2024-26 GHSA region alignment: Find out which Augusta-area schools have new competition

With appeals complete, the Georgia High School Association region alignments for the 2024-2026 school years are set.

The GHSA Executive Committee voted Wednesday to approve new regions across the state.

Re-alignment reflects a significant shake-up for several Augusta-area high schools, renewing old rivalries and potentially creating space for new ones. Something new this time around is the ceiling goes to Class 6A. This was accomplished restructuring Class A and doing away with Class 7A.

GHSA executive director Robin Hines also announced his plan to retire Aug. 1, 2024 during Wednesday's meeting.

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Here’s a look at where Augusta-area high schools fall in the new GHSA region alignments.

Region 4-AAAAAA

Archer

Grayson

Grovetown

Heritage (Conyers)

Newton

Rockdale County

South Gwinnett

Grovetown becomes the lone Columbia County school remaining in Class 6A. Principal Andrew Young appealed to the Reclassification Committee to move down to 5A, but the appeal was denied. It’s important to note that with 2,214 students, Grovetown is the second-smallest of the 65 schools in the classification (Alpharetta has 2,208).

There are a couple of familiar faces, at least. Grovetown competed against Heritage and Rockdale County as region opponents as recently as two years ago. While the region outlook may be a glaring change to things, Grovetown athletic director Marty Jackson is optimistic about the future as a whole.

“The coaches have embraced it," he said. "We have to up our game a little bit, the travel is not going to be as bad as it has been the last couple of years and everybody in our area, all the Columbia County schools, are going to play us. We need to keep these county rivals and who knows, somebody else could be bumped up in the next reclassification. I’m really pleased that all the coaches have embraced the challenge. The sky is not falling.”

Jackson added that Grovetown knocked off Buford in the 6A state basketball championship two years ago, so there is a track record of success for the Warriors against these premier programs.

Region 1-AAAAA

Bradwell Institute

Brunswick

Evans

Glynn Academy

Greenbrier

Lakeside

South Effingham

Statesboro

In what is essentially a mash-up of this year’s Region 2-6A and Region 1-5A, Lakeside and Evans drop down and rejoin their old rival in Greenbrier. The Wolfpack benefit, as well, now trading those road miles to Coffee and Ware Counties for Glynn Academy and Brunswick as its most distant opponents.

“We’re definitely looking forward to getting back in the region, especially with Lakeside and Evans. We’ll still get to play Harlem and Grovetown with our non-region," Greenbrier athletic director Garrett Black said. "With the other part of the region, I know Lakeside and Evans have been in there the last two years, but we’ve been a part of it before, too. They’re good people at those schools, so we look forward to competing in this new region.”

Black also hinted at other possibilities to further lighten the travel load on programs within the region.

“We’re also going to discuss, possibly, with the exception of football, subdividing and then coming together with region tournaments," he said. "That would really cut down on travel, so that’s an option we’re going to look at as athletic directors once the region realignment gets approved by the Executive Committee.”

If Grovetown won its appeal, the Warriors would have likely found themselves in this region.

Region 4-AAA

Aquinas

Baldwin

Cross Creek

Harlem

Hephzibah

Howard

Richmond Academy

West Laurens

Westside

Perhaps the most glaring addition here is Aquinas. A staple of Class A, the Reclassification Committee granted its appeal to move up to Class 3A. On top of opening several new outlets of competition, the Aquinas-Harlem football rivalry just got that much bigger. According to Aquinas football coach and athletic director James Leonard, there were two factors that played into their appeal for Class 3A.

The first came with the decision to remove all private schools from Class A-D2. Aquinas was originally placed in a Class A-D1 region, but it would have the Fightin' Irish trekking across the state to face its region competition.

“The Single-A High region we were going to be put in was going to be unreal travel," Leonard said. "It was like over 1,000 miles combined. We’d be going to Macon some weeks, then turn around and go to Dublin and East Laurens and stuff like that. We just figured that wasn’t really an option for us as a school.”

Once that decision was made, the other came down to consistency of spring sports among Augusta's Class 2A schools.

“So then we sit down and look at all of our athletic programs, and the reason we didn’t want to do Double-A is because some of the Augusta Schools are kind of hit-or-miss with their spring sports," Leonard said. "Some don’t play tennis, some don’t play golf, some may not have enough to play baseball some years. Triple-A is pretty local besides Howard, Baldwin and West Laurens. That was much better and most of those teams field almost every spring sport. That was the reasoning behind that for us.”

Interestingly enough, Aquinas will face none of its public school region mates, as Class A-3A private and public schools will be in separate brackets for the state playoffs.

Westside is the other newcomer to the classification. Known for its boys' basketball dominance in Class 2A, the Patriots now find themselves competing with a powerful Cross Creek program.

Originally slated for Class 4A, the committee granted Richmond Academy's appeal to remain in 3A.

Region 4-AA

Burke County

Butler

Davidson Fine Arts*

Glenn Hills

AR Johnson*

Josey

Laney

Richmond County Technical Career Magnet*

Thomson

(* schools not playing football)

The big news here is Burke County’s drop all the way from Class 4A to 2A. It will be the first time in three years the Bears and Thomson call the same region home, bringing more luster to what many already consider to be the best football rivalry in the CSRA.

Cutting down on travel is perhaps the biggest immediate gain, according to Burke County athletic director Wade Marchman.

“We’re very excited about finally getting to play schools in our area. It will cut down on our travel so much, not having to go all the way to Savannah and Jesup," he said. "Getting to play the Augusta schools and Thomson will help us a lot and it will help our fans a lot not having to travel so far to watch the kids play.”

For Burke County, the possibility of moving down was always a welcomed possibility. They were one of the smaller Class 4A schools and now they'll see some familiar faces from their 3A days.

“We knew we would probably move down, but we didn’t know how far down," Marchman said. "When you really look at it, they’re taking away a classification. We’re really in our old AAA region with the way they’ve rearranged things. We’ve typically been one of the bigger schools in that classification and one of the smallest playing up.”

Burke County’s addition to the basketball scene will also be welcomed following Westside’s departure.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Aquinas, Westside, Burke County among area schools in new GHSA regions