Normally, this space is for five things we learned about the previous week of high school football. Today, we are shaking things up and prognosticating what we think will happen on Monday in Thomaston.
Here are what we think regions will look like in the new reclassification cycle. The maps below assume no appeal changes, but we will note some appeals we think might go through in each classification.
Towns County finds themselves in Class 1A and out on their own island way up in the northern part of the state. It will be interesting to see if the Indians want to play a region schedule or not.
Class 2A
From what we are hearing, Fannin County will stay in Class 2A as the largest school in the classification. While not in our coverage area, this plays bigger in Class 3A (more to come). You see in Northeast Georgia the area boxed off that includes Rabun County, Banks County and Commerce. We think they will end up in a region including Prince Avenue Christian, Athens Academy and Oglethorpe County, all current region opponents. The newcomers look to be Providence Christian and Social Circle. Could those two be lumped into Atlanta? Possibly, but it seems like the better place for them is in with Northeast Georgia.
Class 3A
Sources say that there is a proposal on the table for an all-private school region in Class 3A, meaning you COULD see up to nine regions (in theory) to allow for the eight automatic region champion bids in this class. Sources also say that Lumpkin County is staying put as the 11th biggest school in this classification, which would put them in a region with Union County, Stephens County, Hart County, Franklin County and Elbert County. If the private schools don’t have their own region as noted in the map above, you could see Hebron Christian and Wesleyan thrown into that region as well. Only time will tell if that comes to fruition.
Class 4A
This might be the most interesting classification to try and figure out. You see in the map above that Cross Creek is the only school in the Augusta area that is in 4A. We think they appeal down to 3A. So what does that leave? Well, it leaves 10 schools in Northeast(ish) Georgia that seem to fit into a nice region. That includes White County, Dawson County, North Hall, Chestatee, East Hall, West Hall, Cherokee Bluff and East Jackson out of our coverage area and also lumps in Oconee County and Monroe Area. Likely will need to subdivide into two five-team subregions, but this region would be fun to watch across the next two years.
Class 5A
Again, you have a couple Augusta area schools that don’t fit in nicely. They would be well suited to appeal up to 6A, as you will see in the next classification. So that leaves us with East Forsyth, Jefferson, Johnson and Flowery Branch. Could Johnson appeal down? They have the best chance of the three to do so, but if they don’t (or don’t win), you are looking at a region that includes North Oconee, Madison County, Cedar Shoals, Winder-Barrow, Walnut Grove and Eastside. Some long road trips, but remember that the latter two schools have been in this region multiple times in the past.
Class 6A
See what we mean about Augusta? They always seem to be on their own island out there? And wait until you see Lakeside, Evans in 7A. Anyway, with the schools so spread out in the southern part of the state, there doesn’t seem like any other logical way than to have mega regions that will most certainly be subdivided if the lines draw out this way. This means you would likely see Gainesville, Habersham Central and Jackson County lumped in with Clarke Central, Apalachee, Loganville, Shiloh, Johns Creek, Mountain View, Lanier and Alpharetta. Where the subregion lines would be drawn is a great question, but you could see a line drawn dividing east and west?
Class 7A
We wanted to show you the whole state first, knowing that we are going to need to zoom in on the metro to see region lines. Look at Lakeside, Evans all alone. And even Colquitt County and Richmond Hill getting lumped together will make for some LONG road trips in basketball season. Ok, let’s zoom in on the metro to get a better idea of Buford’s and North Forsyth’s potential spots.
NoFo looks like the Forsyth County region will stay in tact. Put Lambert in there and Innovation Academy for all other sports outside of football and there we go. Buford will get Mill Creek again with Seckinger, North Gwinnett and a quartet of schools spanning from Duluth to Dacula.
Again, all of this is speculation based off what we are hearing from schools around the area. A lot can change over the next few days leading up to the appeals process on Monday morning. We now wait with bated breath.
The post Reclassification Fodder: What we think new regions will look like appeared first on AccessWdun.
