Realignment: 1-AAAAA down to 5 teams

By Christian Malone The Valdosta Daily Times VALDOSTA �" The Georgia High School Association's Reclassification Committee released its tentative region alignments for the 2010-11 school year on Wednesday. If the GHSA's Executive Committee approves the new regions, Region 1-AAAAA will keep Valdosta High School , and will cut down on the miles its athletic teams will have to travel for region games. Valdosta High's classification number (1858.5) made it a AAAA-sized school. But last month, the Valdosta Board of Education voted unanimously to petition the GHSA to remain in AAAAA. Region 1-AAAAA will shrink from eight teams to five teams. Valdosta, Lowndes , Colquitt County, Coffee and Tift County are staying in the region, while Warner Robins, Northside and Houston County are all moving down to AAAA. The departure of the three Warner Robins schools will eliminate long trips for region games, especially for Valdosta and Lowndes . The GHSA's rule that no team can travel more than 200 miles round-trip for a game on a school night made scheduling region games with the Warner Robins schools slightly difficult. Valdosta, Lowndes , Colquitt and Coffee could only play games against a Warner Robins school on a Friday or a Saturday. That will not be a problem any more. On the other hand, the smaller region will create another dilemma, particularly for the region's football teams. With three fewer schools in the region, more non-region games will have to be scheduled. That means that each 1-AAAAA football team must now schedule six non-region games. “Well, it's going to be tough for scheduling and finding games, but that's what it is,” Lowndes High football coach Randy McPherson said. “Most of the time, non-region games are at the beginning of the schedule. It's going to be hard, really hard. The reason is because not a lot of other teams are looking for those games. Weeks four, five and six will be real hard to find a game.” McPherson says he will look into scheduling AAAAA schools from metro Atlanta and along the Atlantic coast. “I'm going to try to contact anybody,” McPherson said. “I'm going to do my best to find six games. I think we've got a deal with Peachtree Ridge. Ware County is subdivided. They said they wanted to play, but now it depends on how their region fits.” McPherson also admits that he will miss the hard-fought games his team had against Northside, Warner Robins and Houston. “We're going to miss the competition with the Warner Robins schools. Those were good games and good competition. I thought they brought a lot to our region. I would have liked to see them stay,” he said. Four teams from each region make the playoffs in each sport, so going from eight teams to five will make it easier for 1-AAAAA teams to make the postseason. Clinch County and Lanier County will be moving to a new region, Region 2-A. That region will be a difficult one for its football teams. Small-school power Charlton County will be moving to 2-A, after spending the last decade in AA. Wilcox County, whose football team plays Clinch in the state semifinals on Friday, will also be in the region. In Region 2-A, Clinch and Lanier will join Charlton, Echols County, Atkinson County and Ware Magnet in sub-region A. Sub-region B will have Bacon County, Irwin County, Telfair County, Turner County and Wilcox County. There will not be much change in Region 1-AA. Brooks County , Cook and Berrien will stay in the same region, along with Fitzgerald, Early County, Thomasville and Albany. The only change is that Mitchell County will be moving down to Class A. A potential dilemma for Camden County was averted after nine Savannah-area schools decided to play in Region 3-AAAAA, despite the fact that none of them are AAAAA-sized. If those Savannah-area schools had chosen to play in a lower classification, Camden (the seventh-largest high school in the state) likely would have been forced to move to 1-AAAAA, despite being 94 miles away from the closest school in that region, and at least 115 miles away from the other four schools. Six of the eight AAAAA regions are located in metro Atlanta. The three Warner Robins schools have been placed in Region 1-AAAA, which will have some long drives for region games. The region will contain southern Georgia schools Thomas County Central, Bainbridge and Lee County, and central Georgia schools Warner Robins, Northside (Warner Robins), Houston County, Hardaway, Northside (Columbus) and Harris County. Valdosta might have ended up in 1-AAAA, too, if it had opted to play in AAAA. That was the primary concern voiced by the school board members when they voted to play up. Ware County and Liberty County have AAA-sized enrollments, but with no other AAA schools close to them, the GHSA plans to place them in Region 2-AAAA. Schools can still petition the GHSA to play in another region. The regions will be finalized in January. The GHSA Reclassification Committee has also recommended that reclassification should still occur every two years, meaning that the current reclassification will likely be for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years. A complete listing of the proposed new regions is available at www.ghsa.net.