Changes would mean longer trips for teams
One of the longest regional athletic road trips for the three largest county schools is a 2-hour bus ride to Effingham County.
If the new Georgia High School Association-proposed regions hold, that will be one of the shortest trips for Greenbrier, Evans and Lakeside athletes.
The GHSA recently released the proposed region realignment at the biennial reclassification meetings in Thomaston, Ga. The changes would take effect for the 2006-08 school years.
Greenbrier, Evans and Lakeside would be matched in Subregion B of Region 2-AAA with Richmond Academy and Statesboro. The opposing Subregion A would include Effingham County, Wayne County, Brunswick, Glynn Academy and Ware County, which borders Florida.
"The travel is going to be rough," said Greenbrier athletic director Mickey Derrick. "You're looking at two-plus-hour drives to every school outside of the subregion. That could be rough for football. Other sports can subdivide without playing those schools until the region playoffs."
Schools have 30 days from June 9 to appeal the association's recommendations.
Lakeside athletic director Randy Hill said he would appeal only if all three schools joined in such an effort.
"We have to do this thing as a county," he said. "We have to stick together and look out for ourselves. We will do what we feel is best for our three schools."
Speculation that Greenbrier might be forced to move to Class AAAAA was ended when the new regions were released.
"We knew that we weren't going up for a while," Derrick said.
"It was close, but it didn't happen."
One of the most questionable moves, some officials said, was the creation of Region 1-AAAA, which consists of Lee County, Americus-Sumter, Bainbridge and Thomas County Central.
"I can't believe they have a region with four teams," Derrick said. "Every one of those teams will make the playoffs in every sport. Half of the teams in our region are closer to those schools than us. Why don't we move those five in (Subregion A) into Region 1-AAAA and let us have a five-team region. I think that is as fair."
Harlem's region changed from Region 3-AAA to 2-AAA, but the teams remained the same.
The only changes in the region were Hephzibah moving from the north to the south subregion and Washington County coming into the north subregion.
Proposed Region Alignments for 2006-08
(New schools in italics)
Region 2-AAAA
Subregion A
Brunswick (3-AAAAA)
Effingham County
Glynn Academy (3-AAAAA)
Ware County (1-AAAA)
Wayne County
Subregion B
Evans
Greenbrier
Lakeside
Richmond Academy (3-AAA)
Statesboro
Region 2-AAA (was Region 3-AAA)
Subregion A
Benedictine
Burke County
Hephzibah
Liberty County
Richmond Hill
St. Vincent's
South Effingham
Subregion B
Butler
Cross Creek
Davidson Fine Arts
Glenn Hills
Harlem
Thomson
Washington County (4-AAA)