An illustration shows a Clarke Central High School athlete lost in a mix of moving schools. In 2022, the Georgia High School Association Executive Committee finalized region realignments for high school athletics in Georgia. “While these changes may have been beneficial for smaller schools with smaller football or soccer teams who couldn’t compete against large schools, whether because of funding or lack of players to recruit onto the team, the decision did not consider more individual sports, such as swimming and track,” Viewpoints Editor Janie Ripps wrote. Illustration by Antonio Starks
The new Georgia High School Association region alignments, enforced in high school athletics across Georgia at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, aren’t fair to more individual sports such as swimming and track.
In January of 2022, the Georgia High School Association Executive Committee gathered to finalize reorganized region alignments.
The 2021-22 regions, which divided schools up based on whether they were private or public, had been receiving criticism from smaller public schools and private schools who were struggling in extremely competitive regions with bigger schools.
After months of deliberation since the Fall of 2021, the newest groupings, now based on school size, went into effect at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year. This alignment will be in place until 2024.
While these changes may have been beneficial for smaller schools with smaller football or soccer teams who couldn’t compete against large schools, whether because of funding or lack of players to recruit onto the team, the decision did not consider more individual sports, such as swimming and track.
“They had the 1-3A (schools) separated out for finals and couldn’t even fill up both heats. I don’t know if that’s because of the way they did it differently this year or if that’s because some of the schools that were in 1-3A may have moved up this year and no other school replaced them.”
— Emily Hulse,
CCHS Swimming and Diving Head Coach
According to Clarke Central High School Swimming and Diving Head Coach Emily Hulse, these changes were obvious at the GHSA Swimming and Diving State Championship on Feb. 4.
“It was different this year in that they had the 1-3A (schools) separated out for finals and couldn’t even fill up both heats,” Hulse said. “I don’t know if that’s because of the way they did it differently this year or if that’s because some of the schools that were in 1-3A may have moved up this year and no other school replaced them.”
The Region 8-AAAAA alignment for 2021-22 (left) is contrasted with the new alignment for 2022-24 (right). The Georgia High School Association separated the new regions based on student enrollment, removing the previous split between private and public schools for the 2022-24 school years. “(It) makes it tougher, but I think each year presents its own challenges, whether it be internally or externally,” Clarke Central High School Track and Field Head Coach Justin Jones said. Images fair use of Georgia High School Association, graphic by Janie Ripps
Instead of qualifying for the meet collectively, like a football team, each individual swimmer has to meet a time standard to attend. While CCHS’ region of 4-5A was extremely competitive because larger schools had more swimmers, other regions such as 1-3A had very few swimmers who had qualified to swim.
Similar to swimming, track also experiences the same issues with unequal regions.
“This is gonna be the first year that we’ve been in this realignment (and) some traditional powers came into our region,” CCHS Track and Field Head Coach Justin Jones said. “Jefferson (High School) being one, Heritage (High School), Flowery Branch (High School) does a great job up there, (too). So with the realignment, I think our region’s gotten a lot tougher. Hopefully, we’ll be ready to go there and compete.”
Although school enrollment may be the most accurate way to divide regions for team sports because of funding and players, GHSA needs to reevaluate the alignments of individualized sports to even out the competition in the regions.
Placing all of the larger schools into one region means uneven, overly or uncompetitive meets for sports with qualifying time standards. In most cases, larger schools will bring more athletes and vice versa for smaller schools.
Although school enrollment may be the most accurate way to divide regions for team sports because of funding and players, GHSA needs to reevaluate the alignments of individualized sports to even out the competition in the regions.
Individualized sports don’t deserve the negative effects of a decision tailored for team sports.
