Chickamauga City Schools Superintendent Melody DayCHICKAMAUGA, Ga. — Three months after the fact, the Gordon Lee High School wrestling team finally was able to celebrate a state championship. It came by a vote Monday of the GHSA executive committee.
The decision ended a hard-fought campaign by the Gordon Lee administration and Chickamauga City Schools Superintendent Melody Day to correct a scoring error in the Class A state duals championships in January. The vote of the 50-person committee, according to GHSA executive director Dr. Ralph Swearngin, will make Gordon Lee the champion along with Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School in Atlanta.
“This is not a co-championship,” Swearngin said by phone Monday afternoon. “Both schools will be listed as state champions. The majority of the executive committee felt like they needed to correct the situation, and that’s what happened. Please note that nothing was overturned. This is an addition.”
Swearngin was not sure if the GHSA had ever added a state champion by appeal.
The controversy occurred in the next-to-last individual bout of the Class A finals when Gordon Lee 106-pound wrestler Johnny Ragsdale was called for an intentional head butt against his Holy Innocents’ opponent.