by Deerfield-Windsor, George Walton, Heritage, St. Anne-Pacelli, and Strong Rock Christian. It’s doubtful many schools with little or no GISA history – like Lakeview - will leave the GHSA for the GISA group.
The committee determined too few Class A private schools were left for the continued private regions and playoffs.
The Class A committee was in agreement to skip the old plan of Class A schools not being affected by the multiplier, and allow Class A schools to be pushed up and let “the chips fall where they may,” as per notes taken by the GHSA of the meeting.
It voted 9-1 to approve a proposal applying the 3.0 multiplier to all Class A private schools, then dividing the remaining Class A into two divisions for the playoffs that would have separate state championships, playing under a to-be-determined power rating system.
The panel decided to come up with a backup plan: All Class A schools would combined again, and split into public and private for the playoffs. Also, recently adopted zone – private schools were given a public-school zone – plan would be eliminated, and the service area would return to the entire county a school was located in, as it had been.
That plan passed unanimously.
According to the first plan, ACE would stay in Class A, as the largest upper-division school. No other area school would be affected.
Up next: Schools in Classes A-3A can appeal their placement under the new plan on Dec. 7, with that meeting to hear the appeals being held Dec. 8, starting at 10 a.m.