The Georgia High School Association released enrollment figures for its schools for the next four years Thursday, and the numbers likely will change the landscape of prep sports in northwest Georgia beginning next fall.
The opening of the new school in Whitfield County in 2011 is allowing Northwest Whitfield and Dalton, currently Class AAAA schools, to project lower enrollment numbers that will put them in Class AAA for the next reclassification. Also dropping down to AAA will be Murray County, which is losing students to the new North Murray High that opened this year.
Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe is listed in Class AA, though LFO administration has hinted the school will likely play up. The numbers suggest a large AAA region of nine or 10 teams, though the GHSA will hear appeals before convening to place schools in regions Dec. 2.
"It's all speculation now," Ridgeland football coach Mark Mariakis said. "No one's going to know what's going on until they actually put you in a region."
GHSA reclassification figures
(with projected enrollments)
CLASS AAA
Dalton (1,366); Ridgeland (1,291); LaFayette (1,171); Heritage (1,158); Murray County (1,100); Northwest Whitfield (1,100); Southeast Whitfield (1,100); Ringgold (1,094).
CLASS AA
Sonoraville (1,012); Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe (984); North Murray (984); Calhoun (874); Gordon Central (860); Dade County (757); Chattooga (713).
CLASS A
Gordon Lee (451); Trion (375).
Lindsey Young is a sports writer at the Chattanooga Times Free Press who started work at the Chattanooga News-Free Press 24 years ago. He covers the Northwest Georgia prep beat and NASCAR. Lindsey’s hometown is Ringgold, Ga., and he graduated from Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School. He received an associate’s degree from Dalton Junior College (now Dalton State) and a bachelor’s degree in communications from UTC. He has won several writing awards, including two Tennessee Sports ...
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