Thursday's Report: Scoreboard; GHSA reclassification; Falcons/QB, UGA, Hawks; World Series/MLB, colleges, NFL, NBA, NASCAR, golf, high schools

November 2, 2023 Central Georgia Sports Report

Coming every day: The only place in Central Georgia with daily high school scores, and the only place with college – Mercer, FVSU, Georgia College, CGTC, MGSU, GMC, Wesleyan – coverage (when info is offered).

Coming Thursday: The Sports Report’s high school football predictions

📰S📰C📰O📰R📰E📰B📰O📰A📰R📰D

High School

🏈🏈🏈Flag football🏈🏈🏈

Baldwin 25, Northeast 0

Houston County 76, Northside 6; Houston County 13, Peach County 12

Howard 20, Southwest 14

Mount de Sales 33, Rutland 0; Piedmont 27, Mount de Sales 20

Northside 2, Peach County 0

Westside 13, Central 12

College

Basketball

M-Tallahassee 75, CGTC 72

🏐 🏐 🏐 Volleyball 🏐 🏐 🏐

Edward Waters 3, FVSU 0

Pro

Atlanta 130, Washington 121

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Around/About Central Georgia

GHSA releases classifications, appeals are next

The first compilation of GHSA schools and enrollments for reclassification shows some interesting potential shakeups.

The GHSA returned to six classifications, with Class A again split, for the first time since 2016-17.

Houston County is the lone 6A area team, as one of the smallest – based on regular enrollment and out-of-zone students.

The full list is here.

Three Houston County schools are in 5A – Veterans, Northisde, and Warner Robins – with the fourth, Perry, joined by Jones County in 4A, a drop for Jones County.

Current 4A schools West Laurens, Baldwin, and Howard drop to 3A and Westside to AA .

Southwest, Northeast, and ACE Charter fall into Class A Division I. All of the current Division II teams stay put.

Schools have a week to appeal their placement before the GHSA starts putting schools into classifications, and it’s a safe bet there’ll be several appeals from Central Georgia, after school officials consult with other school officials.. There’s another appeals process after regions are constructed, and more Central Georgia appeals are likely after that.

In the fall/winter of 2021, the last round, the reclass committee approved Perry’s appeal to drop from 5A to 4A and Central from 4A to 3A in the first appeals meeting. Some machinations shortly thereafter dropped Central – with a high out-of-zone enrollment because of certain academic programs – into AA.

After that, ACE’s appeal to drop to A/I was denied. ACE’s stint in AA – this is its second year – was likely be short after a rule passed in which students at private/open enrollment/charter school who were at that school since fifth grade. That was expected to drop ACE back to Class A, which is did.

Two years ago, the reclassification committee met four times before presenting the final region plan in mid-December.

          Central Georgia’s classifications (in order of reclassification figure)
          Class 6A: Houston County
          Class 5A: Veterans, Northside, Warner Robins
          Class 4A: Perry, Jones County
          Class 3A: Central, West Laurens, Baldwin, Mary Persons, Howard, Peach County, Upson-Lee
          Class AA: Westside, Rutland, Putnam County, Washington County
          Class A/Division I: Lamar County, Southwest, Dodge County, Northeast, Jasper County, ACE Charter, Bleckley County, East Laurens, Dublin
Class A/Division II: Crawford County, GMC Prep, Hawkinsville, Taylor County, Wilkinson County, Macon County, Twiggs County, Hancock Central

Central Georgia teams in action Thursday

Six area teams get a head start in the final regular-season week of the high school football season.

Union Grove is at Jones County in 5A, Southwest and Central battle at Ed DeFore in AA, Macon County visits Marion County and GMC welcomes Twiggs County in A/II.

Jones County has second place in 2-5A clinched at 6-3/4-1, while Union Grove is 1-8/1-4 and in sixth place. The Greyhounds are rebounding form last week’s 43-28 loss to Warner Robins for the region title, and will get an extra day’s rest – and chance to scout potential opponents – for next week.

Central (1-8/1-5) goes for a big upset against Southwest (5-4/4-2), which officially locks up third in 2-AA with a win, the Patriots’ highest region finish since 2017, the last time they made the playoffs.

Macon County (7-2/4-2) gets third in its region with a win over sixth-place Marion County (4-5/2-4), and GMC (2-7/1-3) is still alive for a playoff spot, a game behind Hancock Central, which lost to GMC and faces first-place Johnson County.

Around/About Georgia/Southeast

Falcons bench Ridder, announce Heinicke as starter against Vikings

‘We’re not looking at the long term right now’

Heinicke 'excited for the opportunity' to start against Minnesota Vikings

UGA notes

Georgia recognizes Missouri as an upset threat

Murray leads balanced scoring attack as Hawks rout Wizards

NBA/WNBA/Basketball

Analysis: The James Harden saga in Philly has ended, and it makes sense for everyone

MLB/Baseball

Rangers explode late, blank D-Backs for first World Series title

Corey Seager earns second World Series MVP, joining Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson