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December 28, 2011
Section
B
The Banks County News
GIRLS BASKETBALL
BEASLEY SELECTED
Banks County High School varsity girls player Deasha Beasley was selected for the all tournament team at
the Piedmont Holiday Tournament last weekend. Photo by Randy Crump
WRESTLING
KINGS
OF THE MOUNTAIN
Banks County High School Varsity
Wrestling Team took first place in
the two-day “King of the Mountain”
tournament in Hiawassee.
FIRST-PLACE FINISHERS
Mason Patton and Francisco
Hurtado finished in first place at
the Choo Choo Classic.
BCHS
now in
AA class
GHSA's new -plan
bumps school up
BY RANDY CRUMP
The Georgia High School Association announced the reclas
sification plans for 2012-13 and Banks County is one of 65
schools that will be in AAA class.
BCHS, which is currently slotted in AA, will jump up one
class when the GSHA moves to a six-class system next fall.
BCHS officials had hoped the school’s FTE (fulltime enroll
ment) numbers would place them in AA, but its total of 665
students (ninth through 11th grade) put them in the AAA
class.
Mill Creek (2,766) is the largest school in the state with
Norcross (2,709), Brookwood (2,560), Collins Hill (2,539),
Berkmar (2,512), Peachtree Ridge (2,435), Meadowcreek
(2,357), Lowndes County (2,346), East Coweta (2,143) and
Camden County (2,127) rounding out the top 10 biggest
schools in the state.
BCHS is the sixth smallest school in the AAA class, Only
Gordon Central at 664 students, Decatur (664), Savannah
(663), Jefferson County (660) and Islands (651) are smaller.
BCHS missed the 2A cutoff by only 18 students as Pepperell
and Kendrick each have 647 students and are the two
biggest schools in the AA class.
Westside, Augusta (646), Calhoun
(645), Jordan (635), Berrien (634),
Murray County (625), Jefferson
(619), Josey (613), Westminster
(611) Toombs County (610),
Fitzgerald (607) and Spencer (600)
are the only schools in the class
with more than 600 students.
“It makes sense for us to be in
AAA,” athletic director Jerry King
said. “It has some of the same
schools as 8AA (East Jackson,
Dawson County, Fannin County
and East Hall). The key is that we play a region schedule in
all sports. GHSA divided all regions into sub regions. It is not
logical for an eight team region to subdivide. It would make
scheduling very difficult. I think the principals in AAA will
have the 2/3 majority to over rule this and play a full region
schedule in all sports.”
In accordance with GHSA by-laws, a region may choose
to play a full region schedule with a 2/3 vote of the principals
of the schools in that region. This decision may be made on a
sport-by-sport basis.
“This will still give us room in schedules to play teams that
have been historic rivals,” King said. “We are hoping to restore
the Banks/Commerce rivalry in all sports. We also like the
chance to keep playing East Jackson, Jackson, and Jefferson
in some sports.”
The GHSA does allow for an appeal based on geographical
isolation. According to the GHSA White Book, “an individual
school shall be considered to be isolated if the average distance
from that school to all other schools in the region is 100 miles
or more one way. The decision to place a school in a higher or
lower classification will be based on a combination of factors
that include travel distances and school population size.
“This will still be a very difficult region for girls basketball,”
King said. “Buford, North Hall, East Hall, and Fannin are all
historically strong programs and Dawson has some very good
players coming up in the program. Competition wise this is
about the same level as 8AA. One could simply plug in Rabun
for Buford and Union for North Hall and it would be about the
same for girls basketball.”
Coach Mike Cleveland said: “It is a tough region. The com
petition will be at a high level. Buford played for the Class
AA championship last year, and may be the best team in the
state this year in AA. East Hall is always good; they competed
in the sweet sixteen last year. North Hall is a team that I have
coached against many times. They were a Final Four team
two years ago, and are always very good. West Hall is similar.
Almost every year, these two are in the state playoffs. Dawson
County also has a very solid basketball program. It will be a
competitive region, that is for sure.”
Regions are encouraged to play full region schedules in
football unless there are large travel distance issues. In sports
other than football where there are multiple contests dining
the school week, regions are encouraged to play sub-region
schedules.
Banks County would compete in the Region 7B section of
Class AAA. Sub-region B includes Banks County, Buford,
East Hall and West Hall. Sub-region A Includes Dawson
County, Fannin County, North Hall and White County schools.
Nothing about the current reclassification proposals may be
considered to be final or official until ratified by the full GHSA
Executive Committee on January 10. The classification plan
covers the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic school years.
CLASS 7-AAA
Sub-Region A
Dawson County
Fannin County
North Hall
White County
Sub-Region B
Banks County
Buford
East Hall
West Hall
Photos by David Wood
