Greenbrier reaped awards in Class 5-A

Garrett Black remembers a unique situation that Greenbrier High School faced many years ago.

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"In the state semifinals, we were up against a school with more girls at their school than we had (students)," the Greenbrier athletic director said.

Greenbrier has moved down in classification for the upcoming school year. Before the move, the Wolfpack often faced much more populated schools in the Georgia High School Association's top classification -- AAAAA.

However, that didn't prevent the Wolfpack from compiling strong results.

Greenbrier took home a pair of awards for this past school year, topping Region 2-AAAAA in the Director's Cup standings -- for the third year in a row -- and earning the region's Sportsmanship Award.

This is the first time Greenbrier has earned the Sportsmanship Award since the recognition was introduced in 2006.

The Director's Cup takes into account each school's performance in every sport. Greenbrier finished ninth among all Class AAAAA schools.

"To me, it's a big honor considering some of those schools have 3,000 students," said Black, also the school's softball coach.

Last school year, Greenbrier High School had 1,760 students.

Black noted that the honor is bestowed upon an athletic department that has many top finishes among its teams, not just one or two strong performances.

In last year's state playoffs, Greenbrier's girls tennis team made the Final 4 and the boys and girls soccer, softball and volleyball squads made the Elite 8. The boys golf team finished second and the girls in the top 10 in the state. The baseball team was among the final 16 teams in the state tournament.

Volleyball coach Debbie Born has been at Greenbrier since the school opened in 1996. She said winning the Sportsmanship Award is not surprising because it is a focus at Greenbrier.

"It's expected at Greenbrier," she said. "Whether we're home or traveling, the fans create a positive atmosphere."

Black said the award reflects not only on student athletes and coaches, but also on teachers and members of the community.

"One of our goals is to teach and to promote good sportsmanship in all of our athletic events," Black said.

He stressed that he also saw good sportsmanship during games against other Columbia County schools.

"I think the county should be extremely pleased with all of our high schools," Black said.

Evans won the Sportsmanship Award this past school year for Region 3-AAAA.