By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Central Georgia went 2-1 in appeals to the GHSA to move to a different region in 2024-26.

The GHSA reclassification committee approved appeals from Dodge County and Crawford County, but denied that of Jones County.

Dodge County had dropped from Class AA into Class A/Division I, and was placed in Region 1. The move to Region 2 was OK’d 14-2.

That puts the Indians in an already-full region, a 10-team group with eight Central Georgia teams.

In the GHSA’s release after the meeting, it broke down Region 2 into sub-region A (ACE, Bleckley County, Central, Northeast, Southwest) and sub-region B (Dodge County, Dublin, East Laurens, Jefferson County, Washington County).

Crawford County’s move to a more travel-friendly region was approved 16-0. The Eagles are now in Region 6, also broken into sub-regions for sports other than football. The football-playing schools: Central-Talbotton, Chattahoochee County, Marion County, Macon County, Taylor County, and Schley County.

Jones County was hoping to move from a position of being an outsider in a 4A region comprised of nothing but Henry County schools and into one made up of schools in the general Athens area.

“It’s easier for us to go in that direction than go to Columbus or Starr’s Mill or Griffin,” he said. “To go to Athens from Gray is not a bad ride.”

Alligood attends many GHSA meetings, and spent Thursday in Thomaston, taking in the entire appeals gathering. He was thinking Jones County had a 50-50 chance going in.

“I know a lot of these decisions are decided before you get up there,” he said. “There are a lot of phone calls and text messages. It depends on who got to who first.”

He said one point made by the committee that the new region, 8, didn’t want the Greyhounds, and it was an odd region request.

“My comment was that Jones County’s been all over the map,” he said. “We’ve been here, there, whatever.

“It was my argument to them: Region 8 didn’t want us, the region you put us in doesn’t want us. So we’re over here by ourselves.’ I’m trying to appeal for Jones County. Nobody else should have a say-so.”

He said he was asked why Jones County didn’t try for Region 1 or 3. Alligood said three drives in Region 1 would be three hours or more, and Region 3 offered the same travel distances as Region 8, but Region 8’s actual travel time was much better for Jones County.

Alligood said that generally travel for football wasn’t as bad – with only three or four road games a year – as it was for all other sports, which would have nine road games per team in the 10-team region.

Also, staying put cut down on the chance for gate-friendly non-region games. And it gave Jones County fans, as well as the potential new region mates, a different road schedule and places to visit.

Jones County had Warner Robins as a non-Henry ally for last year and this year, but Warner Robins appealed to move down from 5A to 4A, a move that surprised some, since the Demons could have been in a familiar region with Northside, Veterans, Lee County, Thomas County Central, and Coffee.

Warner Robins principal Chris McCook said going to 4A was an easy call.

“We’re at the bottom of 5A,” he said. “They asked for appeals, and we appealed to go down. We thought we had some students we thought shouldn’t count toward us.

“We won our appeal and got to 4A. We’re in the same region we won football and one-acts out of. I feel good where are. It’s a tough region.”

As is more often the case than fans will realize, decisions to appeal are about much more than football.

“The question for me to appeal really came down to overall school. If you look, we’ve been in 5A and been real good in football and one-act, we’ve been successful in basketball.

“But our other sports have losing records. If we’re going to compete, I’d rather compete against schools with like numbers.

“If you’ve got the opportunity to be at the top of the classification or the bottom of the classification, you want to be in the top. For me, I’ve got a tennis program to think about, I’ve got volleyball, other things.”

He said Warner Robins is the fourth-smallest school of the county’s five public schools, and soon enough will be the smallest. As per GHSA reclassification figures, Warner Robins is the 10th-smallest 5A school, while Perry is the 20th largest 4A school. The different in GHSA-used enrollment is 195 students, and McCook noted that Warner Robins is the most land-locked zone, with the growth in the southern part of the county.

He said before Thursday’s meeting he understood Jones County’s move and hoped it was approved.

“I think that’d be a great region for them,” McCook said of Region 8. “Henry County, they’re good people, but they all vote together. You’ve got no control in the region. Going up (Interstate) 75 is just as aggravating as going up to Athens, or down south.”

Jones County and Warner Robins did manage one victory, getting the region tournament to the regular-season region champ, which happened to be Warner Robins.

McCook reiterated another Alligood point about home gates in that region.

“Henry County doesn’t travel well,” he said. “So you don’t get any good gates. It’s crazy.”