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The Champion, Thursday, December 10 -16,2015 SPORTS
Page18A
Big changes made with new region alignments
by Carla Parker
carla@dekalbchamp.com
Some DeKalb County athletic
programs will be traveling further
distances for away games next school
year.
The reclassification committee of
the Georgia High School Association
released the region alignments Dec. 1
for the 2016-18 term. Several schools
in the county—public and private—
saw changes with the new region
alignments, specifically the distance
between its fellow region-mates.
The biggest changes came in
Class AAAA featuring Druid Hills,
Marist and St. Pius. Each school will
be in a separate region, with Druid
Hills in Region 4, Marist in Region 7
and St. Pius in Region 8.
Marist will be in a region with
Blessed Trinity (15 miles) in Roswell,
Chestatee (47 miles) in Gainesville,
Riverside Military Academy (50
miles) in Gainesville, West Hall
(40 miles) in Oakwood, and White
County (69 miles) in Cleveland.
Marist Athletic Director Tommy
Marshall said this new region will be
a challenge for his program.
“Travel will definitely be an is
sue for a bunch of the schools—for
us going out and schools coming in,”
Marshall said “It’s a predominantly
outside the 1-285 region. We talked
to everybody [in the region], I think
everybody knows the situation and I
don’t see a whole lot of changes com
ing.”
Schools have the option to appeal
to move to another classification or
region, but only have the option to
go down or up a region.
“If we appeal to St. Pius’ region
then we’ll go to Stephens County,”
Marshall said. “If we go [up to Re
gion 5] well go to Cartersville, Troup
and LaGrange. For us there is really
not an option. We’re happy to be
[in a region] with Blessed Trinity,
so I think everybody has decided to
make the best out of the situation.
“I think all the schools will have
to adapt to it, which means maybe
leaving a little early and getting back
later,” Marshall said. “I think the
problem will be [games] on school
nights. We’re hoping that scheduling
can take care of some of that. Maybe
we can schedule games for Fridays
and Saturdays. If we’re going far
away, maybe we can do some double-
headers on Saturdays.”
Although Marist will not be in a
region with rival St. Pius and other
rival schools in the DeKalb and
Atlanta areas, Marshall said Marist
still plans to schedule some of those
schools.
“We’re looking at playing people
we’ve played in the past in DeKalb
County, St. Pius, Woodward and a lot
of those schools,” he said. “The good
thing is we’re still in the same classi
fication as St. Pius and Woodward.”
In Region 8-AAAA, St. Pius will
face Jefferson (48 miles), Madison
County (76 miles) in Danielsville,
North Oconee (50 miles) in Bogart,
Oconee County (54 miles) in Wat-
kinsville, and Stephens County (35
miles) in Indian Village.
Druid Hills will be in a region
with Eastside (40 miles) in Coving
ton, Henry County (34 miles) in Mc
Donough, Euella (43 miles) in Eocust
Grove, North Clayton (18 miles) in
College Park, Salem (31 miles) in
Conyers, and Woodward Academy
(15 miles) in College Park.
A Class AAAAAAA was added,
and Lakeside, which has an enroll
ment of 2,133 students, will be the
only DeKalb school in the new class.
It will play in Region 7 with six
Gwinnett County schools—Berkmar
(15 miles), Brookwood (20 miles),
Central Gwinnett (22 miles), Mead-
owcreek (12 miles), Norcross (13
miles) and Parkview (16 miles).
Dunwoody, M.L. King, Stephen
son and Tucker moved up to Class
AAAAAA. M.L. King, Stephenson
and Tucker will be in Region 4 with
Clayton County’s Drew, Forest Park,
Jonesboro, Lovejoy and Mundy’s
Mill. M.L. King and Stephenson opt
ed to move up into Class AAAAAA.
Dunwoody will be the only
DeKalb school in Region 7 with Ful
ton County’s Alpharetta, Cambridge,
Chattahoochee, Centennial, Johns
Creek and Northview. They will also
face North Atlanta and Pope in Mari
etta.
Class AAAAA will feature a ma
jority of DeKalb schools with Arabia
Mountain, Chamblee, Clarkston, Co
lumbia, Cross Keys, Lithonia, Miller
Grove and Southwest DeKalb in
Region 5. Columbia and Southwest
DeKalb opted to move up in Class
AAAAA.
Decatur will be in Region
6-AAAAA with schools from Fulton
and Atlanta Public Schools. Decatur,
which has an enrollment of 1,158,
opted to move up a classification.
Decatur Athletic Director Carter
Wilson said in a released statement
that Decatur wanted to go up a clas
sification to avoid the travel time it
would have had to deal with in Class
AAAA.
“We would encounter increased
time out of school, increased travel
time to events, an imbalance in com
petition, and a possible decrease in
attendance at athletic contests,” Wil
son said. “To combat the above fac
tors, we made the decision to play at
the 5A classification. We were placed
in a region with Grady, Maynard
Jackson, North Springs, Riverwood,
Banneker, Carver (Atlanta), and
Lithia Springs. Many of these schools
have shared a region with us in the
past and all are teams in which we
have played against previously. Our
coaches in every region sport are ex
cited about the possibilities to com
pete in this new region and we look
forward to your support.”
Class AAA, Region 5 will feature
Cedar Grove, McNair (which opted
to move up), Redan, Stone Mountain
and Towers. Those schools will face
Atlanta private schools Lovett, Pace
Academy and Westminster.
DeKalb School of the Arts,
Greenforest, Paideia and W.D. Mo
hammed will be in Class A, Region 5.
New rule in place for football playoff admission
by Carla Parker
carla@dekalbchamp.com
Staff members of schools in the
football playoffs can attend games
for free with the proper identifica
tion.
The Georgia High School Asso
ciation State Executive Committee
passed the new rule at its Aug. 17
fall meeting. The rule states: “Certi
fied staff members who work at the
participating high schools only will
be allowed free admission through
the semifinal round with proper
identification.”
This new rule is effective im
mediately. This rule does not extend
below the high school level.
“Even if your school is K-12,
only certified staff members at the
high school (grades 9-12) are cov
ered by this rule,” the committee
stated.