Well, the GHSA is at it again. It is time for reevaluation of the Classes and Regions that make up our sports schedules and sectional competitions. We say it like its a conspiracy, but in reality, it happens every 2 years. It just seemingly brings a lot of angst and drama to the keyboard warriors online, so we just wanted to bring it up as it lightly affects cross country, but mostly affects the main team sports at Chestatee like football, volleyball, baseball, softball, and soccer.
For those that were not aware, GHSA moved from 7 classifications down to 6 classifications for the current realignment and Chestatee moved from 4A down to 3A (along with most of the Hall County schools, except Flowery Branch). The current system in GHSA includes 1A, which has 2 divisions, and then comes 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, and 6A being the largest. Remember when the bigger schools were complaining of losing the glorious 7A distinction for 6A? Well, it's back now. GHSA has decided to get rid of the divisions and renumber 1A as two classifications and go all the way thru 7A. So, 1A-Div II becomes 1A, and 1A-Div I becomes 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A, and then the coveted 7A. In doing this, everyone else essentially moves up one class...so the 3A teams, like Chestatee, now will become the new 4A, again.
The other area of contention, that does potentially affect us, has been private schools competing for titles along with public schools. The amount of titles that private schools won when competing with public schools definitely showed a disparity favoring the private schools, considering private schools tend to attract more "out-of-region" kids and they have the ability to offer financial aid and/or scholarships to cover their tuition costs. Some argue, in their own opinions, this is a way of "recruiting athletes" in high school that would favor the private schools. Some of the private schools we see during meets in the area have international students that participate in XC, one notably arriving on a scholarship from Africa and immediately dominating in our sport. Is it fair? That is for you, and ultimately up to the GHSA to decide. We just hope that the GHSA takes real-life scenarios like this into consideration when deciding rules for competition and fair play, especially as it relates to our running community.
That being said, during the last reclass in 2024, any private schools falling into 1A-3A classifications had to compete in their own, separate, playoff system for championships. Any private schools, such as Westminster or Marist, that wanted to continue to play in the same playoffs as public schools had to "play up," regardless of their tuition numbers, to at least 4A, 5A, or 6A. This is why we see a separate 1A-3A Private division race in Carrollton. If you are also aware, currently Greater Atlanta Christian is in Region 6-3A along with Chestatee. For some of our sports, we have to play them in region play, but once playoffs come into the equation, GCA does not affect anything as they compete in their own. In XC, we can face them at an Invitational Meet...or even at the Hall County Championship...but once we start talking Sectionals and State Meets, they are on their own.
So now the question is...now that Chestatee will be moving out of 3A and up to 4A...does that mean we have to face private schools at Sectionals and State? From what has been discussed so far, it seems that the "private school playoff" will now shift with the adding a new lower class up to 2A-4A private schools. So, theoretically, just as we have seen in Region 6-3A, we will have to play private schools in region play, but when it comes time for playoffs, the private schools have their own bracket (or race).
Here is the tentative region alignment as of this November 9th. Schools have until Sunday, November 16th to make their pleas for lateral moves...with the biggest argument for a lateral move is seemingly being travel distance to region opponents. Will we see GCA looking to move back to Region 6? We should know after the GHSA Region Alignment Appeal Meeting on Monday, November 17th. But we already saw the GHSA reject Johnson's and Flowery Branch's appeal to moving down from 5A to 4A to compete with the rest of the Hall County schools.
If everything stays, Chestatee will be in Region 6-4A, along with Dawson, North Hall, Pickens, and White County. The newcomer will be Gilmer and Greater Atlanta Christian moves out to Region 5-4A. We also lose Johnson as they had to move up to 5A due to their rise in student population and number of "out of region" students...which count 3:1 against the overall student population.
So, if you are thinking ahead to 2026 Sectionals for XC, we would have to run against Regions 5, 6, 7, and 8...minus any private schools that are sprinkled throughout 4A (again, assuming that the private school exemption from public school playoffs is 2A, 3A, and 4A classifications).
In the end, we do not know for sure. This is all merely speculation until GHSA comes out with their final lists and competition rules for 2026-2028, but we wanted to keep you in the loop as we will have the possibility of seeing a few new teams next year at Sectionals and State.
Here is the link to the GHSA website with all updates & minutes after meetings are completed.
https://www.ghsa.net/2026-28-reclassification-agenda-updates-minutes
