In one sense, last week’s news from the GHSA was expected for Jones County.
With the total number of classifications going from six to seven, JCHS was projected to move up from AAAA to AAAAA. When last week’s tentative classification assignments were released, that’s just about where Jones County found itself.
Jones County’s reclassification count of 1,579, with none of those students being out of zone, placed it in the middle of AAAAA in terms of enrollment.
“That’s exactly where I thought we’d be,” Jones County Schools Director of Athletics Charles David said. “We had our coaches meeting last week, and I told them that’s about where I thought we were going to land, right in the middle of 5A.”
Another layer came on Monday for Jones County.
After a shuffling of teams in and out of classifications from adjusted numbers and appeals, two potential region teams, Central Macon and Mary Persons, shifted to lower classifications. Jones County did get a bit of good region news with proposed region alignments that will take go into effect next fall and be in place through 2028. Schools have until Nov. 16 to appeal their region assignments with appeals to be heard the following day.
Jones County will again be in a region of multiple Henry County schools. This time, however, there may be more balance than in the past. Along with Eagles Landing, Ola, Union Grove, and Locust Grove, Jones County would also joined in a seven-team region by two central Georgia schools — Warner Robins and Perry. It would be the most teams from central Georgia in a region for Jones County since 2015 when a region of Augusta-area teams included Northside, Warner Robins, and Houston County.
“That’s as good of region as we can ask for. The biggest thing is that we’re not stuck in a region with just Henry County schools. It’s kind of hard to have a say when you are pretty much going along with everything that Henry County does,” David said. “Now that you have Perry and Warner Robins, and even schools like Locust Grove and Ola that align with us, it’ll work out and be a pretty good region to work with.”
That proposal comes as ELCA, Hampton, Woodland, and McDonough are moved to lower classifications, giving JCHS fewer region opponents and more importantly, additional opportunities for non-region games. The past two football seasons only allowed for one non-region game. Under the proposed alignment, Jones County would instead have room for four.
A smaller region and the inclusion of Perry and Warner Robins would also add up to fewer confrontations with Henry County traffic.
