Georgia small public schools arise

CHICKAMAUGA, Ga. -- The Georgia High School Association, whether it wants to admit it or not, has a problem, one Tennessee public school administrators are quite familiar with.

Public schools in Georgia's smallest classification are fed up with having to compete against private schools they feel have an advantage in being able to recruit athletes. Sound familiar? It's the same fight the TSSAA and its members fought for several years before the organization finally split its aid-giving private schools from its public ones.

On Jan. 9 in Macon, a group of coaches and administrators will convene to hear a presentation from an eight-member advisory group of a proposed new organization calling itself the Georgia Public Schools Association. Among the members of the group is Gordon Lee associate athletic director Greg Ellis, who says the GPSA isn't just something put together to threaten the GHSA.

"This is not a rinky-dink organization," Ellis said. "There are a number of very qualified people who have spent countless hours putting together bylaws. We want to make sure the schools represented at the meeting know what we are proposing so they can go to their school boards. From what I've been told, if 20 schools in south Georgia approve the move, they're gone."

Therein lies the problem with Gordon Lee. The Chickamauga school and Trion are the only public schools north of Atlanta in Class A, according to 2012-14 reclassification figures. If Gordon Lee were to approve a move to the GPSA, it likely would have to travel several hours for athletic events.

"That is the problem," said Ellis, whose school is scheduled by the GHSA to compete in a 15-team region that includes 13 private schools. "What's worse, having to play with the private schools or have to travel so much? For us to make a move we would have to have people to compete against."

However, Ellis has heard that several larger schools in the northeast part of the state are interested in the GPSA, though enrollment numbers will be an issue. Creating another imbalance by inviting schools with two or three times the typical Class A school's enrollment is not an option.

Ellis holds out hope that the GHSA, which is scheduled to meet the day after the GPSA, will compromise. The GHSA turned down a proposal to allow Class A public and private schools to compete against each other during the regular season and then split for the playoffs, with two champions being crowned.

The GHSA is considering a proposal that would separate Class A schools based on service areas, with larger public and private schools competing against each other and smaller schools, which are located mostly in rural areas, competing. However, that plan would involve only four sports: baseball, golf, softball and tennis. It's a plan the GPSA isn't interested in.

"Why not include basketball and football?" Ellis asked. "That's the sport the private schools are loading up on and beating the brains out of everybody. The story going around was that Savannah Christian, which just won the Class A football title, had four kids move in in October and were allowed to play because they have different rules. Do you think that would fly in Chickamauga?

"It's an uneven playing field and the statistics bear that out. They can pull from anywhere, and we can't."

Private schools have won more than 80 percent of Class A state championships in recent years. Winning titles, the GHSA counters, shouldn't be the goal of competing in athletics.

"'If the only mark of success is whether you win a state championship, then there are not a lot of successful schools in our state,'' GHSA director Ralph Swearngin told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "If you see success as letting kids participate and learn the lessons that come from competitive activities, then all schools can be successful."

Swearngin is missing the point, Ellis said.

"Sure, it's the ultimate goal to win a state championship," Ellis said, "but we don't go into a season expecting to win one. That's realistic and it's not what this is about. Everybody is looking for equality, an opportunity to compete across the board in every sport."

Swearngin has said his organization will not bow down to threats, but Ellis remains hopeful a compromise can be met. If not, the GHSA will never be the same.

"I wish everything could work out where the public and private schools could get what they want," he said. "All I know is that this movement is serious and something has to change."