GAINESVILLE — One area athletic director stopped just short of calling it “an epic fail” while another felt the Georgia High School Association did “about as good as could be expected.”
Such was the early mixed reaction on the GHSA’s release of its classifcations for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school seasons on Thursday morning.
“If they were trying to solve the issue of competitive balance, they didn’t get it, in my opinion,” said Jefferson athletic director Tim Corbett, whose Dragons were moved up to Class AAAA. “For Jefferson, we’re OK with where we were put but looking at the bigger picture statewide there are some bigger imbalances created by this than before the process began. It’s not right for the kids that will have to deal with this.”
Gainesville Athletic Director Billy Kirk said he’s not sure the GHSA could have done any better with any more time than it already had spent with the latest round of reclassification, which the organization addresses every two years.
“It’s a tough job and overall, and I think it came out about as best as could be expected,” Kirk said. “The only disappointment for us was that we lost Flowery Branch in our classification so we lose a good natural rivalry. On a positive note, based on what we think will happen with the regions, travel-wise things look a lot better for teams in the area.”
In August the GHSA announced the formation of a new classification -- AAAAAAA initially dubbed the “Big 44” -- to include the top 10 percent of schools in the state to help bring about more competitive balance for the state’s largest schools.
Thursday’s release of who is in what classification came one week after the official FTE enrollment numbers were released by the GHSA. There were 48 schools grouped together in the new AAAAAAA classification, with Mill Creek at 3,998 students the largest school and Westlake at 2,092 students as the smallest in the new classification.
In addition, the GHSA added a provision for members in Classes AA-AAAAA that will move schools that claim three percent or more of their enrollment from out-of-county students into the next higher classification. Class A schools are excluded because of the public/private split already in play in that classification.
Seventeen schools appealed their classification placement to the GHSA, including Lumpkin County to adjust its original FTE numbers, and Riverside Military, which appealed its placement in Class AAAA -- all the way up from its current spot in Class AA. Lumpkin County won its appeal, while Riverside was one of just two schools, along with Bremen, to lose its appeal -- 15 other schools won appeals.
Riverside Military Athletic Director Marc Paglia said the school is still trying to “digest” what happened.
“We just need time to look at it and look at our options,” is all Paglia was willing to say on the record.
Riverside is the only school in the state that jumped two classifications without a significant increase in enrollment. The Eagles, with just 444 students, will be playing in a classification where the largest school, Pickens, has 1,341 students, and the smallest public school, Jefferson, has 1,003 students.
Buford will move up to Class AAAAA under the three percent rule, but Wolves athletic director Dexter Wood said they landed where they expected.
“We figured that would be the classification they put us in and we’re fine with that,” Wood said. “When you move up there’s usually better competition so you have to step up what you’re doing and that’s what we’ll try to do.”
Wood also said trying to achieve the competitive balance the Committee was seeking is always a tough task.
“It’s almost impossible to do that, especially at the top and bottom levels, because there are so many really large and small schools,” Wood said. “The Committee does about as good a job as it can, but I don’t know if we’ll ever have the kind of balance I think some people are seeking. There’s always going to be someone that is not happy.”
The next major announcement will come Nov. 30 when the GHSA closes petitions from schools that request to play up. The Reclassification Committee will meet the next day to set the regions in all seven classifications.
Wood said things are far from over.
“I have heard around that there could be several schools on the higher end of some of the new classifications that will request to play up for geographical reasons or to keep rivalries,” Wood said. “If there are a lot of schools that do that and are approved it will change the look of the classifications so we’ll really have to wait and see who does what and what is approved. There’s still a long way to go before this is settled.”
Among the local and area schools, here is a breakdown of which classification each school was placed, after appeals were heard by the GHSA Executive Committee:
Class AAAAAAA: Mill Creek, North Gwinnett, North Forsyth.
Class AAAAAA: Gainesville, Habersham Central, Winder-Barrow, Lanier, Apalachee
Class AAAAA: Flowery Branch, Johnson, Buford
Class AAAA: Chestatee, Stephens County, White County, West Hall, East Hall, Jefferson, Riverside Military
Class AAA: Lumpkin County, Jackson County, Dawson County, North Hall, East Jackson, Banks County, Fannin County
Class AA: Union County, Rabun County
Class A: Commerce, Towns County, Lakeview Academy
