Soddy-Daisy High School Principal Danny Gilbert speaks to area coaches and athletic directors Thursday at the Chattanooga Christian School gym about a new proposal for how to classify sports teams.
Sequatchie County High School principal Tommy Layne, right, talks with Cleveland High School football coach Ron Crawford after a meeting with area coaches and athletic directors Thursday at the Chattanooga Christian School gym about a new proposal for how to classify sports teams.TSSAA Division I coaches and athletic directors from high schools in the southeastern part of the state met Thursday at Chattanooga Christian School to discuss football classification proposals and the possibility of a split between public and all private schools.
Sequatchie County principal and TSSAA Board of Control member Tommy Layne conducted the portion of the meeting pertaining to football classifications. Soddy-Daisy principal Danny Gilbert, a member of the state organization’s legislative council, presided over the public/private-split discussions.
Layne made it known that there were three proposals for a two-year plan for Division I football state playoffs after the upcoming school year.
One is to keep the current plan with six classifications. One is to go back to the previous five-class system. The other is to place the 32 most populated schools statewide — none of which would be in the Chattanooga area — into one class and divide the others into five classifications.
Although there are those who favor it, including East Ridge football coach Tracy Malone, Layne said he thought the least likely scenario would be to go back to the five-class system. For one thing, the TSSAA would have to renegotiate its football-championship contract with Cookeville.