Area GHSA regions face major changes; Georgia legislation could have impact

The Georgia High School Association has, after multiple proposals and much debate, finalized reclassification for the 2022-24 cycle, a process that will affect every region that includes northwest Georgia schools - and one that has again drawn the ire of state politicians.

This past Monday, the GHSA's State Executive Committee listened to final appeals from member schools and then ratified the region alignments. However, a pair of Georgia Senate bills (328 and 334) championed by Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, if successful, would completely change the way high school sports are governed in the state.

Combined, the bills would provide a complete split of public and private schools in classification - a major point of contention among GHSA member schools - while also drastically changing transfer rules. The legislation, which is also sponsored by eight other Republican state senators, would allow a nonprofit organization appointed by the Georgia Department of Education to govern high school sports.

Similar legislation has been debated before and has been used to force the GHSA to negotiate. To that end, Mullis will meet with GHSA Board of Trustees members Wednesday at the Capitol to discuss the issues - a development that stemmed from a virtual meeting of the board this past Thursday, during which Phil Williams, superintendent of Trion City Schools, spoke as a guest.

A day later, Mullis talked about the legislation on the floor of the Senate.

"We're trying to get them to understand that their goal should be to make sure school systems, high school systems, are treated fairly," he said Friday. "With their arrogancy, they are not. That's why we're here today."

He also said: "All my bill does is say, 'Hey, we're going to create a new high school association.' But we're inviting all the high schools that are not happy with being part of the Georgia High School Association to join us, to create a new high school association."

Staff file photo by Robin Rudd / State Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, has championed legislation that would change the governance of high school sports in Georgia and have a major impact on the GHSA.

The GHSA, in its last round of appeals regarding the reclassification cycle that begins next school year, denied a request by Gordon Lee High School to move down from Class AA to Class A Division 1. An enrollment multiplier, which counted out-of-district students three times, moved the Chickamauga school up from Class A. Gordon Lee, led by principal Michael Langston, argued in its appeal that playing in its assigned AA region would lead to a significant increase in travel time for competitions.

"We felt that we presented a very strong case to remain in Single-A Division 1, but we were told that based on recent success in a few sports that we would not be allowed to play down," Langston said. "The reclassification committee stated that we would have been allowed to remain down if we had not won in those sports."

In the past five years, Gordon Lee has won multiple state titles in baseball, boys' golf, cheerleading and fastpitch softball, and the Lady Trojans volleyball program advanced to the state finals the past two seasons.

After the appeal was denied by a vote of 36-29 (with Langston abstaining), the school then appealed to play up to Class AAA, a motion that was approved unanimously. Gordon Lee will now be a part of Region 6-AAA, where six of the eight schools are located within 30 miles of each other. However, Gordon Lee will be by far the smallest school in the region.

"In AAA we will be competing with schools nearly three times our size, which will certainly present some challenges," Langston said. "However, we have several natural rivalries already in this region. The opportunity to play them will allow our students and our community more chances to follow our teams to events."

The success of private schools across all sports in classes above A led the GHSA Reclassification Committee this past October to raise its out-of-district student multiplier from 2.0 to 3.0, which moved some private schools into the state's highest classification (AAAAAAA), and others up one or two classes.

That original plan would have had very little effect on area schools. However, after ratifying the plan, backlash from larger schools led to a new plan, one in which every school would be subject to the 3.0 multiplier.

That forced the complete redrawing of A through AAA and led to the lowest classification being divided into large schools (Division 1) and small schools (Division 2). It also eliminated the public-private split - which was only partial in Georgia, a contrast to the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association - for the first time in a decade.

With Gordon Lee's entrance, 6-AAA will be the region that includes the most Chattanooga-area schools, with Coahulla Creek, LaFayette, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe, Ridgeland and Ringgold also in the league - along with Adairsville and Bremen.

Among the other major developments in reclassification: Dalton moving down a class, where it will join Calhoun in Region 7-AAAAA; a completely overhauled Region 7-AA that includes Murray County and North Murray; and the newly formed Region 7-A Division 1 that includes Chattooga, Dade County and Trion.

The shakeup also left Christian Heritage, which is in Dalton, in Region 7-A Division 2 - which has only two other schools that will play football.

"Well it's certainly been a little hectic with the appeals meetings at GHSA and teams going up and down in classification and sideways in regions," Christian Heritage football coach Jay Poag said. "Our region originally had five football-playing schools, but one appealed to move to another region and the other chose to join the GISA (Georgia Independent School Association).

"So it is what it is for the next couple of years. The biggest challenge has been trying to find eight nonregion games."

Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.

Staff photo by Robin Rudd / Gordon Lee cheerleaders root for the Trojans during their home football game against rival Trion on Nov. 5 in Chickamauga, Ga.