Georgia High School Association places local teams in proposed regions for next two-year cycle

The new Georgia High School Association proposed regions for 2022-23 and 2023-24 were announced earlier this week after the appeals process before the GHSA reclassification committee. The new lineup will rekindle some long lost rivalries and bring new opponents to the area.

Lee County remains in Region 1 of Class AAAAAA with Northside-Warner Robins and Houston County, but Valdosta has moved into the AAAAAAA classification. However, Veterans High School in Warner Robins is moving up from AAAAA to AAAAAA and will join the region, along with Tift County, which is moving down from AAAAAAA to AAAAAA. Thomas County Central will join the region after jumping from AAAA to AAAAAA with the new 3.0 multiplier instituted by the GHSA. The Yellow Jackets appealed the decision last week, but the appeal was denied. The 3.0 multiplier counts students who go to school from outside the district three times instead of one. The Trojans are currently ranked No. 2 in Class AAAAAA, but if the new regions were in place right now Lee County would likely be No. 1 because Buford is moving up to Class AAAAAAA, thanks to that multiplier.

“We are happy to be in a five-team region,” said Lee County head coach Dean Fabrizio. “Now we have to only find five games instead of seven.”

Westover will remain in Class AAAA, Region 1 with Bainbridge and Cairo and will join Columbus schools Shaw and Hardaway. Westover principal William Chunn is happy that all three Albany schools are not in the same region.

“It has always been my opinion that the DCSS football teams would be better served by playing in different regions,” said Chunn. “I voiced this opinion back in the ’90s when I was head football coach at Monroe. We would be better served because the DCSS schools will play each other anyway regardless of the classification. In separate regions now, instead of all of our schools fighting for that last playoff spot, more DCSS teams will have a better chance of reaching the state playoffs. I am very excited for 2022 football for Dougherty, Monroe and Westover.”

Dougherty and Monroe will drop to Class AAA in Region 1 and will join a region with rivals Americus-Sumter and Crisp County. Thomasville will also join that region after losing an appeal not to be moved up from Class AA to AAA. Crisp County and Thomasville are traditional football powers, while Americus-Sumter and Thomasville also play extremely tough basketball.

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