Deerfield-Windsor athletic teams gearing up for Georgia Independent Athletic Association debut

ALBANY — When the 2022-23 school year opens at Deerfield-Windsor School in August, the Knights will be back to competing against familiar foes such as Terrell Academy, Brookwood, Valwood and other private schools in South Georgia.

Deerfield-Windsor announced earlier this year that its teams would leave the Georgia High School Athletic Association and join the GIAA (Georgia Independent Athletic Association). The GIAA is a new organizational structure for the Georgia Independent School Association which came into existence when a large number of private schools that had left the GISA were looking to come back because of issues with the GHSA.

In all, 16 private schools, including DWS and each of the schools that had competed with Knights in Region 1-A Private, moved away from the GHSA to the GIAA. In total, 76 private schools from around Georgia are listed on the GIAA website as members now.

“Both organizations offer similar programs,” said Deerfield-Windsor headmaster Allen Lowe. “But many of the private schools south of Atlanta have a different perspective on some things than those larger private schools in the Atlanta area.”

An earlier news report said the private schools were dissatisfied with the changing landscape of the GHSA after that organization had reclassified for the coming school year. Those changes included issues surrounding immediate eligibility for transferring students and distance parameters for enrollment.

“Here at Deerfield-Windsor, we always want to compete at the highest level we can,” Lowe said. “When we moved to the GHSA, it was for the competition and with GISA what we saw was that the competition was not trending to be a growing organization. But with this new organizational design, all of the Macon private schools and the Columbus private schools are coming into the GIAA, that’s huge for us. We really look forward to developing new relationships with the Columbus schools. The new organization is built for growth.”

The GIAA is divided into four classifications based on enrollment size and Deerfield-Windsor will compete in AAA in District 2. So, while Lowe and Deerfield-Windsor will build new relationships, this move will also rekindle some rivalries that died when the Knights moved to the GHSA. Only Southland Academy of Americus remained on the Knights’ football schedule last season, but this season the Knights will face former rivals such as Terrell Academy, Brookwood, Tiftarea, Southwest Georgia and Valwood, as well as Southland Academy. Those schools make up District 2 in the AAA division. There will be a 10-team playoff for the state title in football and a 12-team playoff for the state title in basketball.

“Some of the sports such as cross country and track will not be divided up in AAA and AAAAA,” said Lowe. “We will all compete together in those sports which will create a much deeper competition.”

The football schedule for the Knights looks much different this season than a year ago. There are no games with any GHSA teams, except a scrimmage. The Knights will open the football season on Aug. 19 at home against the Westfield School of Perry.

“It just didn’t happen in this two-year cycle in football,” Lowe said. “I think we will scrimmage against Miller County and I know we have basketball games against Colquitt County and some others. There is no GIAA rule that said we can’t compete against public schools.”

Lowe said he is confident the GIAA will be competitive for the Knights and sees GIAA adding more schools in the future. The commissioner of the GIAA is Tommy Marshall, who recently retired from the Marist School in Atlanta. The president of the GIAA is Jeff Jackson, a former head of upper and middle school at Deerfield-Windsor.

Joe Whitfield