Archive for April, 2009

GHSA's Swearngin

The GHSA has tentative plans on how to react if the swine flu reaches Georgia high schools and affects spring sports.

The threat of swine flu has postponed all high school athletic competition in Texas and Alabama. Georgia’s governing body is monitoring the situation and has taken no action at this time.

“If Georgia were put in the same situation that Texas and Alabama finds itself in, then obviously all the extracurricular activities would have to be stopped,” GHSA executive director Ralph Swearngin said. “We’ve had some of these same type of discussions a few years back when there was the possibility of the bird flu. There were concerns that the epidemic was going to hit, and the CDC and other groups had seminars for our school people.”

The GHSA’s top priority would be to complete the state championships of all of its spring sports.

Here’s how things might work under Sweargin’s swine flu scenario:

Wait on others before reacting swiftly. “Once the word came …

Continue reading GHSA has plan in place if swine flu reaches Georgia high schools »

AJC All-State offensive lineman Chris Burnette will be speaking at Troup High School's graduation ceremony on May 23

It looks like Georgia coach Mark Richt won’t be attending Troup High School’s graduation after all.

Georgia officials had unofficially contacted the NCAA to ask for permission for Richt to attend the graduation if Troup offensive lineman Chris Burnette would be speaking. But Burnette, who has already signed with Georgia, narrowly missed out on being class valedictorian.

When Richt asked to attend the May 23 graduation anyway, NCAA officials said that request was unlikely to approved.

“Mark still wanted to attend the graduation to support Chris,” UGA compliance director Eric Baumgartner said. “However, after speaking with the NCAA, they were comfortable with [Burnette] being valedictorian, but the NCAA couldn’t get there for [Richt] to attend the ceremony without Chris being the valedictorian.”

Richt didn’t know that NCAA rules prohibited him from attending such …

Continue reading NCAA rules prevent UGA’s Mark Richt from attending Troup High graduation »

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — High school athletes in Florida will play fewer games for the next two years under a new rule approved by the Florida High School Athletic Association that is designed to save money during tough economic times.

The group’s board of directors voted 9-6 Monday to cut the number of varsity games by 20 percent and all other play by 40 percent through the 2010-11 school year. The policy applies to all sports except for football.

“It’s written in the proposal to have a sunset after two years. That’s it. We really mean two years,” board president Greg Zornes said in a statement. “We fully intend to restore what we had until today at the end of the two-year period.”

The rule change was designed to cut costs for Florida high school athletic departments, which are facing tough budget constraints.

“These are unprecedented times,” Zornes said. “People are losing their jobs as schools are cutting millions and millions of dollars from their budgets. Our job is to …

Continue reading Florida takes cost-cutting measures with high school sports »