A major shake-up of Lumpkin County High School athletics is on the horizon for the next school year, every two years the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) restructures athletics in the state according to school enrollment, dividing schools into seven classes, small to large (A through AAAAAAA) in order to ensure that schools are playing opponents of a similar size.
A school can appeal the GHSA’s decision, but typically can only move up to join the ranks of larger schools—not the other way around.
At the Board of Education’s most recent work session on November 5, Lumpkin County Schools Athletic Director Steve Horton presented his coaches’ preferences on the matter.
Horton’s remarks occurred ahead of a November 9 deadline for the school system to appeal the GHSA’s decision regarding Lumpkin County’s newest classification of AAA.
Although Lumpkin could have requested to move up to AAAA, which would allow LCHS to re-join a number of rivals like Dawson, White and Pickens counties, Horton and his coaches recommended staying put in AAA.
“Our coaches this morning voted 100 percent unanimously—that’s what they want to do. They like winning,” he said.
Horton said being the smallest school in a classification can lead to depth issues. He provided the example of a high school with 400 more total students than Lumpkin.
“On a football team, that’s an extra 30 players. We’ve played plenty of bigger schools, but when we get into the state playoffs, the number of juggernauts in AAAA next year is cut in half or below in AAA, and so there’s a much better opportunity,” he explained.
On Monday, following the deadline to appeal the GHSA’s decision, The Nugget reached out to Lumpkin County Schools Superintendent Sharon Head to ask about the administration’s decision.
“We did not request to move up [to Class AAAA],” Head confirmed.
COACHES’ CHOICE
Horton began his presentation by explaining that while Lumpkin still qualifies with AA enrollment numbers, next year that will actually place the system in Class AAA.
“So you’re saying AA is actually AAA next year?” asked board Chairman Bobby Self.
“Yes sir,” Horton responded, explaining that Class A is currently subdivided into two smaller sub-groups.
“Nobody understands that except for GHSA … Next year, someone talked some sense into them, so single A division one is A, single A division two is AA, this year’s AA will be AAA, this year’s AAA will be AAAA, and so forth. So we’re going back to seven [classes] … Four years ago we had eight, now we’re back down to seven,” Horton said.
Lumpkin will remain in the same classification, but that will now be labeled AAA instead of AA.
Horton said his coaching staff agrees that we have a far better opportunity to win at the state level staying where GHSA put us, which next year will be Region 8 AAA.
“Two, four years ago, our goal was we wanted to make the playoffs. It’s time to start chasing titles,” he said.
“We have been the smallest school in the classification the last several years. This puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to depth as a whole, playing schools that have hundreds of guys try out for soccer and we have half that. With us staying in AAA, we now become one of the largest in the classification and will face schools that will have similar numbers trying out for each sport. This should make us more competitive in the playoffs. Boys’ soccer has had to play the defending State Champions and a top four private school in the first round the last two times we made the playoffs,” Horton wrote.
This week, The Nugget emailed five different LCHS coaches to see if any would like to share their opinions on the topic. Boys’ soccer coach Brent Howell responded, stating that the upcoming reclassification to AAA is “definitely more positive” for his sport.
NEW DILEMMAS
The decision does not come without ramifications for both players and parents, however.
“The issue is we’re going out on a limb,” Horton told the board. “We have to sign off by Sunday, but if we do this we will, for arguably the first time in history, not be in the same [class] with White, Dawson, Pickens … They will be a classification higher than we are.”
Horton said that doesn’t necessarily mean LCHS won’t play its traditional rivals.
“I’ve already spoken to all of their [Athletic Directors] and all of their ADs said ‘Yes, we’ll play them.’ But I need everyone to understand that when Gilmer decided to go to another region I spoke to their AD and of course they said they’d play us, and they’ve played us at nothing. Fannin no longer wants to play us in anything—Towns, Union. They don’t want to play us … We’re hoping to continue those relationships with White, Dawson and Pickens, but we’re going to have to go out and schedule them,” he explained.
This means more matchups with far-flung opponents like Stephens County, Hart County, Franklin County, Elbert County, Union County and Hebron Christian Academy.
“It’s going to be huge in the community,” Horton acknowledged of the change. “We had basketball and middle school wrestling last night and I bet I got hit by 20 different people asking ‘What are we going to do?’”
Board member Lynn Sylvester asked Horton if there would be any cost implications to the new classification.
Horton replied that there could be ticket revenue fluctuations.
“The goal is that you get White, Pickens and Dawson on your schedule early, during what we call non-region games. Then you won’t see anything different. If White, Dawson, Pickens decide to say ‘Nope. You guys decided to stay down. We’re not playing you,’ then financially, from gate revenue for our athletic department, there could be some implications there,” he replied.
However, Horton said that a post-season run can make up for lower gate proceeds during the regular season.
“You get to the playoffs, and you make your money back. So while our least-attended game this year for us on the road was Hart County, we would now be in that region. So we will have a number of folks who will not be attending away games the same way that they did,” he said.
But Horton emphasized that pent-up demand could lead to bigger home game receipts, “which are the only ones we get to keep.”
He said that making the playoffs means more money for the school.
“That’s just a fact. Our softball gate for those three games against Southeast Bulloch was $10,000. The last two home football games we did not make that. For Pickens we got beat by candy and Halloween. That was the lowest-attended game we’ve had in forever,” Horton said.
DISTANT TRAVEL
The biggest reservations from the board revolved around driving times for away games.
Sylvester asked about the possibility of bringing back a pep bus for transport to the games, but Horton said most of the students prefer to carpool with friends and go out to eat beforehand.
“We did that for girls basketball when they went and played in the state finals just a couple of years ago. I had three buses set up. We advertised it … and ended up taking one bus and it wasn’t full,” he added.
“Travel though the week would be tougher,” Self mused. “What’s the farthest distance now?”
Horton said it would be Elberton, some 82 miles away.
“Everything is either northeast or northwest. You’re looking at a normal two hour bus ride. To go to Stephens County, you’re looking at an hour and a half. To go to Hart County, you’re looking at an hour and 50 minutes to two hours. Franklin County, an hour and 45. Elbert County is going to be probably 2 hours 15 minutes. Yeah, you’re looking at travel,” he admitted.
“So all of our kids all year are going to be traveling out of the county?” Head asked.
Horton replied in the affirmative.
“It means we’ll have to leave school early to travel two hours,” lamented board member Craig Poore.
But Horton said that is not necessarily the case, citing soccer as an example.
“Soccer plays 6:00 and 8:00, historically. The first thing they would do is move to 5:00 and 7:00. And so if you play at 5:00 and 7:00, what we would look at doing is playing all of our region games on Friday nights,” he noted.
Howell said he agrees with Horton’s assessment of the new soccer situation.
“Traveling towards the east has been a topic of discussion, but I do not see it as being a huge issue … It may cause us to start region play a week early, but that will be okay,” Howell predicted, adding that he would do his best to schedule Lumpkin’s “biggest and closest rivals” for non-region matches.
Horton said football schedules would not be affected because they only play on Friday nights, but basketball, softball and baseball calendars could be.
For baseball, Horton suggested holding games on Tuesdays and double headers on Fridays “to minimize the commute.”
He said that Class AAA is “a good group of people,” and they will work with the high school to mitigate travel issues.
“They don’t want to come to Lumpkin, either. So there are some ways we can negate that,” Horton concluded.
“Is it perfect? No sir. It’s not perfect.”