GHSA votes to separate Class A public, private schools for playoffs and championships

Concrete Pete

January 10th, 2012
1:12 pm

If this is the beginning of a trend throughout all classifications, will Buford be subject to private school rules?

Out of town

January 10th, 2012
1:13 pm

Go back to 5 classes and this is a good idea. Terrible with 6.

Dollar Bill

January 10th, 2012
1:16 pm

Ditto!! And any other City school as well. You can live in Alabama and play for Buford.

hsbbfan

January 10th, 2012
1:18 pm

I guess this system is fair but now should class A be divided? For example Class A(public) champs and class A(private) champs for each sport. Based on the recent(last 25years) class alignments…That will take some time to get use to.

Tdawg

January 10th, 2012
1:21 pm

Crap when it comes to recruiting, the priviate schools don’t have jack on the city schools. What about the city schools. Heck Bufords entire starting line up was made up mostly of transfers.

Just Be Fair

January 10th, 2012
1:27 pm

Now will all the Private schools in class A opt to move up to AA classification?

Dollar Bill

January 10th, 2012
1:35 pm

Just be fair: Let them. Then they will have to compete with the likes of Wesleyan and Lovett and Westminster down the road. Marist is the one of the few private schools out there that opts to play up.. I THINK they qualify as AA but play up to AAAA.

Who does this really target? Private schools in South Georgia? This has to be a reactionary change on GHSA’s part.

yellowjacket

January 10th, 2012
1:40 pm

Should have just went with a multiplier. The next change will be the result of county schools complaining about city schools, city schools complaining about charter schools, and so on. Dividing the two was a bad idea but this is Georgia. I think the GISA will gain from this. Hopefully if not already they will be allowed to play both public and private schools from other states. If I was a coach or headmaster at a GISA school I would recruit and try to put my school on a national level. It is very much possible. Look at the catholic leagues in New Jersey, Oak Hill Academy, and Findlay Prep. The goal for GISA the next 5 years is to have the best competition in the Southeast.

Just Be Fair

January 10th, 2012
1:41 pm

Yea Dollar Bill that is really fair to the AA schools that are barely bigger than your Charltons and Lincolns. They haven’t solved one thing they just moved a problem. Class don’t want what is fair they just want the whole pie themselves. I know there is a problem but this just moved it. It didn’t solve what is fair for all.

WTF

January 10th, 2012
1:41 pm

What a crock…..guess no one has ever heard of how Wilkinson County recruits basketball players. Jeter the Cheater and his family are permeated throughout their school district at all the highest paid positions…..

JD

January 10th, 2012
1:41 pm

They should consider puting city schools in the same boat as private schools, they recruit a lot of their kids as well.

Dap01

January 10th, 2012
1:41 pm

It’s about time.

Just Be Fair

January 10th, 2012
1:42 pm

I meant Class A in my third sentence.

Just Be Fair

January 10th, 2012
1:43 pm

JD where is your evidence against city schools? Don’t sterotype all city schools.

Bobo is Not the Problem

January 10th, 2012
1:44 pm

Too funny. Didn’t four private Christian schools compete in the semifinals this year? Not a public school to be found?

Guess the public schools (and my kids go to one in AAAA) couldn’t take the embarrassment.

Too funny.

And bad move by GHSA.

Dap01

January 10th, 2012
1:46 pm

It don’t matter how many “leagues” are created. Every team in every league should ALWAYS have the same rules. At least they acknowledged a problem.

Tommy

January 10th, 2012
1:47 pm

Now all private schools should join the GHSA.

JD

January 10th, 2012
1:47 pm

@Just Be Fair

AA is the main one that I’m refering to, the same two teams every year and they both do it the same way, although, Buford does it more.

Bruce Kelnhofer

January 10th, 2012
1:58 pm

We did this down here in Florida for the first time this year. The “rural schools’ had theri state championship and it seemed to go pretty well. It will never be fair, but who cares. Its about the kids starting in the summer and working hard for a state championship in December. My daughter goes to a Christian school in Jacksonville, and I like the classifications that we have. I am the golf coach at the school. I wish we had more classifications for golf. We have two and it makes it pretty hard to compete.

D-Dubs

January 10th, 2012
2:02 pm

Is this through all Class A sports, or just football? If it’s going to be done, it needs to be done across the board for all sports.

Also, why stop at Class A? Why not all private schools?

Sheriff Taylor

January 10th, 2012
2:02 pm

What’s to keep the private schools as members of GHSA now that the A schools are exiled to their own private league? If they form their own association or only play other private schools like they do in NC, TN, TX, etc. eligibility rules will be out the window w/o GHSA governance and “recruiting” will become rampant. At least, it has the potential to become even more of a wild west free-for-all than it is now, where schools at least have to pretend some of the time not to recruit and pay lip service to GHSA rules. It won’t take long for private schools to hire scouts & recruiting coordinators to buy up the best athletes to an even larger degree than they do already.
Small public schools may see this a good move until their best players start getting bought from under their noses more frequently. Not sure this is a great move for Georgia High School sports.There are now 7 (?!) classifications in GHSA if this stands, APublic, APrivate, & AA – AAAAAA?

Panther Pride

January 10th, 2012
2:02 pm

It’s essentially this:

For the private schools to play in GHSA, they have to play. Public schools don’t have to pay. Simple economics, it is better for the GHSA to give an advantage to private schools so they can keep this money flowing. That has a lot to do with it, because all the public schools feel slighted because they watch these games.

Bobo is not the answer: If you think there’s no difference between a county school in South Georgia with 10,000 citizens in the county and a school in metro Atlanta with 10 times that number in proximity of the school, you’re in a state of denial.

Panther Pride

January 10th, 2012
2:04 pm

Private schools have to pay to play in GHSA. typo.

Knights123

January 10th, 2012
2:07 pm

So how does this change playoff qualifying???

Walmartdawg

January 10th, 2012
2:11 pm

Should have left it the way it was and let the small public shools leave. They would have come back eventually.

Lady Cat

January 10th, 2012
2:11 pm

I think what the biggest disadvantage and complaint was that the schools were NOT equal. A small public school does not have the money to “recruit” any players like the private schools do. Private school students already have to pay to go to that school so money is not an issue for them. And it is NOT FAIR TO THE KIDS that are playing and practicing when the same rules dont apply to ALL! It will never be completely fair to all. There will always be complainers!

billcanoe

January 10th, 2012
2:12 pm

Good move – it’s about time.

Rob

January 10th, 2012
2:13 pm

I think it is a foolish decision and will cost schools more. It will also become a water down brand of football. It doesn’t solve the problem of recruiting because that is happening at the public schools too. The GHSA can’t contol the nature of the beast it sounds like.

DawginLex

January 10th, 2012
2:14 pm

Bunch of freaking public school crybabies got their way.

What a joke

Why don’t you really do something gutsy and do the following:

1.) Put prayer back in school
2.) Actually require kids to attend class
3.) Boot out the jerkoffs, houligans and trouble makers and let the kids who wat to actually learn, learn.

Public schools get what they have created and now want a new set of rules to win sporting events because they can’t manage their own schools.

WAH! WAH! WAH!

Lame

January 10th, 2012
2:16 pm

Cowards.

CrαZy

January 10th, 2012
2:16 pm

If this is the beginning of a trend throughout all classifications, will Buford be subject to private school rules?

Why would they be they’re a public school? Why is it Buford’s fault that people want to put their kids in school there. Why is it Bufords fault that they are located in one of the largest counties in the state? Dispite what people say athletes are NOT the only kids transfering into the school… as a matter of FACT more kids transfer into the school at the Elementary school age than the at High school age so they’re not just getting athletes!!

CrαZy

January 10th, 2012
2:20 pm

Why is it school systems that do a great all around job creating a great learning enviroment by having great facilities, academics and athletics are always the ones most people complain about??

Some people live their life jealous of what others have and some people work their butt of to get what others have!!!

old man

January 10th, 2012
2:21 pm

GHSA HAS LET RECRUTING GO TO FAR MONEY TALKS

Bob

January 10th, 2012
2:21 pm

1.71 Recruiting and Undue Influence is defined as the use of influence by any person connected directly or indirectly with a GHSA school to induce a student of any age to transfer from one school to another, or to enter the ninth grade at a member school for athletic or literary competition purposes, whether or not the school presently attended by the student is a member of the GHSA.

The Problem is this rule does NOT apply to Private Schools. Thus the unfair dissadvantage.

Enough is enough

January 10th, 2012
2:25 pm

The answer to all this madness is simple. 1. ALL public schools should make up the GHSA an ALL privates make up the GISA. 2. To play sports at a GHSA school, the student athlete MUST live in the district with NO EXCEPTIONS. This would end all these problems (including Buford-like situations). Is this really that difficult?

Raider1990

January 10th, 2012
2:28 pm

@pantherpride: you are quite wrong and should read the white book. Every member school in the GHSA pays a membership fee.

Coffee High Fan

January 10th, 2012
2:28 pm

We still looking for a New Football Coach..if interested call are send resume to Coffee Co Bd on Ed. Douglas Ga.

CrαZy

January 10th, 2012
2:32 pm

2. To play sports at a GHSA school, the student athlete MUST live in the district with NO EXCEPTIONS. This would end all these problems Is this really that difficult?

Yes it is really that difficult there’s FEDERAL laws that allows parents to put their kids into schools even if they don’t live in the district. Some kind of multiplier is the only way…

Brett Blitch

January 10th, 2012
2:32 pm

Being from Clinch county, we don’t recruit. In the last thirty years, we may have had 4 students transfer to Clinch county and played sports. All four sat out the required one year, and trust me, they didn’t make that much of an impact. I hate being sperated from the other schools and would rather play and beat everyone in class A,just have the kids sit out one year regardless where they transfer from! Make common sense exceptions like a school closing. GHSA just catered to both sides, giving each what they wanted.
Clinch beat Eagles Landing and Savanah Christian last year with homegrown talent. Both are great schools, but playing against a stacked deck, meant we were the best of the best.

JWin

January 10th, 2012
2:41 pm

I say just line them up and play ball!

CrαZy

January 10th, 2012
2:43 pm

People always brag about winning with home grown talent and that’s great in the sticks, but when you live in heavily populated areas NO school wins with homegrown talent. If you move 1 mile down the road in metro ATL odds are you’re in a diferent school district. In south GA you can move accross the county and still be in the same school district. That’s just the way it is. They could always do like California and split between Metro area schools and non- metro area schools… then we can argue about what makes you a metro school or not a metro school.

Mr. Silly

January 10th, 2012
2:45 pm

Thomas, any way you could provide us with a vote breakdown?

Enough is enough

January 10th, 2012
2:48 pm

2. To play sports at a GHSA school, the student athlete MUST live in the district with NO EXCEPTIONS. This would end all these problems Is this really that difficult?

Yes it is really that difficult there’s FEDERAL laws that allows parents to put their kids into schools even if they don’t live in the district. Some kind of multiplier is the only way…

I didn’t say attend the school. To participate in athletics, they must live in the district. Anyone the school wants to allow in, so be it. This is the best way as the same Federal government makes ALL states must provide public education no matter where you live. Federal law or not, this is by far the easiest and simplest way where no cheating could take place without consequences. If privates want to play in the GHSA, make them play in the highest classification PERIOD. The problem is too many complicated rules and loopholes. Athletics are not a right, they are a privilege. Simplify the rules, and fairness will finally be done.

Guest

January 10th, 2012
2:49 pm

Any GISA schools having trouble paying travel costs for sports? This may make them think about jumping to the GHSA if that allows more options for local play.

Reality Check

January 10th, 2012
2:53 pm

The simple solution is to give everyone a Participation Trophy. Then, everyone is a winner! Until they enter the workforce where pay is equated to value and performance, people are actually terminated for not performing their jobs, and then you sign up for public assistance. Oh wait, public assistance is kind of like the Class A public school championships for people in the real world looking for a Participation Trophy. Never mind.

CrαZy

January 10th, 2012
2:55 pm

If there’s a rule that makes kids live in the district to play at that school don’t you think parents would just move to that school district or rent an apt in that district. Parents are going to put their kids in the school they want them to play or attend regardless of the rules.

I’m sure some schools may recruit, but for the most part people that put their kids into a school do it for academic reasons and that shouldn’t result in the kid not being allowed to play athletics.

GHSA went down the tubes!

January 10th, 2012
2:57 pm

Public Schools are a bunch of cry babies… they should put an asterisk next to every state championship won by a public school starting this fall. It can stand for, “Public School Champ was afraid to play a Private School!” This is worst than the BCS…

Looking behind the losses

January 10th, 2012
2:58 pm

Prince played and beat three of the biggest complainers in this fiasco: Washington-Wilkes, Charlton, and Bremen. The talent disparity between those schools was quite evident. Simply put, if not for bad coaching and/or turnovers Prince would not have been able to stay within 20 points of any of those teams. But rather than taking the blame for poor coaching and mistakes, those teams have joined a conspiracy to hurt the football programs of schools like Prince who take no Georgia GOAL money and whose parents have to pay public school taxes even though their kids don’t attend public schools. No one cared when the private schools were winning tennis, golf, basketball, baseball, volleyball, etc. championships; but now that there has been 1 year that a private school won the all-mighty football championship in Class A all hell breaks loose. A multiplier would have been a much fairer way to do this, but the GHSA caved plain and simple.

GHSA went down the tubes!

January 10th, 2012
2:59 pm

@Reality Check

Right on! That’s exactly how it is.

CrαZy

January 10th, 2012
3:03 pm

(including Buford-like situations)

What would that situation be exactly? The part where the city puts every dime they can into making the school better? Or the part where they were rated as 1 of the top public schools in the state? Or the situation where people are willing to PAY 2K so that their kids can attend? Or the situation that their athletics are dominate? What a situation they’re in at Buford… lets punish them for doing a great job with there school system!!!

GHSA Stripes

January 10th, 2012
3:06 pm

This is for all sports. Public schools in Class A only have 10 soccer teams which is not enough to meet the mandatory 16 teams to have a state championship. RS thinks that more schools may add sports due to the division.

coughsalot

January 10th, 2012
3:09 pm

This is just a continuation of the sense of entitlement that’s sweeping across our country. Get something for nothing. Who really wants to be the “state champion” of group of about 40 schools? You’re not a state champion, you’re just going to be the best out of a small, watered down group of schools. And, Class A Public Schools, you’ll still have the same sense of inferiority that you have now only it will be worse because you’ll always wonder if you truely are the best. You’ll know in the backs of your minds that there’s another champion out there and you’ll always wonder “maybe we were good enough to beat them too”…only now you won’t get the chance to find out.

Lucky Dawg

January 10th, 2012
3:10 pm

I agree with Reality Check. The little girls at Wilcox and Terrell and all the other piss@nt A schools couldn’t compete with private schools so they had to beg for a rule change. And if private schools really recruited as much as those little girls thought they did, they would never lose a game.

Dontavius Supremo

January 10th, 2012
3:12 pm

PURE jealousy and stupidity.

Idiot's Delight

January 10th, 2012
3:13 pm

In other words, if you canlt beat them, don’t play them. Bright.

Lumpkin

January 10th, 2012
3:14 pm

Should be a big gain for the GISA

tbia

January 10th, 2012
3:15 pm

I think they should just have bowl games.

justafan

January 10th, 2012
3:15 pm

This is a start for the GHSA to make strides in the right direction! THANK YOU!

CrαZy

January 10th, 2012
3:16 pm

Lumpkin… I don’t know the GISA mighht lose some members now that the GHSA has split. A few of those schools would benifit from less travel by joining the GHSA.

Legend of Len Barker

January 10th, 2012
3:17 pm

The schools and the GHSA haven’t quite figured things out. Yes, there is recruiting at some private schools, but yes there is recruiting at some public schools and in all classifications. Recruiting at schools has existed since schools and athletes started taking sports seriously. Colleges were recruiting professional athletes in the 1890s, Georgia Tech might have used crooked referees in a few games in the same decade and Georgia had a mini-scandal over using non-enrolled students in the early 1900s (especially because they still didn’t win).

The biggest problem is one the GHSA and nature can’t fix: money.

Whereas things were more equal in the 1950s because we all essentially had podunk high schools, except for maybe Avondale, they’re not now (and Avondale has dropped off the map). You had a bunch of skinny boys playing football and girls’ sports were dominated by the schools that took it seriously. The only professional athletes in the state were a bunch of young minor league baseball players. [Obligatory joke that there weren't any professional athletes in the state until the mid-1980s. 1990s for the Braves.]

Then Atlanta became a hot place to live. Athletes stayed and raised their equally athletic kids here. Metro Atlanta boomed and people with money who took their athletics seriously moved in. Gwinnett got rich. Collins Hill got Maya Moore. Girls’ athletics were now taken seriously in all areas.

Down outside the metro, these things were happening. Every other metro area got poorer. No athletes moved there with their equally athletic kids. Your Jeff Davises, Seminole Counties, Thomsons and Talbotton Centrals still have the same corn-fed athletes they had 30 years ago. The world’s the same.

Throw in that no media broadcasts full games that aren’t from the metro and that even further polarizes the playing field. GPB takes it a step further and only broadcasts big schools from the metro. ESPN likes Gwinnett. Charlton and Clinch may be one of the hottest tickets in south Georgia, but neither exist at any points north of McRae.

They used to say there are two Georgias: metro areas and everyone else. There are currently about four Georgias: Metro Atlanta, other metropolitan areas in other parts of the state (excluding Albany), non-metro north Georgia, and non-metro south Georgia (including Albany). Four completely different worlds. There is some crossover and occasionally the latter two actually win a title, but it’s not the same universe that it was in 1990 which was huge change from 1960 which was a huge change from 1930.

coughsalot

January 10th, 2012
3:18 pm

How much fun will it be to be the Class A Public school state champion in soccer or volleyball. You’ll have a state tournament that will have about 4 teams in it.

CrαZy

January 10th, 2012
3:19 pm

Class A Georgia High Achool Athletics: where we start to prepare kids for a long life full of handouts and government assistance.

tardawg

January 10th, 2012
3:20 pm

Why don’t the private schools have their own league, like they use too?It used to be called the GISA or something like that.

Glad/Smiling

January 10th, 2012
3:24 pm

AMEN !!! Finally, an attempt,to level the playing field. The controversy over private vs. public has finnally caused this vote and reaction by GHSA.
Yes, have a private and a public league. This may result in such. At least there will be “separate” champions.
It will be interesting to see if some private A schools now, and in near future, move to class AA. Oh, the GSHA should have gone a little further and included a separate champion for AA private and public.

slobberknocker

January 10th, 2012
3:26 pm

Why stop at Class A? Have separate private and public school playoffs for all Classifications. Everyone knows that private schools have a distinct advantage when it comes to fielding sports teams. No district lines to worry about, their own private stadiums for a real home field advantage, and deep pocket alumni to fund all sorts of athletic endeavours, all create an unequal playing field. Murphy was on the right track when he applied the 1.5 multiplier to private school enrollment. He should have made it 2.0.

Sav'h dawg

January 10th, 2012
3:28 pm

Enter your comments here

CrαZy

January 10th, 2012
3:30 pm

The GHSA should go to 7 classes where the single A privates are in AA and the publics are in A. B/C I’ll always think less of the A public champ than the A private champ. The A public’s are the ones running away from the fight with there junk tucked between their legs!! Maybe that’s what we can call the A public class the Junk tuckers!!

billy

January 10th, 2012
3:31 pm

Public Schools – 1 Private Schools – 0 This is the first of many defeats

billy

January 10th, 2012
3:32 pm

Major victory today for public schools. Congrats you out coached them

THE MAJOR

January 10th, 2012
3:33 pm

Why doesn’t the GISA just disband and join Class A GHSA? This is foolish, for years all the public schools said the private can’t beat us and now they are. Public schools man up!

sav'h dawg

January 10th, 2012
3:35 pm

All this started when (Legendary) Coach Larry Campbell lost to Coach Donald Chumley’s Savannah Christian Raiders for the 3rd consecutive time. Savannah Christian ran the gauntlet 3 years in a row to make it to the finals. We win this year after losing to Clinch and Wilcox back to back. Apparently it wasn’t an issue when these teams were running up the score on inferior opponents over the last several years. Finally, a coach comes along that out schemes them and they cry the blues. I hope we can schedule these crybabies in some non-region games this year. Go Raiders

Doc

January 10th, 2012
3:36 pm

If “everyone knows that private schools have a distinct advantage when it comes to fielding sports teams” then why aren’t the private schools winning the state championships in the “revenue” sports? They might win them in class A, but not in any higher classifications.

Chicago Dawg

January 10th, 2012
3:36 pm

when you stand up for fairness..your called renegade??? What a sad choice of words AJC

CrαZy

January 10th, 2012
3:39 pm

I wonder if the leaders of the A public schools like to dress up like women in their spare time?? I’d be embarrassed if I was a fan of one of these A public schools. Running from competition way to teach our future welfare recipients how to win in life!!!

GHSA Stripes

January 10th, 2012
3:42 pm

coughsalot,
you can’t have a state championship without 16 teams

coughsalot

January 10th, 2012
3:43 pm

To all of the people who talk about doing this in other classificaions: there are only about 12 private schools in all of the other classifications combined. I might be off by one or two. There are 7 in AA: Benedictine (Savannah all boys), GAC, Lovett, Riverside Military, St. Vincent’s (Savannah all girls), Wesleyan, Westminster. AAA: St. Pius, Woodward, Blessed Trinity. AAAA: Marist. You couldn’t even put all 12 of these together and have a state playoff.

G Rat

January 10th, 2012
3:44 pm

@Looking behind the losses, I want you to show me where Charlton County has complained any. Do that simple tast. I bet you cannot give one example of where Charlton has complained.

coughsalot

January 10th, 2012
3:46 pm

GHSA Stripes: I was joking about 4 teams competing in a Class A Public School Soccer or Volleyball tournament. I was implying that there are probably about 4 class A public schools that actually field teams in these sports.

GHSA Stripes

January 10th, 2012
3:47 pm

CrαZy, not all Public A schools were involved in the GPSA. Commerce and Towns are two that I know were not involved in any of the meetings. Commerce competes in a region that is nearly full of private schools.

GHSA Stripes

January 10th, 2012
3:48 pm

coughsalot, you aren’t far off with soccer, only 10 currently

Rock

January 10th, 2012
3:53 pm

This just opened the door wide open for Wilkinson County. They are just as guility as any private school of recruiting. The head coach is the school system’s superintendent. Give me a break..He goes out and gets who he wants and who will question him. AH! Nobody. PUNK!

GHSA Stripes

January 10th, 2012
3:54 pm

Riverside Military would have a hard time competing in any case. They have no summer training sessions for passing leagues and the like. They do have cadets come from all over, but they aren’t coming to Riverside for the sports.

Rockmart Needs a Coach

January 10th, 2012
3:55 pm

This the right thing to do in single A.

Calhoun and Buford are day and night. Look at the size of the players, you think Calhoun recruits those little guys ? Calhoun is the result of a city feeder program, good coaching, good parents and support with some county players. The player pool is small compared to Gwinnette Co, plus there are 3 high schools in Gordon Co. Dublin is a city school too no one is saying anything about them. Buford is bigger and stronger than everyone they play, not true for Calhoun.

South GA Panther

January 10th, 2012
4:14 pm

I believe schools were complaining before a private school won the football championship. It’s tough for a school with very few resources to compete with a schools like Wesleyan or Landmark Christian. On top of the resources they have, they can also recruit top players from very large geographic areas to their program. This complaint has been going on for years. This is not a recent problem. How many D1 baseball players have these two schools produced in the past few years? You can bet that these two schools alone have produced more D1 players than all of the rural single A public schools put together. I am not slamming these programs because of their success, but if these schools really want to have competition, then they should be playing up a couple of classes. These schools are on a completely different level than the public single A schools that they are beating year after year. Its funny, most of the people slamming the public schools for getting their way have never been to see just how bad it is in sports like baseball, golf, tennis, or volleyball.

Walker, Texas Ranger

January 10th, 2012
4:15 pm

This should include Buford, Gainesville, Calhoun and any other city school that allows students not in their school district to go to that school. It is no coincidence that Buford & Calhoun have played for the past 4 years in the championship.

Mike

January 10th, 2012
4:19 pm

Heck yes Dexter woods voted “no”, he knows who will be next. And rightly so.

Mike

January 10th, 2012
4:23 pm

Doc, because 85-90% of all private schools are class A. That is why they don’t dominate other classes.

CrαZy

January 10th, 2012
4:25 pm

Walker, Texas Ranger

Do a little research!! There is a TON of schools that have the same exact policies that Buford Gainesville and Calhoun have even county schools. The biggest difference between them and other schools is they simply have more to offer academicly and athleticly than other schools so parents want their kids there.

Bobo is Not the Problem

January 10th, 2012
4:32 pm

Panther Pride, I have no idea what your comment means: ” If you think there’s no difference between a county school in South Georgia with 10,000 citizens in the county and a school in metro Atlanta with 10 times that number in proximity of the school, you’re in a state of denial.”

Each school has approximately the same number of students, and ergo, the same approximate student body to draw from. McDonough, Fairburn, Savannah, and Athens (location of the four Class A finalists) are hardly megaplexes, and even so, the student populations of their private schools are the same as the public schools.

Long Tine Observer

January 10th, 2012
4:32 pm

It would be better if the Buford’s and Wesleyan’s (i.e., anyone who allows students outside their geographic area to attend and play)were required to play in the top classification, or at least play up several levels, as Marist has the integrity to do.

Egbert

January 10th, 2012
4:34 pm

I have spent 40 years listening to the crap about public school athletic supremacy over privates. The AJC has for years refused to even publish GISA scores. This kind of disparate treatment led to the recent migration of many Atlanta-area private schools to the GHSA (George Walton, Fellowship Christian, Mt. Pisgah, Pinecrest etc. ) Now the wittle public schools are afwaid to pway the big bad pwivate schools. Waaaah. What a bunch of wusses. These public school athletic directors should be ashamed of themselves and should ask their kids whether THEY want to back away from the challenge of playing everybody. This would be hilarious except that it will kill the GISA, and I hate to see that.

Mike

January 10th, 2012
4:34 pm

CraZy sounds a little worried to me. Good, we are coming after you boys next…

CrαZy

January 10th, 2012
4:38 pm

Long Tine Observer

Most of GA would be in the highest classification b/c most schools have the same poilicies as Buford, Calhoun, Wesleyan… ect.. people just hate on them because they win. People come to those schools more often for a reason… and less often to other schools for the exact opposite reason.

CrαZy

January 10th, 2012
4:42 pm

Mike…
worried?? No not at all I could care less what class we play in. I don’t think we’d have a problem even in AAAAAA. What I have an issue with is the pussification of people in America the “we can’t win so were gonna kick out the winners mentality”.

Tana

January 10th, 2012
4:45 pm

What about sports like wrestling where with the inclusion of private schools, there are only roughly 30-40 teams with wrestling programs and the private schools tend to be the better of the bunch. What happens there?

dcb

January 10th, 2012
4:48 pm

It’s the times we live in folks – appealing to the masses to change the rules to make it easier to be a winner. There is an analogy here – increase the taxes on the successful to help the less successful. Ease the mortgage qualifying rules to allow even those not able to afford a $200k house to have one. Re-norm the SAT’s to make every kids score look better. And other examples that go on and on and on. Hey, give these Class A schools in south Georgia some credit. They learned how to game the system with power politics and utilization of the news media to put pressure on the GHSA executive committee. Now they have the better competition out of the way in the playoffs and trophies are again within their grasp. Its the way of today’s society.

SOOHSO

January 10th, 2012
4:57 pm

LLet’s just all coelese!!!!

coughsalot

January 10th, 2012
5:01 pm

Long Time Observer: I’m tired of hearing about how Marist has such “integrity” for “playing up” in AAAA. Here’s the truth about that. Marist enjoys dominating the competition in all of the so called “private school” sports so they can win the Director’s Cup each year. They win the Director’s Cup every year on the strength of their finishes is sports like soccer, tennis, cross country, volleyball, golf. Sports that private schools tranditionally do well in. Since their are no other private schools in AAAA, Marist has virtually no competition in these sports. Marist intentionally plays in AAAA to avoid all of the other private schools. Then when they don’t fare well in sports like football or basketball…high profile sports, they can use the convenient excuse that they’re “playing up”. To me it’s cowardly.

Rockmart Needs a Coach

January 10th, 2012
5:08 pm

Travel is going to be the private’s problems.

Not Quite

January 10th, 2012
5:14 pm

Fair and Consistent enough for me.

This is-

Private, City and County play any and every one you want during the regular season. Then…

Private schools like Savannah Christian, GAC, ets., play private schools in their state play offs A-AAA no matter

City schools like Calhoun, Dalton, Marietta, Buford, etc play city schools in their state playoffs A-AAAAAA

County schools like Colquitt, Camdem, Hillgrove, etc play county schools in their state playoffs A-AAAAAA

Finals for all at home field, Georgia Dome, Macon, Kennesaw State’s soccer complex or Dream Parks in Cartersville.

NWCobb

January 10th, 2012
5:14 pm

Where is this going to stop? If someone can’t win a sports title are we going to go back to the 50’s mindset and segregate “black” schools because your team can’t compete with them. Maybe there should be an all Hispanic high school league for soccer according to this logic. A multiplier might be the answer, but segregation of private schools is not the way to go.

Rockmart Needs a Coach

January 10th, 2012
5:25 pm

The reason the private schools are winning is because they have advantanges, the competition is not fair. Unfair and scared to compete are not the same thing. This macho bs is just bs. Private schools should play in private leagues.

whatgoesaround

January 10th, 2012
5:40 pm

Congrats GHSA! Obama socialism has just entered high school sports. hand out trophys to everyone whether they deserve it or not-right? This is a travesty-we are showing our young people that you don’t need to work harder just stay mediocre and still get your championship.Also we have just told the kids in rural Georgia that they are not good enough to compete.They need a “special division” to succeed.

Korefa

January 10th, 2012
5:43 pm

If the playoff field is 16 teams then it would equate to only 4 rounds to reach the state championship. (14 games total vs. 15 total in the past) With that in mind, I say let them play a 11 game schedule. That would allow all the schools and additional game and gate (i.e. more $) before the playoffs start.

whatgoesaround

January 10th, 2012
5:49 pm

And why hasn’t anyone said anything about the families of private school students who still pay public school taxes. Not only do they have to pay tuition to get their kids the education they want, they have to continue to fund the public schools. That’s not an advantage for the public schools? Getting money from a child’s family that you don’t have to educate. Where does that money go? Private schools aren’t asking for money from families of public school students and don’t complain about funding your schools either. Public schools have millions given to them yearly and have nice facilities they have just squandered the money over the years and want to blame someone else.

indian

January 10th, 2012
5:50 pm

@ craZy…… “way to teach our future welfare recipients how to win in life!!!” ….. what a racist and insulting and politicaly incorrect comment!!!!! and to all who call the class A public schools whiners …we are not sore losers or cry babies we just won back what was origionaly ours in a political and mature way. If you ask me all the private school folks sound like the cry babies, whining about getting outsmarted by a bunch of public school southern boys!!!

whatgoesaround

January 10th, 2012
5:59 pm

Rockmart-you are clueless. I have seen a ton of class A football over the last few years and the publics have a load of athletes and are usually deeper across the board. Lincoln has more athletes than ELCA and Seminole more than Landmark by far. Campbell and his public school colleagues are getting outcoached by the like of Savannah and they can’t stand it. They aren’t scared, they just don’t want to step it up and teach discipline and fundamentals the way they used to-so they a running to their own little league where they can win championships and remain mediocre-easier that way.

Leighton Batiste

January 10th, 2012
6:04 pm

I play for a Class A private team,(OLM), and it’s gonna take some time to get used to but I guess it’s best for everyone. GO BOBCATS

Ole Towne guy

January 10th, 2012
6:07 pm

Not Quite is QUITE RIGHT!

It’s just not right for a private and/or city school to beat a public school in the playoffs with two of that public schools ex players.

former coach

January 10th, 2012
6:09 pm

well im glad to see that ga. high school still has no back bone. All you have to do is threaten them and they tuck their tails. what a lesson the kids have learned. if you dont like something just threaten to quit. i hope all these cry baby public school athletes will get together and threaten to quit the team if they dont get thier own way. ohhh my bad, they already do that and that is why public schools cannot keep up with the private schools. but that is what is wrong with public schools anyone. the 2 words that will get you fired in public schools are accountablity and responsibility. another great lesson taught. cry and complain and you get your way. why not bow your back and take responsiblity for the drop off and hold yourself accountable for your coaching and leadership.

Just Be Fair

January 10th, 2012
6:11 pm

The GHSA gave into the new league. Sure it was voted on but they did the GHSA did not stand up for what is fair for everybody. I bet that almost all private schools opt to play AA. Now I would like to ask Charlton, Wilcox and Lincoln is that fair for small AA schools like Atkinson, Bacon and Pelham? Now hell it aint. the GHSA might as well of kiss there asses.

Just Be Fair

January 10th, 2012
6:12 pm

I meant their.

former coach

January 10th, 2012
6:13 pm

what a joke indian. a mature and political way. sounds like our union agenda taught public school education. we are going to take our ball and go home. that sounds mature to me. that is called whinning and being a cry baby. i really think what the public school needs to do now is to bring all the players together and do like they do on upward basketball so everyone has the same opportunity and talent and not keep score so no one will lose.

Lan Fan

January 10th, 2012
6:14 pm

Indian. I don’t see where you won anything and I don’t feel like we lost. From here on it will be that publics said they couldn’t compete so they (the ones with more votes) changed things. That is the way it goes. Personally it just makes it easier for us to win what will always be seen as the better side of A sports. The thing I do feel bad about it that I think the same few bigger public A schools will go back to winning. If everyone who was afraid of the private schools is good with just losing to the same public schools, who used to win, each year so be it. I am guessing you are one of the ones that plans to win so I congratulate you. Personally I was always more afraid of the bigger public schools than the privates anyway.

Lan Fan

January 10th, 2012
6:19 pm

former coach that will be the plan next year. you have to take steps and not just jump into these things.

Ole Towne guy

January 10th, 2012
6:20 pm

Whatgoesaround
Spin it any way you want msprivateschoolmombich, the playing field between private and public schools has just been LEVELED by the GHSA.
“hand out trophys to everyone whether they deserve it or not-right?” WRONG. Hand out state championship trophies to the schools that win playing by the same set of rules!
“This is a travesty-we are showing our young people that you don’t need to work harder just stay mediocre and still get your championship”. WRONG. We are showing them that you can’t buy a state championship. You and your neighbors must EARN IT through a lot of hard work, fair play and blood sweat and tears.
“Also we have just told the kids in rural Georgia that they are not good enough to compete. They need a “special division” to succeed. RIGHT. And that special division is called apples to apples instead of the previous one that was called apples to oranges.
Get a life!

Weasel

January 10th, 2012
6:21 pm

And so public schools are innocent of recruiting? How do you think Wheeler remains a top basketball program year after year. How did Milton lose so many talented palyers last year and yet may be a better team this year.

There are better solutions to the GHSA knee jerk reaction to a vocal group that seems to think that winning is the only way to validate success. What a sad example for our kids who just want to compete.

Ole Towne guy

January 10th, 2012
6:27 pm

Whatgoesaround
Let me assure you that Larry Campbell and his public school colleagues are NOT getting outcoached by the coaches at Savannah Christian. They are getting out manned.

closATl

January 10th, 2012
6:31 pm

I think “Enough is enough” Got the Right Solution create Districts & just don’t allow those who live out of district play for the school even though they can attend the school! Sounds simple to me!!!! Infect you should only be eligible to play if you have proof of residence for a year!! Beside shouldn’t the team be structure around coaching and not recruiting in high school????

indian

January 10th, 2012
6:32 pm

Lan Fan…. your exactly right it will be said that we couldnt compete and it is most definatly true on the long run anyways how can you not see that private schools out of metropolitan areas have an advantage over public schools in rural areas

former coach

January 10th, 2012
6:33 pm

weasel, now now you know that milton and wheeler and other public schools that recruit are just trying to give kids the opportunity to better themselves. and we know why no one will address public school recruiting especially at wheeler and milton. ghsa has cowed to that pressure for years and will continue to to keep our politicians off their backs just like the banks were forced to give some loans knowing that couldnt afford but had to because the government told them they better or they would come after them. and when the bubble busted the banks got blamed for it. same way here. ask ghsa why they gave into tom murphy who threatened them because his daughter couldnt compete in debate with private schools. thank goodness for government run, union agenda, politically correct public schools.

showboat

January 10th, 2012
6:35 pm

So here’s the initial problems – and they aren’t small:
1) What’s the point in the regular season for private school teams? Half of them will now make the playoffs! For public schools, the odds of making the playoffs just increased dramatically as well. Because of the change, the regular season is nearly meaningless, as well as the phrase, “My school made the playoffs!” This will be something like the NBA playoffs – only eliminating the worst teams, not elevating the best.
2) They didn’t think at all about other sports, it seems. What will they do for public school teams that can’t put together a 32 team league? The same is true for privates.
3) Travel. There is now a much greater risk for private schools and referees who must travel longer distances to play. I promise you this: if there is an accident next year, this vote will be brought up.
4) It sounds like they couldn’t make a decision about the dome or the plus 1. I would imagine if the public schools are given the dome game and the privates are not, there will be a lawsuit.
5) What if a public school wants to play in the private league – would they be allowed? If so, could this create a Super Class A league, where elite public teams and private school teams compete?
6) How will this affect the regular season? Can privates still play public school teams in Class A? Could Lincoln schedule a yearly game with Savannah Christian?
7) If there isn’t a plus 1, how in the world will the AJC figure out who to call the best class A team? Will they separate the leagues? Half the fun in the rankings is seeing where your teams is judged.
And lastly, Will they create new banners for the teams that win Class A or will it just read Class A champion?

It will be very interesting what happens in the coming weeks. Will private schools seek to play in AA? Will private schools sue for discrimination? How will public schools that will now have to travel a lot further view this – particularly when they don’t have the extra money for athletics(remember, this is true for all sports so all sports will have to travel further next year)?

Lan Fan

January 10th, 2012
6:35 pm

Ole Towne guy I think you are one still lying to yourself and others. This doesn’t make if fair for the real rural schools. Just means they are playing against fewer schools with more that they have. You want to make it even then at least give them the money to offer a better education. The extra 50 to 100 kids at some of the larger school means a lot compared to smaller schools. What you mean is now the bigger stronger A schools can beat them and not have to worry about the smaller private school who may be smaller but won last year. Fair is never really fair for all. But good luck to you and your bitterness.

former coach

January 10th, 2012
6:36 pm

let me assure you that the old public school coaches are coaching the same way they did 30 years ago when they were in control. maybe it is time to change some coaches. and no they are not out manned just out coached because of responsibility and accountablity.

indian

January 10th, 2012
6:40 pm

right said Ole towne guy

Jefferson

January 10th, 2012
6:47 pm

If a single A private school wants to play public schools, simply move up to AA and knock yourself out. There are several private AA schools and they do fine.

brick

January 10th, 2012
6:53 pm

CraZy are you really as naive as you come across here or do you just think you are smarter than everyone here? Its common knowledge in coaching circles that Buford recruits better than alot of colleges and so does Calhoun. Kids on free or reduced lunches are able to afford to pay tuition to go to an out of district school, you really believe that? You know, as well as anyone else knows, that if tuition is really charged that one of the local boosters, maybe even the schools own booster program will pick that tab up, 2k is a drop in the bucket to what has been spent on football facilities at BHS, and CHS for that matter. So don’t come on this blog and act like Buford is doing everyone a favor by being a member of the GHSA. Buford cried as much as the private schools are today when they had to move to AA ball, I bet between Buford’s choke job in the dome this year and having to move to AAA the crying towels are still damn. But don’t come here trying to act like Buford is doing nothing wrong about athletics, their academics are something to be proud of, but its really hard to be proud of something when the field is tilted so far in your advantage its a fluke when you lose. Yes Buford coaches do a great job, but play by the same rules everyone else is playing with and they are not. There are GHSA rules, which Buford basically follows, and there are ethical rules.

Now the GHSA needs to go after BB and do something to curb entire teams transferring into a school, easy thing to do would make participation in AAU would make players ineligible. Sure kids could give up HS BB, but not likely, they still need a diploma to get into college and they have to attend college for a year to get to the league.

yellowjacketfan

January 10th, 2012
6:55 pm

GISA needs to have a meeting and discuss how they can have a better brand of football. If they allow recruiting and out of state competition they could put a major dent in the GHSA image and ego. What could possibly result from this? Better competition, more athletic scholarships, and national recognition. I’m sorry class A football is a joke anyway. Private schools made the games worth watching. I’m sorry GHSA you shouldn’t have given in. Now they will go after Buford.

Ole Towne guy

January 10th, 2012
6:56 pm

Lan Fan
I am not lying to anyone. You can schedule anyone you want during the regular season. But when it comes times for advancement, you need to be playing schools that play by the exact same eligibility rules you do. (private’s play private’s, city’s play city’s and county’s play county’.
“This doesn’t make if fair for the real rural schools”. Really? How so?
What you call bitterness, I call passion.

becky williams

January 10th, 2012
6:57 pm

As a Christian woman working in a public school setting, I’ve been deeply disappointed at the un-Christian ways that many private schools appear to outsiders – and they’re so proud of their testimony … but it has often really hurt me to see how they gloat when they have expenentially more advantages. I wonder what they’d think if they could see themselves from an outsider’s viewpoint. Now that the stakes are more even, I hope those who post comments, will keep this in mind, such as this ugly comment from “craZy”: “Running from competition way to teach our future welfare recipients how to win in life!!!” Is that the perception of private school people? that public school students are all welfare recipients? It might surprise some of them, that there are many Christians seeking to be salt & light in a PUBLIC setting, including many of those who are wealthy and many who are not.

Just Be Fair

January 10th, 2012
6:58 pm

Jefferson – You are right, they can just move up to AA. Then your small AA schools get screwed. You think that A or the GHSA cares. They think they solved a problem. All they did was move it. Once again not enough thought put into it and did a knee jerk solution because of the new league.

loyal seminole

January 10th, 2012
7:01 pm

Enter your comments here

Ole Towne guy

January 10th, 2012
7:01 pm

Yellow jacket fan
“I’m sorry class A football is a joke anyway”. Speak for yourself little man.
“Private schools made the games worth watching”. Are you talking about one day in November (at the Dome) or the entire 100 day season in their community?

Cat Man Do

January 10th, 2012
7:04 pm

Just like a public school system…..bend the rules so your kids don’t feel they are “average”….that’s not the real world and a big part of what’s wrong with this country. Also, City schools recruit all day long…..

Sam

January 10th, 2012
7:05 pm

Old Town guy. I wish you ran the GHSA.

Ole Towne guy

January 10th, 2012
7:09 pm

“bend the rules so your kids don’t feel they are “average””

“Just like a public school system…..bend the rules so your kids don’t feel they are “average”….”

How about Just like a private school….bend the rules so you and your kids feel “superior”.

former coach

January 10th, 2012
7:12 pm

perfect example. no one wants to talk about wheeler or milton. wonder why. the problem is that when private schools were all white no one minded going and beating their brains in. but now with so many black parents putting their kids into private schools now public schools are being out manned. coaches have their politically correct way of talking. when a team gets off the bus, a coach will say, “look at all of those “athletes.” does anyone know what that means. If a team full of “athletes” get beat by a team without “athletes” they got out coached. so i understand what the comments that larry campbell is out manned. now i finally get what the problem is.

Jefferson

January 10th, 2012
7:12 pm

Look at the top 10 AA schools over the last 10 years, there are perinials and the small AA schools are not there anyway, The competition may be good for AA with Buford moving on. AA is compeditive at the top and will continue to be. Move on up, there will be plenty of good games.

Ole Towne guy

January 10th, 2012
7:13 pm

Glad to see privates play privates and publics play publics (in the playoffs only). Now when GHSA mandates citys play citys everything will be fair. You will still see Calhoun and Buford square off in the Dome!

Just Be Fair

January 10th, 2012
7:16 pm

Jefferson – why don’t the small AA schools get the same respect as Charlton (who should be AA anyway), Lincoln and Wilcox? Yea the big AA schools will be alright against the Private Schools but I thought the GHSA wanted a level playing field. The small AA schools should threaten to form their own league.

former coach

January 10th, 2012
7:19 pm

someone challenge ghsa on the breakdown of hardship cases they approve and disapprove based on race and see the huge disportionate number approved and turned down.

Ole Towne guy

January 10th, 2012
7:19 pm

“perfect example. no one wants to talk about wheeler or milton”.

I’m hesitant to because I don’t know enough about how magnet programs can be twisted to get good athletes into a school. But I have watched too many city schools (Dalton, Calhoun, Cartersville, Carrollton, Buford, etc beat their crosstown rival with kids that played for the crosstown rival the year before.

Just Be Fair

January 10th, 2012
7:21 pm

former coach – those hardship cases are a joke. I have seen white and black kids get screwed.

Jefferson

January 10th, 2012
7:26 pm

They dont get the respect because they don’t win. coaching plays a big role at most AA schools, if in small schools you mean small budget, there you are.

Just Be Fair

January 10th, 2012
7:29 pm

Jefferson – Oh so you are small so you don’t count. I hate to tell you but I know of small schools that have as good or better coaching than some of the big schools. I resent your statement about coaching. That has nothing to do with what was decided today.

Just Be Fair

January 10th, 2012
7:31 pm

If anybody thinks that if the AA schools move up, we solved a problem you are wrong. If that is the case why didn’t we put the multiplier back in.

Just Be Fair

January 10th, 2012
7:32 pm

I meant if the private schools move up to AA.

Jefferson

January 10th, 2012
7:37 pm

what happened today has nothing to do with small AA schools, why are they not in the top 10 among AA schools, why is Fitzgerald there every year? Lovett? Cook? Carver? I am talking about football respect, not their school. It’s a game,football.

Jefferson

January 10th, 2012
7:45 pm

In the end, GHSA has rules and votes and like what started it all, I guess you could pressure them if you dont like the new rule. It don’t mean nothing to me one way or the other, but the teams with the best coaches and boosters are the teams that win the most, public or private, city or county.

CC Packers

January 10th, 2012
7:45 pm

I like Old Towne Guy solutions

lincoln county guy

January 10th, 2012
8:05 pm

Let’s get this clear Lincoln county ain’t scared to play anyone what they should do is let public schools recruit for a year or two just to show private schools what its like what if lincolnton could get players from surrounding areas like w-w,elberton and Thomson the schools we could easily recruit from then we’ll see who would complain

observer

January 10th, 2012
8:06 pm

Good luck on the “city vs city” crap.Join the real world and just admit some students(athletes&non-athletes)make choices for themselves.Some are attracted for the superior facilities,academics or just want to be a part of A winning tradition.Yes transfers are easier in metro or heavily populated areas than in small rual counties-thats life and yes money plays a big part.Schools that emphasize sports and have quarter million dollar booster budgets look better to many athletes.It seems that class envy is not just limited to income anymore.

Just Be Fair

January 10th, 2012
8:13 pm

It is funny that this was not a problem until the football coaches got their pannies in a wad. Baseball has had to put up with this for years. A coach once said nothing would change until your Lincoln Co. and Charlton Co. started getting whipped in football.

xldawg

January 10th, 2012
8:18 pm

Scared? Say scared! Apparently everyone is scared of Larry Campbell and the Lincoln County crowd. They will want to play a plus one after the first year!

T

January 10th, 2012
8:20 pm

Lincoln County Guy: You are sadly mistaken if you think the private schools would complain. You got what you wanted, now your kids have to live with the FACT that if they win a championship it means FAR LESS.

sunshine

January 10th, 2012
8:25 pm

public schools can raise bonds and have eSPLOST for millions if not billions of dollars. private schools have very little funds except for approx 7-10 schools in the entire state and they are still limited

wr98

January 10th, 2012
8:25 pm

YEA, everyone gets a trophy!!!

chuck

January 10th, 2012
8:37 pm

LOL!!!! Plain and simple…. Lincoln County could no longer compete. I just get to enjoy one more championship game. However, we must ask ourselves, “What type of message are we sending to our children?’ Cheat, Win, or change the rules to your advantage…. just asking

Jack

January 10th, 2012
9:37 pm

Most of the same teams that dominated in 2A and 3A and are moving up will still have the same success because the better teams in 3A and 4A moved up to 4A and 5A. Some of the teams that moved from 2A to 3A are in even weaker regions now.

Mid Town

January 10th, 2012
9:55 pm

Give me a break. If I can not win I will take my ball and go home.
Like Lincolnton Co., Wilcox Co., Charlton Co., etc. have never had an athlete move in from
surrounding county.

Ole Towne guy

January 10th, 2012
10:02 pm

“Good luck on the “city vs city” crap”

Hahaha. Got the “private vs private” done didn’t they?

kent

January 10th, 2012
10:07 pm

Ole Towne guy makes a lot of sense…

Regular season stays the same (anybody against anybody)
then
Private vs Private playoffs
City vs City playoffs
County vs County playoffs

Fair AND consistent

Sav'h dawg

January 10th, 2012
10:11 pm

@ ole town guy. Campbell got out coached. I witnessed it first hand. Sore losers. Schedule us please n the regular season next year. We had two division one prospects on our team. Our 5′7″ 130 lb corner back covered your 6′1 wr all night and Campbell could not figure out how to exploit the mismatch. He got out coached.

BehindEnemyLines

January 10th, 2012
10:24 pm

re: ““I think we have enough good minds [within the GHSA] to figure it out,” Swearngin said.”

They lacked enough good minds to say no to crass blackmail from whining cowards, can’t see them faring any better coming up with a rationale playoff system.

Sav'h dawg

January 10th, 2012
10:58 pm

Larry Campbell is the joe paterno of Lincoln county. Remember this you will always be 0 and 3 against savannah Christian

jokerswild

January 10th, 2012
11:09 pm

The recent action taken by GHSA will only transfer the problem to AA. I don’t think the private schools will settle for a split championship. They win because the players are more coachable and have been instilled with a team work ethic and taught the fundamentals of the game. Most public coaches do not have enough disciplinary control over the players to teach proper execution and the fundamental skills necessary to win in the play-offs, in fact teaching kids how to play football has all but disappeared; being replaced by the practice of simply trying to put the best athletes on the field and hoping for the “big play”. The private school teams play a more fundamentally sound brand of football based on team work and knowledge of the game. This is glaringly evident when you watch private vs public in a game.

RUSSELL63

January 10th, 2012
11:42 pm

The GHSA rules are the same for private schools as they are for public, you must live in the service area full time .If you donot you must sit out a year. I think the main reason students are going to private schools, especially in the metro area is quality of education in getting prepared to go to college. There are many times a very good athlete will apply to come to a private school and will not be accepted for academic reason. Everyone seems to think every student at a private school is on partial or full ride scholarship, but this happens far less than you might think, and then you throw in the ave cost of about 16,000 per year it is far harder to get in than you might expect..
If you are looking at transfers you best look at public schools first.Iam not sure there is an ideal solution to what many preceive as a bigger problem than it is and should have been addressed by the GHSA with reforms to enforcing illegal transfers.

What's the big deal?

January 10th, 2012
11:44 pm

So private schools will no longer to be able to house athletes on campus, recruit from out of district, county, even state, and then whip up on them in the playoffs. Hmmm…..bout damn time.

hind tit

January 10th, 2012
11:45 pm

High schools are going in the same direction colleges did years ago that is student athletes begin to change schools because there was nothing to stop them from doing it. Make these kids sit out a year and you will see things began to even up within three years in every classification. In the sixties you didn’t see teams beating other teams 95 to 23. If the GHSA would stop looking the other way high school sports would be much more competitive and have better fan support. That would be a win win for the students and the schools. The taxpayers are getting fed up with the way things are run in this state.

EC

January 11th, 2012
12:13 am

Savannah Dawg

“We had two division one prospects on our team”. How many did he have on his?

Savannah Christian had a great linebacker transfer in from our high school (Effingham County) a few years back (did not change residence). Lincoln County does not have this luxury. And by the way he had two steller games against LC in the playoffs.

DublinDawg

January 11th, 2012
12:16 am

Sav’h dawg:

Savannah Dawg

“We had two division one prospects on our team”. How many did he have on his? Savannah Christian had a great linebacker transfer in from our high school (Effingham County) a few years back (did not change residence). Lincoln County does not have this luxury. And by the way he had two steller games against LC in the playoffs”.

Is this really true?

Lan Fan

January 11th, 2012
12:44 am

Well everyone it has been fun. The new rules are in place so we know what we will do. We will play, and we will win or lose.

For the good side twice as many kids will be able to put state champ on their college resumes and tell their kids all about it one day.

To the bad side Once again I have been informed that I am rich and deceitful because I want a better education for my kids and that while I can barely pay my families tuition I must be stalking the playground and local schools to offer money to someone else’s kid to come play for us.

For the record I just want to see good competition and from what I am reading the good teams are on the private school side so I guess we are Ok there.

But, what really effects my family is did they do anything about that One Act Play situation. Because my daughter tells me there is this real strong group coming up from middle school down in Elberton and I am hoping this fixes all that.

Hope to read good things about you in the future.

Jeff

January 11th, 2012
1:13 am

And besides, if you send your kid to a public school in this state, you should be charged with child abuse… you are simply feeding your kid the institutionalized, liberal-dominated curriculum and progressive propaganda that is ruining our society. The state doesn’t have any dam business teaching your kids… it’s up to YOU. The public schools in this state are a joke, and now the coaches and athletic directors are playing the jealousy card, so now everybody gets a state championship simply for participating. Great lesson… again, people, get your kids OUT of the public schools… don’t let the state assimilate your children into the Stepford “me generation”… put them in schools that challenge them, raise their standards, and don’t put up with the status quo federal education B.S. that runs our classrooms now.

Championships for Everybody!

January 11th, 2012
1:50 am

We should also create make new classifications for…

City Schools, County Schools, Suburban Schools, Rural Schools, North Ga. Schools, South Ga. Schools, Old Schools, New Schools, Schools with Animal Mascots, Schools with Non-Animal Mascots…

What was wrong with the days when the biggest reward for playing school sports was hanging out with our friends, impressing the girls, and learning lessons (that we wouldn’t fully understand untill it was all over) about things like hard work, commitment and loyalty? What was wrong with the days when beating the nearest rival was the thing that mattered most in the world and winning a region championship was enough to earn temporary immortality.

I guess these days, with the amount of money Mom and Dad have to spend to make sure Junior gets a chance to play sports, that opportunity better come with another “championship” trophy to add to the collection.

HSFB

January 11th, 2012
5:38 am

Really too bad. This isn’t good for Class A football. All this does is water down both divisions. Rather sad that a few cry babies finally got their way.

cat doc

January 11th, 2012
5:45 am

In my eyes if you pay to go to school that means your private. Get Buford in their own league. Pay to go you are private.

Packer Backer

January 11th, 2012
5:47 am

CrαZy
January 10th, 2012
3:03 pm
Dude y’all got the corner on the market…no way to police this fictitial apartment address deal..GHSA does not have enough manpower to check it all out…HEARD FREITAG HAS MOVED BACK TO HIS OLD SCHOOL AFTER USING BUFORD AS HIS FOOTBALL SCHOOL!!! TIME HAS COME FOR 3 LEAGUES WITHIN THE GACA, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, CITY SCHOOLS, AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS…
ROLLLLL TIDE!!!!

Packer Backer

January 11th, 2012
5:56 am

Totally agree that public schools for the most part are awful….Totally understand why folks send their kids to private schools, just divide them into the 3 groups above, private, public, and city schools. Let those that are doing business in the same way play each other…

Packer Backer

January 11th, 2012
6:07 am

Down here in Moultry we get our guys out of Alabama so we don’t take kids away from the surrounding schools….

OLD RED DEVIL

January 11th, 2012
6:16 am

Sav’h dawg
January 10th, 2012
10:58 pm

Larry Campbell is the joe paterno of Lincoln county. Remember this you will always be 0 and 3 against savannah Christian

YEA, IF WE CAN’T BEAT YOU IN 3 TRIES, WE WILL GET YOU VOTED OUT WHERE WE DON’T HAVE TO PLAY YOU….WE HAD BETTER ATHLETES THAN SAV. CHR., WE WERE OUTCOACHED AND OUTPLAYED….GIVE US BACK WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY OURS, THE CLASS A STATE CHAMP TROPHY…..

OLD RED DEVIL

January 11th, 2012
6:21 am

Was reading the list on the AJC website of D1 recruits in this state….IS EVERY PLAYER ON BUFORD’S DEFENSE SIGNING A D1 SCHOLARSHIP???

jokerswild

January 11th, 2012
7:44 am

I think GHSA failed to realize that most privates have a waiting list for future students but keep student pop. at the A level for optimum class size (less than 20). They can move from A to AAA at will by adding class rooms and teachers or upping class size.

Maybe NCAA should have a split Nat’l Championship- one for SEC teams and another for everyone else.

Egbert

January 11th, 2012
7:48 am

Let’s give Larry Campbell and the clown from Rochelle participation trophies like my daughter received in soccer when she was six years old. ……

Sav'h dawg

January 11th, 2012
8:25 am

@dublin dawg
That linebacker that are talking about came to sc for a better education in a Christian atmosphere. It’s a free world. He ended up signing at Gardner Webb. Too bad Lincoln county could not block him. Coach chumley schemes his defense that way. Your coaching staff should have looked at more film.

james in athens

January 11th, 2012
8:26 am

This is long overdue! GHSA finally saw the writing on the wall!
Private Schools schools as Athens Academy and now Prince Ave.
over here in NE Ga have many more advantages then the small
public schools plus they do have $$ for players that can’t afford
to pay to go there. Jefferson recruits on a smaller scale then Buford
and has many kids from Athens area who go there to play sports plus
it is a good school…. GHSA needs to put back in the 1 year sit out
rule as well to keep kids from jumping around…. AA, AAA Private
Schools are next unless they start playing up a least 2 levels like
Marist does….

Joe Franklin

January 11th, 2012
8:30 am

The private schools are about to become elite. This vote has bitten the GHSA in the butt. If the GHSA would get tougher on eligibility and transfering of students we would not have the problem we have. If a kid transfers he should be ineligible for 1 year of varsity competition period, unless he moves from at least a 100 mile distance.

jvillebil

January 11th, 2012
8:47 am

Will the same to 4 or 5 teams in both public and private be playing for the championship every year?
I heard they already drew up the brackets for the 2012 finals next year’s semifinals: Lincoln, Bremen, Wilcox, Charlton, with Clinch, Seminole and Bowden on stand by.

In the private semi’s they have SCPS, Landmark, Prince Ave & ELCA with Calvary Day and Aquinas on stand by.

Hmmm

January 11th, 2012
8:55 am

Sit out 1 year if you transfer period…Kids are transferring more than 100 miles ! Norcross and Milton are the real big offenders herein basketball. Sandy Creek in football. Columbia they come from a little closer but the fact is they can go anywhere in Dekalb they want so Dekalb schools should always play up regardless. Marist plays up simply because of money there is not much much that sets AAAA – AAA-AA football apart between these regions except Tucker and the number of fans they bring. Grady, Druid Hills and Riverwood in AAA can easily play with AAAA teamsbut not AAAAA. Some AAA teams bring no one and need the private school gate every year. I imagine its the same in A. AA power Buford and AAAA Tucker outside of them there are no real powerhouses in AAA football. AA private schools (including Buford) could easily win in playoffs in AAA or AAAA. I know this is much about football but I would hate to see it creep into other sports and regions. I would like to give this seperation movement a new name ” Class B ” yes lets bring back class “B” just like old times..

AVikingFan

January 11th, 2012
8:55 am

Changing the subject a little, but still talking about changes. Tift County hired East Paulding’s John Reid last night after a lengthy from Dublin. This was reported by a Valdosta radio station this morning.

Region 1-AAAAAA just got tougher! I wonder what The Cannon is saying this morning?!

AVikingFan

January 11th, 2012
8:57 am

sorry about the grammar in my last post. The Tift county B of Ed had a “lengthy executive meeting” to decide between John Reid and the coach from Dublin, as reported on a Valdosta radio this morning.

Public School Pete~

January 11th, 2012
9:03 am

1.71 Recruiting and Undue Influence is defined as the use of influence by any person connected directly or indirectly with a GHSA school to induce a student of any age to transfer from one school to another, or to enter the ninth grade at a member school for athletic or literary competition purposes, whether or not the school presently attended by the student is a member of the GHSA.
I think All the private schools should be allowed to play public schools during the regular season as non region games but when it comes to play off time I think they should compete with schools that have the same advantage they have! It’s not fair that schools that can get kids from all over georgia has to compete with schools who are restricted to only dealing with kids within there zone! How is that fair in any class? The answer to all this madness is simple. 1. ALL public schools should make up the GHSA an ALL privates make up the GISA. 2. To play sports at a GHSA school, the student athlete MUST live in the district with NO EXCEPTIONS. This would end all these problems (including Buford/Decatur-like situations). Bottom line let private schools compete for championships agianst other private schools who have the same advantage they have.

bucket

January 11th, 2012
9:54 am

This is a sad day for the GHSA. Everyone keeps talking about what is fair, but how is this fair to the 16 public school teams that won’t even have a chance to compete for a playoff spot because the Public Class A elites like Lincoln, Clinch, Bremen, Wilcox, Charlton, etc. are mad becaue they can’t dominate Class A football anymore. The public schools that have dominated GHSA football recruit just as much as any private school in this state. Is this argument really about fair play and the educational opportunities for kids or is this all about the egos of a few football coaches and the fans?

sav'h dawg

January 11th, 2012
10:03 am

Bucket, you got it right. It’s about fans in places like Lincoln County infatuated with their legendary coach and not able to handle losing.

TM

January 11th, 2012
10:10 am

The GHSA isn’t perfect, but it’s the best we’ve got and they’ve done a tremendous job for the young people in our State through the years. The continued language of “public vs. private” is dangerous. What we really should be talking about is schools (in general) who have the ability to bring students in from out of district through a tuition basis or other programs such as M to M that exist in Fulton County. Here’s some thoughts for a possible solution:
1. Any school that accepts students from outside their district will play up one clasification.
2. The exception would be private schools who enter GHSA for the first time. Those school would have a 4 years to develop their programs in the classification of their enrollment numbers. This would allow new schools (like Kings Ridge in Alpharetta) time to develop their programs at a fair competitive level
In effect, this would solve the issue at the Class A level and put in place a measure that levels the playing field for all schools.
Let’s do away with the “public-private” language that divides and then support the GHSA in it’s efforts to serve all of our students in Georgia.

Hmmm

January 11th, 2012
10:27 am

CAIRO FOOTBALL, I belive it is a public school you should be ashamed. Lets look at this you have 2 players that have their report date to jail on a felony ROBBERY CHARGE delayed so they can play high school football ! ! ! Lose your playoff game go to jail. What did the team bus drop them off on the way back from losing to Peach County? Talk about lack of discipline and unethical behavior displayed by that whole town, coaches, DA, Principal. Level playing field I think not…No private school would let 2 felons play on the team let alone go to the school..What do you think now?” Oh and didnt their QB transfer in without having to sit out I dont care where he came from or moved from the rule should be sit out 1 year no questions asked. Legit public schools are getting trampled by the movers and shakers of the public school world. GSHA needs to get the transfer rule right.. Along with no convicted or plea bargined felons playing high school sport. http://www.walb.com/story/16344694/prep-football-standouts-report-to-jail?clienttype=printable

Noneya

January 11th, 2012
10:32 am

“I think we have enough good minds [within the GHSA] to figure it out,” Swearngin said.

I don’t.

Noneya

January 11th, 2012
10:36 am

Wow. That’s crazy Hmmm. AJC needs a “Like” button so I can like some of these comments. Lol

Noneya

January 11th, 2012
10:39 am

I haven’t read through all the comments so someone may have mentioned this but what’s stopping a bunch of the private schools from moving up to AA, the next time realignment happens? With the 6 Class system would it be much a difference?

Sid Vicious

January 11th, 2012
10:59 am

Fact: City schools have won more state titles than ALL private schools combined. FACT! Look it up

Kent Smith

January 11th, 2012
11:08 am

I have two athletes who spent entire school years at Lovett & Westminster. I am struck by the cynicism regarding private school recruiting, which is an overblown myth. Their advantage lies in coaching and kids in the system longer. Now living in Florida, they would laugh at the GHSA’s decision to bend over backwards. Walmartdawg is right, let them go and they would be back.

jvillebil

January 11th, 2012
11:09 am

Sid, I mised something, is this over a period of years? How far does it go back. I’m not sure I understand the comment.

The Brick

January 11th, 2012
11:16 am

SO if we were going to rank the GHSA classifications would it go 6A 5A 4A 3A 2A 1A-Private 1A-Public or will it be 1A-Public then 1A-Private??

I’d put public last just because they’re the ones that ran from the competition!

JT

January 11th, 2012
11:26 am

TM:

“Any school that accepts students from outside their district will play up one classification”.

What if it’s a AAAAAA school?
What if it’s a City school whose “district” encompasses that of 6 public schools
What if it’s a City school whose “district” encompasses that of 6 public schools which are in the same region as the City school?

Publics play publics in the playoffs
City’s play City’s in the play offs
Privates play Privates in the playoffs

gomez

January 11th, 2012
11:27 am

@The Brick

Class A public is now – Class B

JT

January 11th, 2012
11:28 am

Bucket:

“The public schools that have dominated GHSA football recruit just as much as any private school in this state”.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAH

The Brick

January 11th, 2012
11:38 am

Publics play publics in the playoffs
City’s play City’s in the play offs
Privates play Privates in the playoffs

Why run from the competition?? The real world doesn’t work this way!! We’re already going to have SEVEN state champions next year… that’s seperation enough!! Put multipliers on students who attend schools where they don’t live. Make the schools that get large numbers of kids play up, but adding even more classes is boarderline insane. In 10 years were going to have 14 state titles to hand out if we don’t stop this insanity.

DublinDawg

January 11th, 2012
11:39 am

Sav’h dawg

First of all I am not from Lincoln County little man. Second, I’m all for a better education, Christian atmosphere and free world. I was only pointing out that a public school (Lincoln County) should not have to play a private (or City) school (Savannah Christian) in the playoffs unless they both play by the same player eligibility rules. That’s all. Regular season yes. Post season no.

I really , really like Ole Towne guy’s
Private vs Private playoffs
City vs City playoffs
County vs County playoffs

Good neighbor

January 11th, 2012
11:56 am

The Brick

Publics play publics in the playoffs
City’s play City’s in the play offs
Privates play Privates in the playoffs

The way I understand it, competing against teams in the post season that have the same eligibility rules as you is not running from the competition. It’s making it fair and consistent which is what the GHSA is paid to set up.

Why compare apples to oranages and keep claiming they are the same?

dan

January 11th, 2012
12:04 pm

Sour grapes from the public schools. If they were winning, this would have never occurred. Watch out Buford and Calhoun!

jvillebil

January 11th, 2012
12:05 pm

I have a question? If there is a child that lives in Savannah and is on the fringe of the school district for SCPS and takes his entrance test as an 8th grader and passes and his parents can afford to send him this school what would prohibit him from attending? Is there a waiting list? How long is it? I’m just curious. Is this true for other private schools? What are the requirements to send your child to a good Christian private school? 6 of my nieces and nephews went to Christian private schools and 8 went to public schools. All the schools both public and private seemed like good schools. 12 have either graduated or are still in college and 3.5 + GPA’s. The only two that didn’t finish went to private schools, but I don’t think they were ever college material anyway.

The Brick

January 11th, 2012
12:09 pm

Good neighbor:
I understand why people complain about with city schools getting kids that transfer in, but what some fail to see is that many counties have the same policies as many cities when it comes to allowing kids to attend that live out of district. Also some city’s don’t have any kids that live out of district so why punish them.

A solution for every school would be to count every kid that lives out of district as 6 (or whatever number is found to be fair) even if the student doesn’t play sports. If Gainesville has 50 out of district students their numbers go up by 300. If Buford has 100 out of district students their numbers go up by 600. If a county has 20 there numbers go up by 120. That would keep schools that get more playing in higher classification and schools that get less playing in lower classifications.

jokerswild

January 11th, 2012
12:29 pm

“I am struck by the cynicism regarding private school recruiting, which is an overblown myth. Their advantage lies in coaching and kids in the system longer.”
You are correct !, this is the 800 lb. gorilla in the room. The public schools either cannot or are not willing to put in the time for individual one on one instruction for the players like the privates do. Private schools show up with 35 well trained players and outplay public schools with 60+ players. Unlike the public schools,the private schools do not field overweight, out of shape kids or kids that are clearly superior athletically but have a “me first” mentality; and refuse to be coached or execute a game plan. We can’t outrun this problem, we have to face it. The split system is not the solution, public schools need to trim teams down to only fit and dedicated players and teach football (every kid can’t be a football player just because he wants to). This has to start in elementary grades with school sponsored/controlled peewee leagues (this is how the private schools do it). In most rural systems, the kids come up through parks&rec football, coached by ex-high school players trying to re-live glory days;whereby they pick up bad habits and learn little or no fundamentals- playing “sand lot” ball. By the time they reach 8th grade a large percentage are essentially uncoachable, although they may have great athletic ability.

Learn from others

January 11th, 2012
12:55 pm

This is simple. NC, SC and VA have separate associations and with minor exceptions, they are not allowed to play each other. There is very little debate and the schools act like high schools and not small colleges with recruiting coordinators. My family moved to Atlanta 4 years ago and high school athletics are as corrupt as I have ever seen. I officiated football and basketball for 26 years and after seeing the illegal things that go on here, there was no way I would get involved. Split them and let kids play for the school in their attendance area…

GHSA Stripes

January 11th, 2012
1:30 pm

Lan Fan,
Landmark Christian? I enjoyed my time there for the game I was at. One Act is covered by GHSA so it should also be split.

Jeff has been listening to Boortz. 7 out of over 300 is hardly everyone getting a state championship.

Hmmmm, wow, I had not heard about that one

Sav'h dawg

January 11th, 2012
1:33 pm

@ dublin dawg, little man? This was not an issue when Lincoln and Charlton were winning titles every other year. I saw the team that Lincoln county fielded against savannah Christian. Their players were just as big and athletic as sc. They got outschemed for the third year in a row, sport.

Wondering

January 11th, 2012
2:03 pm

My kids went through public school until high school and then we sent them to a private school, not for sports but for the academics. ALL schools recruit to a degree. My kids went through the middle school that feeds into Milton and I can tell you that the most of the BB players on that team did not go to school with my kids. Everyone talks about how this effects football. What it will hurt is the minor sports, cross country, track, softball, golf, tennis etc. Most of the A schools, both public and private, can not field competitive teams in some of those sports or can not field teams at all. How does this effect the state races for cross country? They went from having 10 races in a day (one for each glass boys and girls) to having 14 races! I think GHSA just thought about football and did not take in account the other sports. Not every kid at the public and private schools play football, the majority play other sports.

Georgia votes to separate public, private schools | Varsity Now

January 11th, 2012
2:06 pm

[...] news coming out of Georgia yesterday as the GHSA (Georgia’s state athletic association) voted to separate public and private schools in its smallest classification. According to the article, there was concern about the smaller private schools’ ability to [...]

Good neighbor

January 11th, 2012
3:58 pm

The Brick

“Also some city’s don’t have any kids that live out of district so why punish them”

It’s not “punishment” to align privates vs privates, City’s vs City’s and Publics vs Publics come playoff time. How do you see that as “punishment”?

Claudia

January 11th, 2012
3:58 pm

Learn From Other:

“there was no way I would get involved”.

Shame on you!

DublinDawg

January 11th, 2012
4:04 pm

Sav’h dawg

“This was not an issue when Lincoln and Charlton were winning titles every other year”. It should have been if they encountered private or city schools in the playoffs. GHSA should have never allowed that to happen.
“I saw the team that Lincoln county fielded against savannah Christian. Their players were just as big and athletic as sc. They got outschemed for the third year in a row, sport”. Once again, the two should have only met in the regular season, not playoffs. Playoffs should be apples to apples. Regular season can remain apples to oranges.

observer

January 11th, 2012
5:05 pm

The answer has to be athlete redistribution.we can take good athletes from the teams with great programs and distribute them among the “less fortunate”-then everyone would have the same number of good athletes and things would be just wonderful.While we are at it it cant be fair that some have more booster money and better facilities so we need to address this also.

jvillebil

January 11th, 2012
5:08 pm

LOL Observer = CAN’T WE JUST ALL GET ALONG! Common man share the wealth. I know I was out there partying and drinking all summer while your guys were working out, running sprints and lifting weights, but give me a break send me an athlete or two bro. LOL

MGE

January 11th, 2012
5:19 pm

I don’t agree with the
Public Play Public
City Play City
Private Play Private.

1st Problem:
There are only 21 City School districts spread across the state ranging from A up to AAAAAA. How is that supposed to work. Could it wind up being Thomasville City (AA) vs Gainesville City (AAAAA) or Valdosta City (AAAAAA) vs Pelham City (A)???

Rockmart Needs a Coach

January 11th, 2012
5:25 pm

The GHSA has little use for private schools, they should ban them all. You want to be seperate, well be seperate.

Great idea. Now who’s whining like a baby ?

observer

January 11th, 2012
5:45 pm

MGE-you are right on!Too many of the whiners dont do any research as to numbers and the ramifications of “City vs City”.They are just so convinced that all city schools have an advantage that they are blind to how this would(or would not) work.If someone has this all figured out please present a brief outline of how this would work.

JWill

January 11th, 2012
5:50 pm

Schools with money resources public and private recruit. Anybody that thinks not is naive.In north Ga Darlington recruits sincr the 50 s, I was involved. In Bartow County, Cartersville wins every year. Why is that – coaching. I think not. Cass stating QB played for Cartersville. Just a coincidence-not. Buford and many city schoolos are packed with transfers. GHSA is gutless!

Private School Parent

January 11th, 2012
5:55 pm

Why did the chicken cross the road? To play with the public schools in Class A.

The reality is that there are a dozen or so schools (public AND private) that clearly manipulate the system and they ruin it for everyone else. You idiots that think ALL private schools cheat are wrong. This votes implies that, but it won’t change a thing.

The “public and private school cheaters” are now going to win championships in their respective divisions and nothing is going to change.

Frankly, I am stunned at how these so-called leaders can stand up and blatantly lie about their motives and their behavior. They should all be ashamed.

SHUT UP AND PLAY BALL

January 11th, 2012
7:33 pm

As a student this descision is just upsetting. Spliting private and public will make the football season playoffs one less game for us… one less game can mean a lot for a high school football player. Football is our lives and we wanna play all that we can, win or lose. Plus private schools arent the only ones guilty of recruiting. Just because 4 private schools were in the final 4 for the Class A Football playoffs doesn’t mean that public schools need to complain and quit. Did they even think about basketball, baseball, tennis, soccer, etc.? Those complaining about football may have just screwed it up for other sports.

Take for example Prince Avenue Christian, they made it to the final 4 beating 3 public schools, yet Prince doesn’t have a single recruit on there team. Then Prince had to face Savannah Christian who is stacked out with recruits and they got killed. But there not complaining… JUST SHUT UP AND PLAY BALL!!!!

nobody

January 11th, 2012
7:43 pm

“Looking behind the losses”…..I hope you are not a fair sample of private “christian” school opinion. If private schools want to play for a public school championship, just bite the bullet and opt to move up to Class AA… that’s what the original multiplier would have done anyway…

nobody

January 11th, 2012
7:45 pm

for what it is worth, the decision should apply to every facet of Class A competition, both athletic and academic…

nobody

January 11th, 2012
7:49 pm

actually, the situation is pretty hilarious….rwe are ight back where we started many years ago….private schools should just keep on recruiting and exercise their perogative to play up a classification and play for a championship….it should be the case in every classification

JB in Blakely

January 11th, 2012
7:56 pm

I agree with the decision, and judging from the vote total, it was probably the best thing. This has nothing to do with being sore losers and has everything to do with rules. The fact is, private schools had an advantage. Just like city schools have an advantage. I know a lot of coaches. I never met one who was scared to compete against anyone- as long as it was a level playing field.

The vote total proves that the members of the executive committee recognized that private schools had an advantage over public schools in class A. Hopefully in the next two years rules can be put in place that allow public and private schools to compete against one another for a championship.

That is my hope, anyway.

T

January 11th, 2012
8:03 pm

Hey JB, The only thing that this vote proved was that there are way more public schools that get to vote. Spin it all you want, the kids are the ones that lose here.

Private School Parent

January 11th, 2012
8:52 pm

Continuing to make the blanket statement that all private schools recruit for sports only shows your ignorance.

The schools that recruit should be playing in AA, but that should includes the public schools that will be DOMINATING the lowly public school league. Look at who drove this move and you will see the future state champions with very little competition.

Gordon Lee

January 11th, 2012
9:28 pm

Our team only has slow big ankle kids and weak skill players, it’s not fair that we have to play against any schoolsl(public or private) that has good players. This being said, we still want our kids to get a Trophy. Can’t we have a division for teams that are athletically challenged.

soccerref

January 11th, 2012
9:28 pm

Instead of pointing fingers and laying blame on people, a solution needs to be found that is actually fair to ALL schools, whether public, private, city, or county. Without ripping my head off, how about something like this. Remember, there are many colleges (especially the smaller ones) that do something similar.

First, all new schools start play at A. We all know that new schools, no matter the size struggle their first few years.

Second, schools that win their region move up to the next classification the following year. The team that finishes last drops down. Obviously, AAAAAA region winners can’t move up, nor can the A teams that finish last drop down.

The job of GHSA in this example would be to merely place those team affected in their regions. They would not have to decide which classification a school would be in.

It would need to be determined how to group the schools. By this, I mean whether a schools classification would be based on one thing, such as the football team’s success. It could be based on having extracurriculars grouped together based on the season in they are played (fall, winter, and spring). In this case, it is possible to have a football team playing AAAA, wrestling competing at AA, and track at AAA. The third option would be to classify each extracurricular based on each school’s finish. This may be too much to keep track of though.

The thing about doing classification this way is that over time, the playing fields level out. There is no other state in the country that does their classification this way, but personally, I am tired of following other states. I think we should set the standard and let others follow us.

Let me know what you think.

ScottS

January 11th, 2012
9:37 pm

MGA

Where playoffs are concerned, I too agree with the
Public Play Public
City Play City
Private Play Private.

“There are only 21 City School districts spread across the state ranging from A up to AAAAAA. How is that supposed to work. Could it wind up being Thomasville City (AA) vs Gainesville City (AAAAA) or Valdosta City (AAAAAA) vs Pelham City (A)???”

The 21 city schools can schedule any teams they want in the regular season. However, they should only be allowed to compete with schools that share their elligibility rules when it comes to the playoffs. In this case that would be other City schools.

ScottS

January 11th, 2012
9:53 pm

JWILL

The only public schools I have seen blatantly recruit are City schools. I have recently seen a few public schools doing this under their academic Magnet programs but do not know enough about this to comment.

I would like to hear from Dave Hunter (representing public schools like Brookwood), Dexter Wood (representing City schools like Buford and Marietta) and Alan Chadwick (representing private schools like Marist)

Stork

January 11th, 2012
10:55 pm

The small publics just admitted the private schools are better. Nevermind trying to make yourselves better. That’s why my kids are all Savannah Christian Raiders.

dawgma

January 12th, 2012
7:47 am

Typical GHSA – screw up the entire clasification system to pander to the little babies in class A only to backtarck their entire reason for reclasification with a 12th hour bandaid fix.

Private schools should be a separate group or play up at least one class (or more) like Marist. Buford in the biggest cheater team in Georgia bar none. Grow some stones Buford and move on up to 5A with Marist.

They should install the same playoff system in 6A where you have 2000 student schools competing against 3500-4000 student schools. Total and complete load of cr*p.

ScottS

January 12th, 2012
8:59 am

dawgma:

Buford is not a private school. They are a public city school that, like private schools, also have player elligibility advantages over public schools. Just not as many.

*City schools can get players from anywhere in the county where that city is the county seat.

*Public schools get players from their geographic school district

* Private schools can get players from anywhere in the state or USA for that matter.

Silver & Gold

January 12th, 2012
9:14 am

Stork:

I live in Atlanta but have been a high school football fan for over 45 years. In my opinion, the small publics just admitted private schools are better due to their superior student eligibilty requirements only.

I hope Lincoln County and Savannah Christian schedule each other during each others regular seasons from here on out. I am just happy that they will both be able to play schools in the play offs that share the same eligibilty requirements.

GHSA got this one right!

Now they need to address the public city vs public county school discrepancies.

Best wishes to you and yours at SC!

observer

January 12th, 2012
10:02 am

Soccerref:For a minute there I thought you were serious.Whew!—Dawgma-Marist does not play in AAAAA.

showboat

January 12th, 2012
10:11 am

So, here is the situation: now that we have split public and private in Class A, you want city split from public as well. I guess next you want metro atlanta split from this. Then you might want schools that have higher graduation levels broken from that. Seriously, there will ALWAYS be inequalities in football, and it has nothing to do private vs. public vs. city, nor recruiting vs getting waivers vs whatever. When I was in public school, some kids in the country were massive from working on the farms with their parents. And they killed the suburban schools every year. The city kids were also playing at a whole different league but back then there were fewer high schools in the city next door. Coaching creates inequalities. Parenting creates inequalities. Heck, nutrition and access to adequate training facilities creates inequalities. Attitude creates inequalities.

This change will only highlight the differences within public schools. It will highlight the differences in private schools as well. But it won’t make things better. Weaker football schools will now make the playoffs and likely be crushed by the dominant schools – and it won’t make anyone feel any better getting stomped 63-0. If you further break out schools, it will only exacerbate this – or even prevent a playoff due to not have 16 teams in the classification!

Right now, people are happy. But they won’t be next year. Longer drives between games will further hurt the financial situations for athletics in poorer schools – private AND public. Playoffs with meaningless early rounds will rob them of their significance. Championships will – at least initially – be snickered at because they don’t really prove anything.

The situation reminds me of the movie the Karate Kid, when the “kid” explains that unless he can compete in the final round, he won’t have balance because everyone would know that they they got the best of him. There won’t be balance in Class A because public schools got the best of private schools due to politics and not the actual sport. And as I read this, rural public schools will continue to try and subdivide the whole GHSA until certain teams are guaranteed a shot at the championship every year.

JimW

January 12th, 2012
10:17 am

Dogma:

Thanks to GHSA’s RECENT RULING, Private schools ARE NOW a separate group and DO NOT NEED TO play up at least one class (or more) like Marist (WHO IS NOT AAAAA BY THE WAY).

aND Buford is not a cheater or a private school. They are a “CITY” school in Gwinett County that gets to pull players from the entire county whereas each Gwinett County public school can only pull players from the small geographic school district the GHSA sets up for them.

Thus the reason that come playoff time,
Publics schools should play public schools to the Dome
City schools should play city schools to the Dome
Private schools should play private schools to the Dome

It’s really that simple.

jokerswild

January 12th, 2012
10:32 am

jokerswild

January 11th, 2012
12:29 pm
“I am struck by the cynicism regarding private school recruiting, which is an overblown myth. Their advantage lies in coaching and kids in the system longer.”
You are correct !, this is the 800 lb. gorilla in the room. The public schools either cannot or are not willing to put in the time for individual one on one instruction for the players like the privates do. Private schools show up with 35 well trained players and outplay public schools with 60+ players. Unlike the public schools,the private schools do not field overweight, out of shape kids or kids that are clearly superior athletically but have a “me first” mentality; and refuse to be coached or execute a game plan. We can’t outrun this problem, we have to face it. The split system is not the solution, public schools need to trim teams down to only fit and dedicated players (every kid can’t be a football player just because he wants to)and TEACH FOOTBALL. This has to start in elementary grades with school sponsored/controlled peewee leagues (this is how the private schools do it). In most rural systems, the kids come up through parks&rec football, coached by ex-high school players trying to re-live glory days;whereby they pick up bad habits and learn little or no fundamentals- playing “sand lot” ball. By the time they reach 8th grade a large percentage are essentially uncoachable, although they may have great athletic ability.

bucket

January 12th, 2012
11:17 am

@ nobody – so if someone doesn’t agree with your opinion that makes them unchristian? If the state of Georgia is going to require me to pay school tax when I don’t use the public schools then why are they not allowing my kids to compete against public schools in the playoffs? The fact of the matter is that guys like Larry Campbell love to play private schools in the regular season because he knows he can beat everyone of them on his schedule. (Including the new ones he will find in 8-A.) He, and others like him, don’t want to have to play Savannah Christian in the playoffs. I can assure you that this issue is far from settled and the politicans in Georgia are going to have to get involved before it is over. You can’t take my tax money and then treat me and my children like second class citizens come playoff time. You mentioned the multiplier and I agree that it should be used. But if you think that would place most private schools in AA you are wrong. All public schools are not equal in Class A (Lincoln, Charlton, Clinch, etc) and all Private schools in Class A are not equal either. Some Privates use the GOAL scholarship program to attract kids who otherwise cannot pay and some don’t. Some recruit players and use student exchange programs and some don’t. Coach Chumley from Savannah Christian said it best when he said no one had a problem with them playing public schools as long as they were losing. If you are opposed to privates playing publics then where was the argument years ago? This entire debacle has transpired because the privates did something this year that would have probably never happened again – they placed 4 teams in the semi-finals and Lincoln got put out for the third year in a row by Savannah Christian.

bucket

January 12th, 2012
11:22 am

@ JT – if you think that no recruiting goes on in the public schools, then the jokes on you my friend.

jvillebil

January 12th, 2012
11:48 am

I don’t have a dog in this fight, but since I love Georgia High School Football I follow this story like everyone else. It seems to me that the public Class A schools have spoken. They were mostly happy for years when they didn’t play the private schools until they decided “hey lets try it.” Now it’s apparent they (or at least the top dogs) don’t like getting beat by private schools and so they want you to go home. The little (yapper dogs) class A schools know if the big dogs can’t win, then they certainly don’t have any chance at all. I do believe there are opportunities for the private schools to recuit, not saying they do, but if one is guilty then everyone else assumes they are all guilty by association. Thus it is planted in the minds of the public schools that they are no longer competing on a level playing field. Quite frankly they could probably care less what the private schools think now, because come playoff time, they are rid of them.

There were a bunch of country boys that would go to the river and swim and dive out the this tall tree on the banks of the river. At the end of the summer, they would always have a contest to see who was the end of the summer diving champ. One day a country boy invited his city cousin out. He grew up at the YMCA where they had diving platforms and coaches. Soon thereafter a few city boys would drive out with him and dive and hang out with the country boys. It became apparent that at the end of the summer the city boys wanted to compete in the annual event. Well country boys Billy, Johnny and Sam, some of the past country boy champs, knew they could be dethroned and all the local girls would be watching. So they got all their buddies together and decided the championship was for country boys only.

The moral of the story for the private schools, you can come swim in our hole and jump out of our tree but you ain’t diving for the championship against me!

Lovely

January 12th, 2012
12:01 pm

Does it matter what the kids want? GHSA just did away with a State Championship in clas A.

kmn

January 12th, 2012
12:10 pm

yes all the country boys lived in the rual area. the city boys got to pick which ones from the ymca to go to the country and compete

Rockmart Needs a Coach

January 12th, 2012
12:12 pm

Buford’s real advantage boils down to dense population in Gwinnette Co, their coaching and booster support. Many other AA schools have coaching and booster support, but the population density is unique. They too can be beat, but not often.

What’s the beef private schools, your road to a ring just got easier.

kmn

January 12th, 2012
12:20 pm

buford is not limited to gwinnett . they can have players from any county

Wondering

January 12th, 2012
12:40 pm

Like I said earlier, my kids went to public elementary and middle school and then private high school. No one cared in the public school when we moved to private school. But when my kids excelled in their chosen athletics (not football) then we sure were contacted by the public school begging us to come back! All schools recruit, both public and private! I believe GHSA did not take into account what this will do to the other sports except football. Sounds to me like a bunch of football coaches hated getting beat by private schools. This decision has huge ramifications on the smaller sports. BTW, I dont have a beef in this matter, the private school my kids go to is not single A.

T

January 12th, 2012
12:48 pm

Rockmart: You spout your ignorance in every blog. The private schools are not the ones that wanted this. The public schools are the ones running away from the competition. Private schools are not looking for “easy”. Never mind, you will never move past your ignorance.

Rockmart Needs a Coach

January 12th, 2012
12:59 pm

T-the privates know in the end they will lose credibility and good they don’t deserve it since they know what’s best. Must bug you, eh ?

Rockmart Needs a Coach

January 12th, 2012
1:01 pm

kmm the relative short commute plays in, and you are right about other counties. There was a joke about 2 kids living in Buford that drive to Calhoun daily.

T

January 12th, 2012
1:10 pm

Thanks for proving my point there “Rock”.

Skip Townsend

January 12th, 2012
1:24 pm

I vote for the following

Publics schools should play public schools their size to the Georgia Dome

City schools should play city schools their size to the Georgia Dome.

Private schools should play private schools (size may or may not matter) to the Georgia Dome.

former observer

January 12th, 2012
1:29 pm

Sounds like Savannah Christian has a bunch of cry baby parents. Just saying. Schedule Boles-Jacksonville if you guys are so darn good. They are not limited to a small school district like Georgia public schools. hahaha.

David

January 12th, 2012
1:33 pm

I have a bigger beef with the 21 or so “city” schools in the state. Especially the ones that are in the same GSHA region with neighboring public schools that lose players to the city school each and every year. How come nobody has anything to say about that?

GHSA Stripes

January 12th, 2012
1:39 pm

SHUT UP AND PLAY BALL , the impact is minimal as only two teams would have played the 5th round of playoffs anyway.

ScottS, Buford is not the county seat of either county that it spans (Gwinnett and Hall). There are subdivisions well into Hall County that have been annexed into the City of Buford.

JBrown

January 12th, 2012
1:40 pm

T:

“The public schools are the ones running away from the competition”.

WRONG. The public schools are the ones playing by the public school eligibilty rules (state mandated) while the privates are playing by their own set of rules.

yellowjacket

January 12th, 2012
1:45 pm

Private schools should use the multiplier. City Schools should play one level higher and the small public schools should stop crying. Happy?

Steely Dan

January 12th, 2012
1:47 pm

“There are subdivisions well into Hall County that have been annexed into the City of Buford”. How many public high schools in Hall and Gwinett counties are also within Bufords High Schools boundries?

That’s my problem with “City” schools

Not picking on Buford either. They just also happen to have fantastic coaching as well

T

January 12th, 2012
1:50 pm

JB: You have spouted another myth to hide behind and run away from playing for a true state championship. The privates that are afraid to compete are not in the GHSA. Congrats, you publics got what you wanted. You do not have to compete with all the like size schools any more.

T

January 12th, 2012
1:57 pm

Go back and read through the 6 pages of posts. There is not one private school person that wanted this to happen. The public school advocates are the ones happy with the EASIER road to claim a FALSE championship.

Agitator

January 12th, 2012
2:05 pm

This is for all the privates who recruit and play by their own set of rules

nah-nah-nah-nah
nah-nah-nah-nah
hey-hey-hey
good bye!

Kyle

January 12th, 2012
2:07 pm

T:

Change FALSE to Fair and you have it correct.

T

January 12th, 2012
2:12 pm

Change “fair” to “chicken shat” and it is the truth.

Jay Crawford

January 12th, 2012
2:13 pm

I for one think it’s great that the GHSA put the privates in their place. Play by public school elligibilty rules are play among yourselves.

Rockmart Needs a Coach

January 12th, 2012
2:14 pm

It is a good vote, if you don’t like it, start a private league, ha.

Jay Crawford

January 12th, 2012
2:23 pm

You are obviously in the minority there Mr. T

T

January 12th, 2012
2:23 pm

The kids, public and private, do not want this. They are the ones that lose here.

T

January 12th, 2012
2:25 pm

Hey Jay, if we private schools are in the minority, what are you scared of?

Jay Crawford

January 12th, 2012
2:37 pm

T:

The “kids” don’t make the rules. The adults at GHSA do! They are our governming body.

The kids can still play in the regular season schedules.

I am not afraid of anything. I just like to see everyone play by the same set of player eligibility rules (come playoff time). That’s the only way you can have a TRUE state championship.

T

January 12th, 2012
2:47 pm

What ever makes you sleep better. It is the “adults” like you that ruin it for the kids with your dumbing down and hurt egos. This teaches the kids the exact same thing that our POTUS and public schools teach them. If you can’t compete, lower the bar.

Rockmart Needs a Coach

January 12th, 2012
3:01 pm

If there were no private schools and parents got involved in the problems of public school rather than just pay their way out — public schools would improve. Most kids in public schools have folks who can’t just throw money out, they apply themselves in the schools to make them better. The folks who are giving up are the private school parents.

T

January 12th, 2012
3:04 pm

BRILLIANT! Thanks for the laugh.

GHSA Stripes

January 12th, 2012
3:28 pm

Steely Dan,
North Gwinnett, Mill Creek, Flowery Branch, and West Hall that I know of. Possibly Lanier as well.

bucket

January 12th, 2012
3:34 pm

Really Rockmart? I am giving up because I sacrifice over $10k of my own money every year so that I can give my kids the best possible education? I don’t look down on anyone that can’t do that, but at the end of the day I am responsible for my kids. You may live in an area that has great public schools, but I don’t. I am not throwing money out because I refuse to throw my kids into a failed public school system. (In my area.) I am not going to sacrifice my kids in an attempt to “make them better.” And speaking of throwing money out, I still have to help pay for the failed schools in my area that I don’t even use.

GHSA Stripes

January 12th, 2012
3:40 pm

I’m from a public school background. I was excited to go to 6 classifications as it gave my association another chance at a championship game. This public/private split in A gives us yet another shot at a championship game. I do wish something could have been done that would have kept the two groups together. At the moment, I am just involved in football and I love it. I have worked and volunteered for games that were public vs public, public vs private and private vs private. I enjoyed all of them.

When I think back to the crossover games on the Varsity level, I have Public with 2 wins and Private with 1 win. Granted the Private win was in the playoffs. I will be happy to call any game that I am assigned to. It’s football. When I played, my team was coming off a 1-9 season. We started out 3-0 but the lack of numbers and injuries mounted up and we finished 4-6. It was still fun. I was not thinking about a state championship, but that was just me. There is way too much bickering on this issue, be it here in a forum or be it from the administrators and coaches at the schools. Let’s play ball.

bucket

January 12th, 2012
3:41 pm

@ T – you are exactly correct in your assessment. This argument has nothing to do with fairness for the kids or making sure kids get a good education. This situation is all about the ego of coaches and adults just like them. What about all the public school kids who won’t even get a chance to play in the playoffs because you have to have 16 public schools and 16 private schools make the playoffs in Class A? I would have to go back and check the records from last year, but I bet if these rules had been in place last year some public schools would have missed the playoffs.

GHSA Stripes

January 12th, 2012
3:44 pm

bucket,
Paying for the public school is never going to change. Even those with no children pay for the public schools as part of their county/city property tax. I realize it sucks to have the double dip. Lobbying the county commissioners would likely be futile for you as well.

Typcial GHSA baloney

January 12th, 2012
3:46 pm

The GHSA dumps on the private schools in Class A while totally ignoring the Buford’s of the state. I guess a bunch of county schools need to get together and threaten to pull out of the GHSA.

GHSA Stripes

January 12th, 2012
3:46 pm

I “think” it was 12 private and 20 public

jvillebil

January 12th, 2012
3:48 pm

Okay so I went on line to look up Buford City Schools and to see where their boundaries lie. Does this city cross over boundaries into multiple counties as it seems? I’ll wait for an answer then make a comment.

GHSA Stripes

January 12th, 2012
3:50 pm

jvillebil,
Buford City is in Gwinnett and Hall Counties

jvillebil

January 12th, 2012
3:52 pm

Thanks, So do you have to live within the city limit boundaries to attend the high school?

bucket

January 12th, 2012
3:54 pm

@ GHSA Stripes – you are correct and usually I wouldn’t complain about that too much. But this situation has got my blood boiling. It’s ok to allow private schools to pour money into the GHSA coffers and require private school parents to help pay for public education through property and sales tax, but now we are going to be treated like second class citizens when the postseason rolls around? I am ok with the use of a multiplier because some private schools should be required to play up in Class AA, especially in certain sports. But the way this situation has been handled by the GHSA has been atrocious. They clearly bowed down to a few Class A blue bloods who were angry about not winning the state championship every year as they believe is their birthright.

bucket

January 12th, 2012
3:58 pm

@ GHSA Stripes – thanks for the info. So taking this year’s “round” number 4 privates who didn’t earn a playoff spot would be given one and 4 publics who did would be denied an opportunity to play for a state championship. I understand that would change from year to year, but does that sound fair to everyone?

jvillebil

January 12th, 2012
4:22 pm

There were 16 Public Class A school with winning records (regular season) that made the playoffs last year (2011) The other 4 were * Commerce 4-6 ** Wash-Wilkes 5-5 *** Miller Co 4-6 **** Calhoun Co. 4-6.
I don’t think it will matter to the public class A teams ( that routinely make the playoffs) if there are only 16 teams next year because none 4 teams I listed made it out of the first round anyway.

So as for my earlier question. Do you have to live within the city limit school district to attend Buford High?

Jim Crow

January 12th, 2012
4:44 pm

“now we are going to be treated like second class citizens when the postseason rolls around”

Not at all. Seperate but equal.

mike

January 12th, 2012
4:52 pm

bucket
To me it looks like with seperate championships that more public and privates will make the playoffs. The only difference is that publics and privates will not meet unless it’s in the regular season. To me that sounds like the way it should have been all along. The GHSA probably just allowed it until there was enough privates in the state to support it.

Clarkson

January 12th, 2012
4:54 pm

Has anyone really talked to Larry Campbell about how he feels about all this or is it just the folks who are all jealous of his success?

MB

January 12th, 2012
4:56 pm

Does Buford really pull from 2 counties?

jvillebil

January 12th, 2012
4:59 pm

Actually the private schools seem to be doing very well in class A. They had 5 teams in the final 8 and all 4 in the semi finals. Like I said earlier, I don’t have dog in the fight, but I guarantee you the publics don’t like it one bit. It’s like inviting your cousin and a few buds to the school dance and suddenly they’re taking over all the girls. LOL. Heck I wouldn’t invite you back either. Okay just joking.

Cats

January 12th, 2012
5:09 pm

In the playoffs, All schools should play against schools that share the same set of rules. If privates can recruit and publics can’t then they should only play in the preseason. In my opinion. I think GHSA got this one right.

jvillebil

January 12th, 2012
5:11 pm

Still waiting for an answer. Can you attend Buford High school if you don’t live within the city limit boundaries?

GHSA Stripes

January 12th, 2012
5:24 pm

jvillebil,
No, you can pay a tuition of $2000 to attend and then you provide transportation.

bucket

January 12th, 2012
5:26 pm

What sense does it make to allow public vs. private games in the regular season, but not the playoffs? The fact of the matter is that a lot of teams play every year in all classifications without a logical shot to win a state championship. But you don’t blow an entire classification up because a few of the top teams don’t want the competition from someone they perceive that they can’t beat. What’s next? Are they going to redistribute the players so that every team has a few good players? What about the players on some of these private and public school rosters who have a legitimate shot at a college scholarship, but won’t be allowed to play against the top competetion in their classification? And to answer the question about Larry Campbell, he has been quoted by the ajc on the topic of public vs. private several times. Funny how he always leaves out the times that a player has shown up to play in Lincoln County from the surrounding counties. Also, last year was a 1 year sample of an all-private final 4. Prince was one of those teams and that was actually only the second time in school history that they had even made the playoffs. (In their first try they were blown out in the 1st round.) The public schools have dominated the Class A football playoffs for decades. A private school has won the Class A championship three times since 1998. (I think Darlington won in 1998.) A much larger case study should have been done or a return to the multiplier should have been tried before this attempt was made to kill private Class A football. All of the private might as well go back to the GISA because any championship they win now will be viewed as a joke.

bucket

January 12th, 2012
5:27 pm

@ Jim Crow – that was actually really funny!!!

North Fulton

January 12th, 2012
5:28 pm

So I can pay $2000 next year and my kid can attend Buford and play football?

GHSA Stripes

January 12th, 2012
5:32 pm

MB,
Yes. If you drive up Buford/Atlanta Highway towards Gainesville you will see a very large subdivision that has a large sign (or at least it used to) that proudly states that they are Buford City School district.

GHSA Stripes

January 12th, 2012
5:33 pm

North Fulton,
I believe that is the case. I know of several that have paid the 2k in order to go to Buford. The cases I know of are not for football though.

jvillebil

January 12th, 2012
6:11 pm

GHSA, so what would prevent me from sending my son to Buford is he is a great athlete and I can afford to pay the $2000 and give him a vehicle?

JS

January 12th, 2012
6:12 pm

I agree with Old Town Guy and the GHSA

In the playoffs,
Privates should play privates
Citys should play citys
publics should play publics

Dollar Bill

January 12th, 2012
6:15 pm

No wonder Buford has had such a great run. $2000 is a bargin. Would like to know if any of their out of towners received HOPE funds.

jvillebil

January 12th, 2012
6:18 pm

What are the sizes of the cities? I mean Valdosta is a Class AAAAAA next year and Fitzgerald is an AA? Would you think they should play each other JS

Dollar Bill

January 12th, 2012
6:29 pm

How much does it cost for out of towners to attend and play sports at the following city schools?

Are any of these city schools in the same sub region with public schools that can’t accept out of towners?

Bremen
Buford (Gwinnett & Hall Counties, cost $2000 per year))
Calhoun
Carrollton
Cartersville
Chickamauga
Commerce
Dalton
Decatur
Dublin
Gainesville
Jefferson
Marietta
Pelham
Rome
Social Circle
Thomasville
Trion
Valdosta

Fred

January 12th, 2012
6:33 pm

jvillebil

In my opinion, AAAAAA should not play AA in the regular season much less the playoffs.

Jonathan

January 12th, 2012
6:39 pm

In the playoffs there should be
192 publics playing publics (32 teams in each classification)
96 Privates playing privates
18 Citys should playing citys

I know the citys will have a short playoff experience but hey, change your elligibilty rules and become a regular public school.

jvillebil

January 12th, 2012
6:55 pm

Ware County (Waycross) plays in AAAA and almost every year they play Valdosta and Lowndes. One of my friends that coaches down that way said the coach said he was going to stop doing it, even though his team has been ranked in top 10 the past several year because his players come out of those games so banged up it hurts him against his region opponents. I couldn’t imagine an AA team playing Valdosta.

Private School Parent

January 12th, 2012
7:36 pm

Private schools have different rules, but if anyone is rational you can understand that we don’t have free reign to go out and hand-pick exceptional athletes:

Most of the metro Atlanta private schools are $20,000/year and there are many great schools to choose from at that price, so no one school can just attract all of the best athletes.

We regularly kick out kids who are disruptive or believe they are above the rules. No matter how much their parents donate, you can’t disrupt 300 other kids who are paying that $20,000 each. Why would we let a kid come for free and disrupt our kid’s education.

If I wanted to just win championships, I would pocket the $40,000 for my two sons and send them to Buford, think about it. I also would not pay that kind of money for my sons to sit on the bench behind a prima donna brought in from the outside. If you want to pay tuition and your son earns a starting spot, so be it. Otherwise, I want to give my sons a chance to compete on the field.

So how big do you really believe our pool of talent is? And GOAL is only allowed to pay roughly half, I think they have stipulated a $9,000 cap.

I know this sounds pretentious and I know some schools still cheat, but use some reason.

Jackson

January 12th, 2012
7:38 pm

dollar bill, not sure you want to open that can of worms

Dollar Bill

January 12th, 2012
7:45 pm

Why are city schools sacred?

KathyK

January 12th, 2012
8:24 pm

Dollar Bill

January 12th, 2012
6:29 pm
How much does it cost for out of towners to attend and play sports at the following city schools?

Are any of these city schools in the same sub region with public schools that can’t accept out of towners?

Bremen
Buford (Gwinnett & Hall Counties, cost $2000 per year))
Calhoun
Carrollton
Cartersville
Chickamauga
Commerce
Dalton
Decatur
Dublin
Gainesville
Jefferson
Marietta
Pelham
Rome
Social Circle
Thomasville
Trion
Valdosta

I’D LIKE TO KNOW MYSELF

jvillebil

January 12th, 2012
8:27 pm

If Buford only cost $2000 to attend if you’re an out of towner, surely with the run they’ve had the past 5+ years they’ve done some recruiting. Or it could just be something in the water.

Kirk

January 12th, 2012
9:01 pm

KathyK

January 12th, 2012
8:24 pm
Dollar Bill

January 12th, 2012
6:29 pm
How much does it cost for out of towners to attend and play sports at the following city schools?

Are any of these city schools in the same sub region with public schools that can’t accept out of towners?

Bremen
Buford (Gwinnett & Hall Counties, cost $2000 per year))
Calhoun
Carrollton
Cartersville
Chickamauga
Commerce
Dalton
Decatur
Dublin
Gainesville
Jefferson
Marietta
Pelham
Rome
Social Circle
Thomasville
Trion
Valdosta

I THINK EVERY ONE OF THESE HAS ONE AT LEAST 1 STATE CHAMPIONSHIP IN THEIR HISTORY (at the expense of the public county schools no doubt)

Doyle Brunson

January 12th, 2012
9:14 pm

Private School Parent-

You’re assuming that everyone attending private school pays the tuition like you do. There’s no question (at least at our school) that GOAL is used for athletic scholarships. There were six new seventh grade girls in my daughter’s school this year – 3 of them played on the same travel basketball team as the best player in the grade. Coincidence? I doubt it. I don’t blame the public schools at all – it’s tough competing against a sports academy. Especially when the state is picking up a large part of the tab.

Private School Parent

January 12th, 2012
9:50 pm

Doyle Brunson – You and the majority of them are assuming that no one is paying tuition and we just pick whoever we like for our sports teams. My school does not have athletic scholarships and I think your school would be the exception.

It is a more concerning trend when a private school only charges $8K or $9k and they just happen to be dominating a sport involving a pigskin. In that case, I would agree that maybe a large portion of their tuition may be covered. Those schools do deserve the scrutiny and have created this inaccurate view of all private schools.

Are you in a school that charges $20,000?

Class Warfare Heats Up In High School Sports - Forbes

January 12th, 2012
10:07 pm

[...] playoff division was Buford, in suburban Atlanta’s Gwinnett County. Why? The answer comes in this story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Buford athletic director Dexter Wood cast a “no” vote as well, which was aimed at the process, [...]

MGE

January 12th, 2012
11:25 pm

Look. City Schools are PUBLIC schools just like County school systems. The cities that have independent school districts voted to establish a charter years ago (Thomasville City in 1900) to operate school districts and provide public education for the residents in their city limits. Now, if you live out of district (or out of the city limits) you can attempt to enroll your child in that district if there is availability and you will have to pay a fee because living outside that district, your taxes don’t support that district. The same applies if i live in Thomasville City limits and want my child to attend Thomas County Schools or if I lived in Valdosta City limits and wanted my child to attend Lowendes County Schools. The city districts follow the same rules because they are PUBLIC TAX SUPPORTED Schools. I have seen county schools draw from their City school counterparts for academic and extracurricular initiatives.

@ Bill Dollar, the city systems may seem somewhat sacred because the cities voted to establish these schools years ago and under current GA law, if the charter was ever dissolved it can NEVER be reestablished.

T

January 13th, 2012
7:48 am

Doyle, Name the school or you are just trolling.

observer

January 13th, 2012
9:02 am

MGE-I dont think many of these people want an explanation,its a waste of time.Bottom line is they will continue to be irritated because change in this area is not likely.What would they want to change next-make students who move to the district inelligible?Dollar Bill-are you sure that some of these schools you list have won state championships?It sure wasnt in football and football is the only reason that we are having these discussions and changes now.

jokerswild

January 13th, 2012
9:04 am

The BEST player at Harlem HS (Columbia CO), a running back, showed up on the Lincoln CO squad the NEXT WEEK after Lincoln trounced Harlem. He played the rest of 2011 season for LC. Just curious as to how this happened?? Was he living in Lincoln and going to Harlem just to play ball (really now)?

GHSA Stripes

January 13th, 2012
9:47 am

jvillebil,
nothing would prevent it

GHSA Stripes

January 13th, 2012
9:59 am

as of 2008 Gainesville’s tuition rate was $450 a year but there was a push to increase it

Reality Check

January 13th, 2012
10:01 am

I’m impressed by the prescience shown by the school that is able to project talent based on scouting that occurs prior to the seventh grade year. Intramural programs are filled with sixth and seventh grade stars who flame out from the grind of overbearing parents, stop growing, find other interests, and peak early. Most of the complainers don’t have a clue as to the reality of private school admissions where preference is given to siblings and legacies that can often fill most of a class in some schools. It’s interesting to look at the numbers of D1 recruits from public schools versus private schools. Programs like Stephenson and MLK dominate college recruiting, but don’t win high school championships. Private schools that are consistently good such as Wesleyan in A, Lovett in AA, St. Pius in AAA, and Marist in AAAA, might have one D1 recruit every year and two in a truly special year. The differences, as it relates to athletic programs, are facilities, coaching, and winning tradition. As one famous college coach always says, “Is it the Xs and Os or the Jimmys and Joes?” It’s a lot easier for the coaches who aren’t winning in class A to say that it’s because of the Jimmys and Joes. The reality is that people who relocate from out of state are going to evaluate living and school options on the basis of some combination of academic excellence, facilities, coaching and winning tradition. People relocating within an area are going to look at the same thing. This has been true forever and the reality is that schools all over the country compete on and off the playing fields for talent — academic, artistic, and athletic. In Georgia, the schools’ Participation Trophy is their accreditation and annual progress percentage. All of the other honors like number of Merit Scholars, number of academic scholarship winners, band trophies, drama awards, Blue Ribbons, and region and state athletic championships are earned competitively. The private versus public debate is starting to sound a little too much like the Occupy movement.

kmn

January 13th, 2012
10:05 am

jokerswild do yoy have prive of this and where did you get the information

T

January 13th, 2012
10:23 am

I have posted this in other blogs when the issue first came up…….the private schools use a 100% independant agency to determine the financial aide that a family qualifies for, the school has no say in this amount and nowhere on the forms does it ask for a 40 yard dash time or a points per game average or “are you the star of your 6th grade AAU team. Parents, who last time I checked have the right, to make the decisions that they think will better their children academically and athletically. People that are on the outside looking in need to do some research into the process and stop posting pure ignorance. All the private school haters sound like the “occupy” crowd.

GHSA Stripes

January 13th, 2012
10:42 am

kmn, I heard something along those lines in the early part of the season from an article I believe.

Dollar Bill

January 13th, 2012
11:34 am

observer:

I should say most, not all

Dollar Bill

January 13th, 2012
12:40 pm

observer:

I should say most, not all

Bremen 0
Buford 8 (Gwinnett & Hall Counties, cost $2000 per year))
Calhoun 2
Carrollton 7
Cartersville 2
Chickamauga 0
Commerce 2
Dalton 1
Decatur 2
Dublin 4
Gainesville 1
Jefferson 0
Marietta 1
Pelham 0
Rome 0
Social Circle 0
Thomasville 5
Trion 2
Valdosta 24

GHSA Stripes

January 13th, 2012
1:15 pm

in looking at amount taken in for tuition, Buford City, in 2008, took in Tuition Fees from Pupils and Parents $565,000 in tuition and fees, Gainesville City took in $145,000, Hall County took in $39,000, Gwinnett County took in $1,591,000. All of this data is for 2008. Buford has 4 schools, Gainesville has 7 schools, Gwinnett County was 126 schools and Hall County 36 schools

observer

January 13th, 2012
2:09 pm

Dollar Bill:looking over the list you provided I would guess that other than Buford&Calhoun none on this list of the powerfull,unfairly advantaged city schools have won a football championship in the last 10-12 years,most much farther back than that.Perhaps all these other schools just have not been using this unfair advantage.Lets face it-the main problem the complainers have is with Buford which is located in a heavily populated area.Good luck on changing the local school board’s policies-orGHSA’s for that matter.And once again-no I am not a Buford fan(or complainer).

indian

January 13th, 2012
2:13 pm

Enter your comments here

Joshua

January 13th, 2012
2:22 pm

I have a bigger problem with the City schools than the private schools. I would vote for 3 seperate set of playoffs like so many others on here.

Privates play privates
Citys play citys
regular publics play regular publics

Kent

January 13th, 2012
2:23 pm

I hope Lincoln County schedules Savannah Christian in the regular season for the next 10 years.

Tyson B

January 13th, 2012
2:28 pm

T:

I don’t see any “private school haters” on here. Just a lot of good people that are glad to see you follow private school rules come playoff time.

Confused

January 13th, 2012
2:36 pm

My question is to the AJC or GHSA official:

Should a city school like Marietta be allowed to use players that played the previous year at regular public schools McEachern, Harrison, Kennesaw Mountain, and North Cobb?

If yes, should they all play in the same GHSA region?

GHSA Stripes

January 13th, 2012
3:50 pm

That happens all of the time on on the other side of the North Metro.

T

January 13th, 2012
4:10 pm

Tyson, why were these “special” private school rules brought about? Why hate on a family just because they have the means to send their kid to a better school. Private schools can not exist with geographic limits. The private schools are not the ones running from the competition. Players in all sports at all schools are the big losers here. You feel it is leveling the playing field but it is dumbing it down, congrats.

T

January 13th, 2012
4:12 pm

Kent, LC is the ring leader of the “run and hide” crowd.

soccerref

January 13th, 2012
4:21 pm

I posted an idea earlier on this blog. I didn’t get any real response, so I thought I’d try again. If you don’t think it would work, let me know why and how it could be adapted to fit our situation. Truly, the only real losers in this are the kids, both on the field and off. So here it is in its entirety:

Posted January 11th, 2012
9:28 pm

Instead of pointing fingers and laying blame on people, a solution needs to be found that is actually fair to ALL schools, whether public, private, city, or county. Without ripping my head off, how about something like this. Remember, there are many colleges (especially the smaller ones) that do something similar.

First, all new schools start play at A. We all know that new schools, no matter the size struggle their first few years.

Second, schools that win their region move up to the next classification the following year. The team that finishes last drops down. Obviously, AAAAAA region winners can’t move up, nor can the A teams that finish last drop down.

The job of GHSA in this example would be to merely place those team affected in their regions. They would not have to decide which classification a school would be in.

It would need to be determined how to group the schools. By this, I mean whether a schools classification would be based on one thing, such as the football team’s success. It could be based on having extracurriculars grouped together based on the season in they are played (fall, winter, and spring). In this case, it is possible to have a football team playing AAAA, wrestling competing at AA, and track at AAA. The third option would be to classify each extracurricular based on each school’s finish. This may be too much to keep track of though.

The thing about doing classification this way is that over time, the playing fields level out. There is no other state in the country that does their classification this way, but personally, I am tired of following other states. I think we should set the standard and let others follow us.

Let me know what you think.

Private School Parent

January 13th, 2012
4:26 pm

Tyson – I wouldn’t use the word “haters”, but if you read this blog from top to bottom, many people say the private schools get an advantage because of the rules and I have explained that there is much to it than you want to admit.

The handful of cheaters include city, public and private schools so it is insulting to us non-cheaters when you keep saying ALL private schools have an unfair advantage and use it. We don’t.

GHSA Stripes

January 13th, 2012
5:06 pm

soccerref that sounds like the Premier Soccer league way of doing things. I’m not so sure that model would work with High School sports.

Rockmart Needs a Coach

January 13th, 2012
5:19 pm

If a good education is the reason to attend a private school, and I’m sure one can get one, why even worry about football ?

Face it, private schools are different and have to be treated as such –and will be.

I don’t hate nobody, just hate to see folks give up on public education.

T

January 13th, 2012
6:03 pm

“I don’t hate nobody”, well then I take it back, we should all get a public school education.

observer

January 13th, 2012
6:19 pm

Soccerref-I responded to your idea the first time you posted it.I treated it as a joke which I feel that it is regardless of intent-just one man’s opinion of course.Surely there can be less complicated methods of punishing the high achivers which seems to be the intent of this idea.

T

January 13th, 2012
6:40 pm

Observer, the GHSA has just done the “punishing”.

Private School Parent

January 13th, 2012
6:44 pm

Observer, I have posted a similar idea of moving up teams that have extended periods of success at one level. The model would have to be explored and designed and then tweaked over time. They should also allow teams to move down.

It is not intended to punish high achievers, it is intended to create more competition. It happens in nearly every adult league where a softball or basketball team dominates a league, they are asked to move up to where there are better teams. ALTA has levels and teams that must move up or down based on their talent and success.

When a minor league baseball player masters single A ball, they get called up to double A and eventually they strive for the majors. They don’t complain about being punished. Once they hit a level where they belong, that is where they stay.

The reason I like the idea is that it discourages cheating. You are going to eventually run into teams that are good enough to compete with you.

If you are better than everyone in your class, you should move up and play teams that are closer to your level. It is not arbitrarily saying that all private schools should just play AA or should play all other privates regardless of their size and skill level. You have proven that you are superior, so try the next level.

This would not allow Wilcox, Charlton and Lincoln to dominate the rest of the public schools for years to come. They would have to move up and face equal competition too. Teams could cheat all they want and they will either get caught or end up playing in 6A.

Private School Parent

January 13th, 2012
7:06 pm

I keep throwing out strong arguments and no one is challenging them, is it because I represent private schools? Am I only supposed to talk to other private school people?

observer

January 13th, 2012
7:32 pm

PSP-what constitutes cheating?I don’t feel that private schools are cheating when they abide by the rules set forth for them,the city schools are conforming to attendance policies established by the local school boards as are the county schools.Excellence can be achieved with superior coaching staffs and feeder programs without the “cheating”.Obviously I do not agree with any of the moving up proposals.I follow AAA(in2011)football mostly and I can say its pretty competitive especially among the top 8 or so.I just can’t go along with “if we can’t beat them then get them out of the way”(like just happened to the private schools in class A.The other classes of public schools haven’t whined very much about the privates-I hope they dont start.We all have our positions on transfers and city school attendance zones-now we sit back and see what if anything happens.

T

January 13th, 2012
7:44 pm

Why would public schools argue any more. Then got what they wanted at the “low end”.
PSP: Forcing schools to move up is a bad idea as talent levels come and go. A good group of players could “force” a school up when the next group can not compete in the higher class. As I have stated many times, schools should worry about improving their own teams and stop the “get rid of the competition” crap.

observer

January 13th, 2012
8:01 pm

T-I like your view on the subject-sounds like you had rather face the competition than avoid it.A refreshing take on this matter.

T

January 13th, 2012
8:06 pm

Has always been my stance and the stance of every high school athlete that I have asked about it. Once again, the kids are hurt by the egos of the adults.

T

January 13th, 2012
8:16 pm

I have two in private and one in public. I know how both sides of the coin work.

PSP

January 13th, 2012
8:42 pm

Observer – When you try to create a fair and competitive environment for sports, you have to choose a methodology. The GHSA said if schools with roughly the same number of kids to choose from play against each other, there should be a natural distribution of talent and various teams should win over time. They put limits on how much time they could practice, minimum academic eligibility, recruiting restrictions all to try and create a fair environment. So they try to make rules to guard against every form of manipulation, but there is only so much that they can do.

The goal of the system is to match comparable levels of talent. Just because you found ways to improve your talent pool far beyond what should be available does not mean you are playing fair. Buford pulls from all of the 4A and 5A talent pools and “competes” against 2A teams. I know they are moving up to 3A, but they will still be dominate.

SCPS has turned the entire city of Savannah into its personal feeder program and the results are showing on the field.

If you really cared about sportsmanship and fairness, you would acknowledge that the pool of talent at those two schools are not even close to other 2A and 1A schools.

T – I am certain that the rest of 2A has waited for Buford’s down cycle and it has not come in a dozen years. The only team that has consistently competed with them has been fighting fire with fire. So now we have Calhoun and Buford playing every year for the championship.

T

January 13th, 2012
8:48 pm

And the adding of a 6th classification took care of that situation without splitting the public and private. They will not dominate in 3A.

observer

January 13th, 2012
9:21 pm

I guess I didn’t realize that the goal was to create “comparable levels of talent”.I was under the assumption that class was assigned according to ada and naturally some will have more talent than others.Yes I do agree that Buford and Calhoun have more talent than the rest of AA but I do not think SAC has dominated class A.I suspect that there are schools with more transfers than the ones dominating.The next target seems to be the city schools in general.Let me say in closing that when you question my sportsmanship or that of any other of the bloggers on this site I say you seem to have a problem if someone does not agree with you.

PSP

January 13th, 2012
9:48 pm

I question your sportsmanship because you keep saying other teams should “just get better and quit complaining” but when I suggest you play in 2A you don’t want to play more competitive teams. It speaks for itself.

We will let everyone else decide if SCPS has been dominate, but playing for three straight championships and winning this year in convincing manner in a league of 70-something teams is exceptional.

I would venture to say that we now have separate playoffs thanks to SCPS and a few other teams. Thanks!

observer

January 13th, 2012
10:21 pm

PSP-at least you agree that if a person has a different point of view than yours then that person lacks sportsmanship and fairness.As for you saying that you suggest that “I” play up in 2A your reading skills are lacking-I clearly stated that I support a AAA team(AAAA next year)so How did I refuse your request?Surely you have me mixed up with someone else.I’m signing off on this subject-we have said all that can be said.I have my stand,others have theirs-time will sort out the winners&losers.Stand by your convictions unless you are convinced otherwise-there would be no need for discussions.Good luck and goodbye!

kmn

January 13th, 2012
11:12 pm

t if lincoln co is the leader of the run and hide crowd why did they elect to stay in the ghsa

City schools get unfair advantage

January 14th, 2012
12:21 am

Enter your comments here

showboat

January 14th, 2012
8:17 am

KMN, that comment should be amended. They led the movement that became the run and hide group, and even apparently gave them support but for some reason, Lincoln’s head coach decided to push to stay in GHSA. It almost was like he was tricking the schools to threaten with the GPSA so he could mediate with GHSA. It seems apparent he knew what the vote would be at GHSA ahead of time. He wasn’t a run and hide, but for all his bluster he has clearly shown he didn’t want to play private schools anymore either.

Once again, GHSA didn’t change things for any classification but A, and the only reason they did this was because of the success of private school in that class. As GHSA voting members have stated, this wasn’t well thought out – it was a quick reaction to prevent teams from leaving. Apparently, GHSA just doesn’t fair well under pressure. They don’t have a plan even – just a vote with some ideas about the future. While public schools might be crowing now in Class A, it will get far more interesting as we hear how they will implement this into the current structure, and how badly this will fragment regions, and further how it will affect the championship games.

T

January 14th, 2012
9:18 am

Really kmn, that is your uninformed response. I guess loyalty is blind.

kmn

January 14th, 2012
11:06 am

t- i live in metro atl no loyalty to lc . i understand campbell was a ring leader ,but the fact is they did not run and hide they stayed in the ghsa

John Wooden

January 14th, 2012
11:24 am

Couple of points in opposite directions: I attended a Buford basketball game last year and almost fell off the bleachers when they PRAYED before the game. I loved it, a private-public school that PRAYS!! Point 2: Final score a couple weeks ago in boys bb: Milton 76 North Forsyth 11. Now that is the system working for good clean interscholastic sports, right? I went to a Milton game last year and they were ranked nationally playing a Fulton rival and the stands were 3/4 empty!! Why? According to parents I asked, “why would our kids get pushed around in the halls all week by these kids and then be expected to come out on Friday night and cheer for them? None of them started 9th grade in our school”. NOW, there’s your real problem, what are we allowing here?

DEBOLES

January 14th, 2012
6:57 pm

BUFORD SHOULD BE REPORTED FOR ANY VIOLATIONS, JUST LIKE PRIVATE SCHOOLS SHOULD ADHERE TO PUBLIC SCHOOL RULES WHEN THEY JOIN A PUBLIC LEAGUE. THE GHSA SHOULD HAVE NIPPED THIS IN THE BUD LONG AGO, BUT MONEY TALKS…I HOPE THE PUBLIC SCHOOL COMMITTEE STICKS TO THEIR GUNS, REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE GHSA SAYS OR DOES. ESPECIALLY SINCE THEY WON’T REVERSE NEXT YEAR’S CLASSIFICATION TO SUIT THE PUBLIC SCHOOL MAJORITY. WHAT CROOKS!

T

January 14th, 2012
9:38 pm

LC stayed only because the GHSA caved. They are scared of the competition and running away was their solution as Showboat explained.

kmn

January 14th, 2012
11:09 pm

t – they stayed before the ghsa caved

Class A Private School Championships Approved

January 15th, 2012
3:26 am

[...] As reported in The Atlanta Journal-Consititution, rural public schools unhappy about competing against urban private schools in Class A prevailed upon… [...]

THE END

January 15th, 2012
7:58 am

At the end of the day the GHSA addressed and resolved the private vs. public sports discrepancy in class A ball. Now they need to do the same thing in AA, AAA, AAAA and with the one that exists between the public “city” and public “county” schools. Either everyone plays by the same player eligibility rules (for playoff purposes) or scrap the playoff games altogether and just hand out trophies to every parent at the Savannah Christian’s (private’s) and Buford’s (public city’s) on Halloween. I am all for a better education and a more Christian environment but have heard more than enough here from the elitist who think their OCCUPY tactics will work any differently than the morons that are attempting it around the nation. I am tired of reading why they also deserve to compete by a different set of rules!

Private School Mom

January 15th, 2012
7:59 am

ouch!

Law Firm representing private schools

January 15th, 2012
8:17 am

My client did not get there way. See you in court GHSA.

AH

January 15th, 2012
8:20 am

“There are very few AA, AAA, AAAA privates and only 21 city schools”
I have no problem with a vastly shorter playoff season for the AA, AAA, AAAA privates and the A, AA, AAA, AAAA, AAAAA, AAAAAA public city’s if they have different player eligibility standards than the A, AA, AAA, AAAA, AAAAA, AAAAAA public county’s. Common sense tells us it should have been that way all along.

Johns Creek

January 15th, 2012
8:25 am

Privates and City schools don’t “cheat”. They simply play by a different set of rules. There simply needs to be a Georgia state championship for privates, public citys and public county’s. It’s not that hard to do (or expensive). AND, it’s extremely fair and consistent.

T

January 15th, 2012
12:28 pm

kmn, you are dead wrong. They went to the GHSA meeting telling/threatening everyone that if the split did not happen, they were going to run away and start their own league with 32 other schools afraid to compete. Once again, adults take your egos out of the equation, the kids want to play every one to determine who is best. Not just the ones the adults deem to be “equal”. I would say that the kids are trying to teach the adults a good life lesson when it should be the other way around.

D Johnson

January 15th, 2012
2:14 pm

T

I know there are two sides to every story but the GHSA voted overwhelmingly. Let it go or sue. You can’t make the trolls, you can only troll this blog (with me and maybe 3 other people).

kmn

January 15th, 2012
5:09 pm

t – they asked the ghsa to move to region 8a if the 32 schools split . they did not run and hide but asked to move to another region thats the facts

T

January 15th, 2012
5:34 pm

Asking for the move and threatening to leave and take the 32 others with them are two totally different things. I see why you are saying they wanted to stay before the vote now. But all they were doing with the reclassification request was cover their arse if they decided to stay after the vote. The dead line for the appeal of the reclassification HAD to be turned in prior to the vote. See how that works. It in NO WAY proves they wanted to stay if the vote did not go their way. They had every intention of bolting if the GHSA did not cave.

DJ, of course the GHSA voted “overwhelmingly”, there are way more public than private that got a vote. I am only saying that the Class A coaches are setting a bad life lesson for their kids in wanting the change. My school is 4A and is not effected by this, but for these public school people to hail this as a victory is sad.

D Johnson

January 15th, 2012
6:57 pm

“I am only saying that the Class A coaches are setting a bad life lesson for their kids in wanting the change”.

I disagree. 14-18 year old kids are not capable of making that decision. Adults have to do what’s in the best interest of the vast majority. Hard to make everybody happy.

Jefferson

January 15th, 2012
7:04 pm

Well this is enough, no more changes. Go with it, see where it goes.

showboat

January 15th, 2012
7:07 pm

D Johnson – I think what T is trying to say is that those voting had a vested interest in the outcome. And they were pressured by the GPSA threat to make a poor decision. Why a poor decision? They didn’t really have time to think it all the way through. The GHSA put that off until another day. You can’t really call it “just” when you are forcing a group to make a pretty significant decision on the spot. It seems obvious to any and everyone that GHSA wasn’t going this route without the threats and intimidation.

For those are saying that the private schools are using Occupy tactics, what the public schools used to get the outcome they did was more akin to the old Labor Unions tricks. It is all a matter of perspective.

kmn

January 15th, 2012
7:34 pm

T- You are stating your opinion of what you believe they will do in the future. I am stating the FACTS of what happened…

HS Coach

January 15th, 2012
8:21 pm

T is correct. I was at the meeting and LC came in telling any one that would listen, that they were leaving if the split did not happen. LC filed the change of classification as a point of order and had, according to them, every intention of leaving the GHSA and taking any one who was willing with them.

Rockmart Needs a Coach

January 16th, 2012
1:02 pm

Stick a fork in it. What difference do it really make to most of the GHSA schools.

showboat

January 16th, 2012
3:57 pm

“Stick a fork in it. What difference do it really make to most of the GHSA schools.”

Rockmart, where was that sentiment one the shoe was on the other foot a few weeks ago?

T

January 16th, 2012
4:06 pm

Rock does not even want privates to exist. This tells you all you need to know about his thought process.

jvillebil

January 16th, 2012
4:41 pm

I’ve been reading these comments for almost a week now, occassionally making a comment as I really don’t have a dog in this fight. But I went to the Georgia High School Polls and looked at the rankings from baseball last year until basketball this year. This is what I found.

Football: 6 of the top 10 teams were private with 4 of the top 5 being private.
Boys Basketball: 5 of the top 10 teams are private with the top 3 all being private.
Girls Basketball: 8 of the top 10 teams are private with the top 6 all being private.
Baseball: 9 of the top 10 teams were private with top 5 all being private.
Softball: 7 of the top 10 teams were private with top 4 being private.

What it looks like to me is that the private schools really don’t need the public schools. It seems like what they need to do is encourage other private schools to get better. I understand the need to play other teams during the regular season due to the cost of travel. But since they are dominating now and will only continue to get stronger at the expense of the class A schools why does it matter if they don’t play them come playoff time? Surely it can’t be because they say they want to beat the best, heck they are the best. I would suggest any class A private school to move up to AA for better competition. At the rate they are going they would fair well and it would only be a matter of time and they would be winning state championships at that level.

I can understand why the public schools don’t want to play the privates after looking at the big picture. Even though most private people feel it was instigated by Lincoln and Wilcox, which I’m in agreement surely the public coaches of softball, baseball and & basketball teams feel the same way.

Rockmart Needs a Coach

January 16th, 2012
4:54 pm

At some point the crying must stop and move on.

T

January 16th, 2012
5:03 pm

Eaxctly J-bil, why would they want to try and make their own programs better when all they have to do is have the competition removed and they get an easier ride. Makes since in the public school/government run world.

showboat

January 16th, 2012
8:57 pm

jvillebil, the point of the conversation is that there ARE some elite public Class A schools who will now simply dominate the public league, and would actually do well to play in the private league. What more, you miss out on the whole spirit of competition, of beating the best. Sure, there will be some tough competition among the smaller public schools to see who will get a chance to get to the quarterfinals of the playoffs, but in the end, I don’t see too many public school teams taking down Lincoln.

I think what should be considered in your analysis is this (and it won’t be done because it would be a ton of work): remove the private schools from the playoffs, and tell me that there won’t be a few dominant teams that will become the Class A version of Buford and Calhoun. It won’t take long before the Class A schools turn on them, just like so many have turned on the “city schools” now that they have the private A teams separate. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the loudest public school teams that pushed for the change now take turns being champions.

To your point, based on your argument, shouldn’t these teams want to join the privates to form the best of the best, and let the other schools have the chance to develop?

D Johnson

January 16th, 2012
10:15 pm

I hope this blog gets the GHSA to take a long hard look at the “city” school phenomina.

jvillebil

January 16th, 2012
10:54 pm

Showboat, I don’t necessarily disagree with what you’re saying. I realize it will go back to Clinch, Wilcox, Charlton and a few others dominating football. I’m not speaking from a public point of view, I’m just sorta of stating the facts. The public sector liked the fact that they dominated and thought, “ok let’s invite the private schools and beat up on them also.” But somewhere along the way that all changed. But what has happend that the other sports ( non football) have gotten into the mix and it doesn’t look bright for them. I still think there are many public teams that will always be able to compete with the private schools, but if private schools do start recruiting in non football sports, the teams like Bacon, Calhoun Co, Irwin, Turner, Dooly ect that have to rely strictly on the home grown kids won’t be able to compete. Sure they can work harder on the local level, but most coaches use places like this as a stepping stone. I can’t say that’s fair to the kids. Look I see both sides of the fence. I realize that most private schools are started for education, because I would send my children to a private school if I lived in Savannah, Albany, Macon or such.

It’s a complicated situation, I think we all agree. I grew up in Georgia and have been was involved for many years in several parts of the state. I now live outside of Jacksonville fla and support our public school. We compete against the Bolles and Bishop Kenny’s that are private schools that can recruit. Heck Bolles took our all-state 6′3″ 305 lb lineman a few years ago. LOL, well wasn’t actually funny at the time. I asked him how he got to go to Bolles he stated, they gave me a scholarship. Didn’t even know who paid for it.

I applaud the private schools for all their hard work. But just looking at it from a public school side, THEY (not me) want things the way it used to be. I didn’t say it was right or wrong, just looking at it from both sides.

jokerswild

January 17th, 2012
12:24 pm

In the end this decision by GHSA may well be the best for the public school teams in A, simply due to the fact that for at least the last 3 years the coaches and the parents and booster club members, and everyone else you can think of have, perhaps inadvertantly, convinced the athletes that they can not win against the private schools. I know this; I am a parent of a class A athlete. Most adults don’t seem to realize how quick teenagers pick up on these type things.
On a side note : GISA people, can take heart; for in the next few years the public school programs, will understand how it feels to be constantly reminded that you and your program is inferior.

Weasel

January 17th, 2012
7:42 pm

Chicken droppings

T

January 17th, 2012
8:56 pm

And do not realize it.

Sideline Dude

January 18th, 2012
10:42 am

Too bad Tom Murphy is no longer around. He would have strong-armed a law through to resolve this situation just as he did so Bremen wouldn’t have to compete against Darlington.

jokerswild

January 18th, 2012
5:03 pm

chicken droppings??

tommy

January 18th, 2012
10:03 pm

Wilcox is upset because it lost to a clearly under talented team (Aquinas). Maybe their school district should hold the coaches a little more accountable and maybe the results will show on the field. They were clearly out coached and out played. This issue needs to be taken up with the coaches in public schools on the Single A level that do a obviously do a poor job of preparing their kids in comparison to the private schools.

jokerswild

January 19th, 2012
12:30 pm

amen, tommy

WingT

January 20th, 2012
8:55 am

It is unbelievable that competetive sport(s) segregate to produce a perceived winner. The kids loose.

Sideline Dude

January 26th, 2012
9:15 am

Oh for the days of Tom Murphy!

Bama Fan

January 27th, 2012
1:29 pm

This seems the be the way of high school sports today, coaches want to win more than the kids so they try to fix the playing field so they would have a better chance at winning instead of learning how to coach better and train their kids to play better. We need to start making our coaches go through some ethics training and maybe they will have good sportmanship and practice for another day. I wish they would keep the kids in mind and remember it’s not about whether you win or lose its what you learn from the game. “Hard Work, Dedication, Sportmanship” This is why so many of kids get in trouble when they leave for college its what they are taught in high school.

Vince

January 31st, 2012
5:02 pm

Hey CraZy. I see they don’t teach spelling at the Buford feeder schools.

red raider for life

January 31st, 2012
10:34 pm

Wilcox is SCARED to play Savannah Christian….that’s the bottom line on this story. Wilcox coach is a wimp. Instead of doing a better job of coaching he would rather NOT have to play Savannah Christian. What a loser he is. Why the school lets this loser coach represent them and teach their kids to whine and complain and throw a hissy fit then you will get your way….what message is that sending ? Instead of dealing with his own poor coaching methods he blames and complains. He is the complaining CHILD in all of this and the one who needs to be fired. Somebody needs to call him out..which I think I just did.

jokerswild

February 1st, 2012
10:52 am

BAMA FAN is right, redraiderfor life, is too, from the outside looking in it is so easy to see and so obvious what has happened no matter how you spin it.

GHSA Stripes

February 1st, 2012
2:43 pm

Bama Fan,
You are aware that if the coaches do not win, then they do not have a job? Stake your career on the success or failure of 13-18 year old boys.

Ippo19

February 4th, 2012
9:26 am

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Private School Miami

Lericary

February 5th, 2012
9:11 pm

order an 2011 chanel , for special offer

YeahRight

February 10th, 2012
11:26 am

I just spent most of the morning reading all of these posts and while everyone has good points except the ones saying the public schools are scared to play the private ones. If the rules were enforced and monitored on both sides then yes let them play each other but they are not. The rules of when things and be done and by who is where the unfairness comes into play. The private schools just have too much money to pour into their programs that give most of them a big advantage over the private schools. Where the rules say the coach cannot do something then alot of private schools just hire somesome one that is not affliliated with the school to do it. And yes some public schools do the same thing. So how do you fix it? Seperate the two and let them play. Having the private or public school kids flaunt their money in the faces of the other team after they won because they had the money to skirt the rules is not good for anyone.

Showboat

February 10th, 2012
9:45 pm

YeahRight, most private schools have LESS money than public schools these days for athletics. There is little flaunting in Class A. These are mostly small private schools that are struggling due to the recession.

The Truth

March 13th, 2012
5:04 pm

Public and Private are not on the same playing field! I coach in NC private schools won both 1a girls and boys champioships this year. The girls champioship has been won by the same team last 7 years straight. Private schools have won 3 of the last 5 in on the boy’s side. It’s not from “great coaching” because most teams have good coaches. It’s the ability play in the 1A division with division 1 recruited talent

Alpharetta

April 10th, 2012
3:20 pm

Heck, Georgia is so sliced and diced up with 6 classifications. Let’s just give EVERYONE a State trophy. I am a former Illinoisian. High School sports are so much more competitive with only TWO classifications. A State title really means something there. It is not watered down like here.

Oh, let’s also remove all the kids who are serious college-bound athletes who are able to take half a day (+2 online classes) from GHSA competition too. Those poor Wesleyn kids are SO disadvantaged because they can’t take half a day (they were instrumental in getting the by-law passed). College bound golfers, tennis players, divers, gymnists and other athletes will not be allowed to compete because of GHSA by-law 2.61. Yeah GHSA!! Way to wipe out the competition and prepare these kids for the real world. Let’s just make everything fair and give everyone a State trophy.

GHSA votes to separate Class A public, private schools for playoffs and championships

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GHSA votes to separate Class A public, private schools for playoffs and championships

417 comments Add your comment

About Prep Zone: High School Sports

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Other high school sports blogs of note

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Subscribe »

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Advertising

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