Northside, Houston County set to move up to GHSA Class 6A next year

Unless other schools choose to play up, the GHSA region that features Middle Georgia's four largest schools will be broken up once reclassification takes place next year.

In preliminary class breakdowns released by the GHSA on Wednesday, Northside and Houston County were moved up to Class 6A for the 2016-18 cycle, which takes effect for the fall 2016 sports season. The two other Middle Georgia teams in the current Region 2-5A, Warner Robins and Jones County, will remain in Class 5A, along with Veterans, which will move up from the current Class 4A.

Much of the change is driven by the GHSA's addition of an extra classification. Class 7A, which had been called the Big 44 during the early stages of the reclassification process, will have the state's 48 largest schools. The smallest school in that class, Westlake, has 2,092 students.

There likely will be some movement between classifications in the next couple of weeks. Schools wanting to move up in classification have until Nov. 30 to notify to the GHSA, and the results of those moves will be revealed Dec. 1, the same day initial region assignments are made by the GHSA reclassification committee.

Aside from Veterans, the current Region 2-4A (Baldwin, Howard, Mary Persons, Perry, Upson-Lee and West Laurens) will remain in Class 4A.

Bigger changes are ahead for Middle Georgia schools in Class 3A and Class 2A.

A pair of schools that are currently in Class 3A, Southwest and Dodge County, will move down to Class 2A because of the GHSA's new out-of-county enrollment rule. Since five schools were moved up from Class 2A to Class 3A because of enrollment numbers that exceed the three percent out-of-county cap, Southwest and Dodge County were shifted down to Class 2A.

Also affected by the out-of-county bump: Crisp County, which is moving down from Class 4A to Class 3A because six teams moved up to Class 4A.

Toombs County and Washington County are also moving from Class 3A to Class 2A, but that's based on enrollment figures alone.

All five Middle Georgia schools subject to out-of-county bumps (Bleckley County, Crisp County, East Laurens, Jeff Davis and Vidalia) won appeals and will remain in their natural classifications. Statewide, 12 schools moved up a classification because of the rule.

The Class A cutoff line was set at 520 students, higher than in previous years. As a result, Crawford County and Macon County move from Class 2A to Class A.

In addition to the Dec. 1 meeting, the reclassification committee will meet Dec. 8 to consider appeals for transfers between regions. The final region assignments will be put to a vote Jan. 13 by the full GHSA executive committee.

Initial class assignments

Middle Georgia schools

Class 7A (2,092-3,998 students): None.

Class 6A (1,679-2,076): Northside, Houston County.

Class 5A (1,345-1,673): Jones County, Warner Robins, Veterans.

Class 4A (1,127-1,341): Perry, Upson-Lee, Howard, Baldwin, Mary Persons, West Laurens.

Class 3A (875-1,115): Crisp County, Central, Westside, Rutland, Peach County.

Class 2A (521-869): Jeff Davis, Southwest, Dodge County, Toombs County, Washington County, Fitzgerald, Lamar County, Northeast, Putnam County, Vidalia, Bleckley County, Monticello, Dublin, East Laurens.

Class A (23-520): Telfair County, Crawford County, Macon County, Mount de Sales, Wilkinson County, Taylor County, Dooly County, Hawkinsville, FPD, Johnson County, Treutlen, Stratford, Wilcox County, Hancock Central, Montgomery County, GMC, Wheeler County, Twiggs County, Tattnall Square, ACE.

Schools bumping up

GHSA member schools moving up one classification because of the three percent out-of-county enrollment rule:

Class 4A to Class 5A: Buford.

Class 3A to Class 4A: Woodward Academy, Maynard Jackson, St. Pius X, Jefferson, Blessed Trinity, Riverside Military.

Class 2A to Class 3A: Westminster-Atlanta, Marist, Greater Atlanta Christian, Lovett, Bremen.

This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Northside, Houston County set to move up to GHSA Class 6A next year ."