Playoff vs. prom: Still think Gwinnett and Cobb could have worked this out. Now, they have.
UPDATE at noon: From Jay Dillon, Cobb spokesman: “I just got off the phone with Harrison Principal Donnie Griggers. He told me that the Roswell High School girls lacrosse coach has agreed to move back the start time of their playoff game against Harrison, allowing the girls championship soccer game between Mill Creek and Harrison to start at 1:00 p.m. The lacrosse game will now start at 3:00-3:30, or as soon as possible following the soccer game. Some of the Roswell lacrosse players have graduation parties to attend Saturday night as well, but they should be able to make it work out. A big thank you to Roswell lacrosse coach Sue Scheer for being accommodating so the soccer game could be moved and the Mill Creek students can attend their prom, and also to Mr. Griggers and Harrison soccer coach Steve Riccard for working so hard to find a resolution.
Hard to believe there wasn’t a solution to this problem: The girls soccer teams from Cobb’s Harrison High School and Gwinnett’s Mill Creek High face each other Saturday in a playoff game that will cause the Mill Creek students to miss most of their prom.
The two teams play at 5:30 p.m. at Harrison High, which is 45 minutes away from the Gwinnett school.
“For them to play at 5:30, it would be during the middle of prom before they even got home,” Mill Creek parent Wanda Hatfield told the AJC. “I’ve got a senior that’s just heartbroken. She’s a starter on the team and doesn’t know whether to play or what.”
Although Mill Creek has asked Harrison to change the game time, it’s not that simple, according to Cobb County school system officials.
That’s because Harrison’s boys and girls lacrosse teams are also hosting playoff opponents on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Saturday morning, four youth football games will be played on Harrison’s field before the lacrosse and soccer games are scheduled, Jay Dillon, spokesman for Cobb County schools, said Thursday evening.
Harrison’s principal, Donald Griggers, attempted to resolve the scheduling conflict, but was unable to due to the prior commitments for use of the field, Dillon said. Additionally, the Georgia High School Association rules prohibit games from being played on Sundays.
“We offered to play Monday. They don’t want to play Monday,” Mill Creek coach Brent Leitsch said by phone Thursday evening.
According to the GHSA brackets, which are posted before the season begins, the winner of the Mill Creek-Harrison game will play again Wednesday. Therefore, a Monday playoff game would give the winning team one day off before another game.
Mill Creek offered to host the game Saturday and give Harrison all of the proceeds, rather than the typical 50-50 split. But Harrison said no, after earning home-field advantage with a higher ranking.
“Harrison has worked with Mill Creek to try to find a resolution, but other events are scheduled with no possibility of them being moved,” Dillon said. “The schools will keep trying to work out an alternative, but at this point, it appears to be an unfortunate scheduling conflict.”
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
78 comments Add your comment
Soccermom
May 11th, 2012
11:05 am
@ another comment – excellent idea!
Tonya C.
May 11th, 2012
11:08 am
Resolution was reached. Game was moved to 1p. Happy ending for everyone.
Aquagirl
May 11th, 2012
11:11 am
Was that an attempt to force Harrison’s hand through public humiliation.?
I sure hope so. When a bunch of squabbling adults let the %#!^ roll downhill on the kids, they SHOULD be humiliated. Sounds like everyone had their little patch of turf and was guarding it like a dog. Can’t switch the youth football games, can’t give up home field advantage, can’t play on Sunday because baby Jesus will cry, can’t do this, can’t do that…wahhhhh. And the kids wanting to attend prom were immature? Please.
Sounds like the efforts of Maureen and the AJC have brought about what should have happened long ago….a SIMPLE solution to a pretty simple problem. All the adult egos involved turned it into a mess. If you’re one of those so-called adults, you should be hanging your head in shame. And getting out of any organizing/supervision of sports, because you’ve clearly lost sight of what’s important.
Thanks for bringing this up Maureen.
catlady
May 11th, 2012
11:12 am
I am not surprised that a solution was found–having bad press is a no-no!
another idea
May 11th, 2012
11:21 am
Cobb is a big county, with many fields……. Can’t they “borrow” one from another high school? Surely they are not ALL in use earlier on Saturday. It’s not home field advantage, but they could still stay relatively close to home.
Wes
May 11th, 2012
11:24 am
Harrison agrees to help Mill Creek players get to prom with time change. Done.
Lee
May 11th, 2012
11:56 am
Good to hear that someone with a little common sense intervened and changed the time. Good for them.
As for the pitiful excuse that they couldn’t change the time, I call BS. What would happen in the even of rain? Uh, well Lee, they’d have to reschedule…..
Exactly…
…and this is newsworthy because??…
Howard Finkelstein
May 11th, 2012
12:00 pm
Awww…
Into each ones life some rain must fall.
A Conservative Voice
May 11th, 2012
12:03 pm
Bless their little hearts…….I hope that one day they’ll be able to put this away and get on with their lives
catlady
May 11th, 2012
12:18 pm
Is it a coincidence that this was solved by a FEMALE coach of another sport who volunteered to make accomodations to help this get resolved? I can’t help but wonder if there would have been all the turf-guarding, one-upmanship, and posturing (ie “it is impossible”) if the soccer coaches had been female.
Howard Finkelstein
May 11th, 2012
1:11 pm
Thank the stars a compromise has been reached. The game will be played, the prom will be attended and we can all be relieved that planet earth is no longer likely to spin out of of control into the Sun!
Tragedy averted!
BT
May 11th, 2012
1:28 pm
This seems to have been an unavoidable situation and will always be. The playoff brackets, sites, dates, etc. are set early by the GHSA. But the problem is that schools can’t anticipate being in the playoffs when they set prom and other school dates.So no one is at fault here in my opinon. I remember my senior year in HS, we had a conflict between a baseball playoff game and the senior trip. The other team took care of the problem and we went on the trip!!
William Casey
May 11th, 2012
1:29 pm
HOWARD: Did you ever play on a team or attend a Prom? I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you were trying to be funny. However, belittling the interests of others usually isn’t all that funny.
William Casey
May 11th, 2012
1:32 pm
Ahhhh, Catlady. I usually love your posts but I made several such accomodations when I coached.
Robert
May 11th, 2012
2:55 pm
I know Roswell had their prom about a month ago to avoid this issue. Last year Lambert had to move the state championship lacrosse game, which was scheduled for a Saturday, to Friday due to prom.
catlady
May 11th, 2012
2:56 pm
William: I was not casting aspersions on all men. But the lack of ability to think, and the willingness of an ourside party to compromise, was pretty striking to me. Have a wonderful weekend!
Agree
May 11th, 2012
3:32 pm
Hey catlady… way to gender-stereotype. I wonder how many car wrecks would be eliminated if we stopped letting women drive.
See how dumb comments like yours sound?
nsnstv
May 11th, 2012
5:31 pm
It’s girls soccer. Who cares?
PROM MOMS?
May 11th, 2012
7:18 pm
@Gwinnett Guy and @ Aqua Girl:
That this issue is in the news IS ridiculous. Harrison was gracious in working towards a solution. Mill Creek and its parents were likely demanding an immediate change in time or venue because their daughters might miss the prom and the money spent on dresses, shoes, limos, and tickets would be wasted. When Mill Creek didn’t get its way, someone from Mill Creek alerted the media and made this an issue so that pressure would be placed on Harrison staff. The wants of Mill Creek mothers and fathers is NOT important but their using bully tactics to get their way is an important story. I’d still like to know who brought this to the attention of the media and how much time they “allowed” Harrison to offer a compromise before approaching the media. Do you know?
another comment
May 11th, 2012
7:47 pm
Harrison High and their parents have been the big bullies in Cobb County. They have gone to the Marietta Daily Journal winning about the School board voting 4-3 against a new 9th grade center. The Center came in Approx. $700K over budget. and their enrollment had been declining in the last few years. So the majority of the board voted against the 9th grade center. The board also cited that they would not have the operations money with the 34 million dollar budget deficeit to operate the center. The two nearby schools are under enrolled. One has been so since it was built. These Harrison Parents went on the boards and winned about how their school was 20 years old. Their poor track, etc.. Other folks in Cobb tried to tell them they have it great compared to the South Cobb Schools, Campbell, Osborne, South Cobb, that are 50+ years old. They finally got Linda Eagle to do some horse trading with David Morgan, so he would vote for the expansion. This was in exchange to be infavor of the Supt. wish to get 25 Teach for America teachers, while the district is cutting 350 other teachers.
So Harrison folks need to stop the crap about the Millcreek parents. Harrison parents are pros at doing this. Harrison is one of the Cobb schools use to getting its way. Now all of a sudden its district is changing, and oh no they might have Allison Bartlett as their School Board Rep. The spend on us Republicans are crying because they are getting put in the blue dog Democrat district.
PROM MOMS?
May 11th, 2012
8:09 pm
@ Another Comment
Get jealous often? Do you advocate misusing SPLOST funds? The SPLOST referendum specifically called for the construction of a west Cobb night grade center IN ADDITION to the ones built first at South Cobb and North Cobb high schools. The Board chose to put it Harrison until Ms. Bartlett decided she wanted the funds for her South Cobb district.
Do you really believe Ms. Bartlett will remain the representative for the newly drawn district? LOL.
Ron Hyatt
May 11th, 2012
8:49 pm
Life isn’t always fair, and sometimes demands tough choices. This just creates more Obama voters.
another comment
May 11th, 2012
8:57 pm
@ Prom Moms aka Harrison Parent, I drove my daughter up to Harrison’s summer Cheer Camp for years, because we don’t have any at Campbell in Smyrna. The schools are night and day. I am not a white flight parent like, I saw at Harrison. It is not the Cheerleading squad of blondes as it was at the Harrison Camp. My daughter is the only blonde.
For the Harrison Bullies to complain about their 20 year old school in nonsense. Then when you actually come down to games at schools like Campbell, you make raciest comments like oh! we are in the Ghetto!. Actually there are some of us who have chosen to stay in the real Vinings and live at the Perimeter, avoid the long commutes We also have paid twice as much for our houses. We actually have family time with our kids, since we don’t spend time on the road. Our children are also learning about real world diversity being at a school with a 40% hispanic and 40% back population. A school where the PTA is lucky to have $2,000 in their coffers. Unfortunately, we are still considered a division 5A school because we have over 2,200 students, even though in reality you only have around 1,200 or so to draw upon for Sports.
PROM MOMS?
May 12th, 2012
9:20 pm
@ Another Comment
Wow! Pretty judgmental aren’t you? “I am not a white flight parent like, I saw at Harrison.”
Exactly how did you determine those parents fled any particular area? From exactly where did they flee? How do you know where they work or how much time they spend with their families or on the road? You are making some very broad generalizations and employing stereotypes.
That’s enough…this soccer issue is over.
Lil' Barry Bailout
May 13th, 2012
6:07 am
Glad to hear the crybabies lost.
haha
May 13th, 2012
1:04 pm
Looks like those girls were more focused on the prom that night than on winning the game. As an opposing coach, I would have loved to play against them that day.
catlady
May 13th, 2012
6:52 pm
Agree–I made no stereotype. The fact is, the two male coaches could not solve the problem. A female coach intervened and solved it.
Let's face it
May 14th, 2012
10:42 am
This is on the administration of MC or any high school for that matter. If you schedule your school’s prom during May or even Homecoming during late Oct/early Nov., you will run into state playoff games/matches/ debate, etc. It is not fair to either team or side in the debate. Planning trumps everything. Sure, you never know how well the kids are going to do in any given season but you do know they may have a chance to play in the state tournament and possibly the finals. Come on principals, you are paid to make the tough decisions, so make it easy on yourself and schedule away from the playoffs.