ATLANTA — Macon? Macon, who? What? Where?
If you’re like me, and if you were witness to ANY of the four days of the Georgia High School Association basketball championships over the weekend, you may have no desire to ever set foot in the Macon Centreplex again.
While that may sound blasphemous to those who cherished "Macon Madness," the excitement and overall positive feel of the new four-day event -- which included two days at The University of Georgia's Stegeman Coliseum in Athens and two days at Georgia Tech's McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta -- have never been matched in the more than two dozen years that I have covered high school basketball. And I have been party to some amazing games over the years.
First, both arenas LOOKED and FELT like basketball venues. The goals were 10-feet high and it was exactly 15-feet from the foul line to the rim (paying attention people in Macon?). The concession stands didn’t require you to take out a loan to eat. And the bathrooms were ACTUALLY usable, clean, and functioning.
And, most importantly, the atmosphere generated by both venues was exactly what the GHSA envisioned when it made the controversial move last year in perhaps the most radical change it has made in its history, shifting the championships from its traditional home of more than 60 years.
"I think (these four days) have been phenomenal," GHSA Director of Basketball Ernie Yarbrough said. "This is what we were hoping for. I don't think things could have gone any better."
The Class AAAA boys championship between Upson-Lee and St. Pius on Friday was a complete sellout at the 8,800-seat McCamish Pavilion. In fact, they had to turn people away outside. The game itself lived up to the excitement as well with the noise level equalling what was usually reserved for Saturdays on college campuses.
“Defeaning,” was the word several of us high up in the rafters on press row used to describe it.
That wasn’t the only game to draw huge attention. The Cedar Shoals-Buford boys Class AAAAA final at Stegeman Coliseum, which holds 10,600 seats, generated nearly 9,000 fans on the opening day of the finals. The final showdown of the weekend between Norcross and Tift County boys in Class AAAAAAA was nearly a sellout at McCamish.
The only drawback is that neither Athens nor Atlanta is centrally located for all the teams in Georgia. The Brunswick-Langston Hughes Class AAAAAA boys final on Thursday in Athens was somewhat of a disappointment crowd-wise with a much longer trek for Brunswick fans. In 2015 they packed the house in Macon during their title run.
But, that is the only complaint I can honestly muster up. If I had a vote, I would make the new changes permanent.
The informal consensus among coaches during the season was that they were looking forward to playing a game in either one of the top two college arenas in the state.
Rabun County girls coach DeeDee Dillard, whose Lady Wildcats lost in a tough Class AA title game to powerhouse Laney on Saturday in Atlanta, summed it up:
"Oh, there is no comparison between playing at Stegeman and (McCamish) and the Macon Centerplex,” she said. “The atmosphere was amazing. I think our basketball teams need to have that same privilege of playing in the best facilities in the state when we have our championship games just like the football teams do in the (Georgia) Dome.”
A sizable Rabun County contingent -- along with a typically large Laney crowd -- was one of the better attended girls finals during the four days.
Dillard wasn’t alone in her assessment. The success seemingly generated by the GHSA’s biggest experiment since moving the football finals to the Dome in 2008 was noticeable to anyone who attended any of the four days.
Talk around the finals was that the GHSA was in negotiations with both schools to return for a similar engagement next season. GHSA officials would not confirm that anything permanent had been reached. Though Yarbrough did say they were "talking and discussing."
Since we’re always quick to jump on the GHSA when it makes a mistake, let me be one of the first to give a shout out to the GHSA for perhaps the best-run, and most exciting championships format ever.
Here’s to hoping for positive negotiations for next year and beyond.
And, hopefully, goodbye to Macon.
