2024-25 RECLASSIFICATION
In the end, Jones County ended up in a region of Henry County schools after all.
Seeking to move to a region other than one made up of nine other teams from Henry County, JCHS appealed its region placement for the next two seasons to the GHSA during last week’s reclassification appeals, asking instead to play in GHSA Region 8-AAAA against teams such as Flowery Branch, East Forsyth and Madison County.
JCHS Athletic Director Chad Alligood presented the appeal to the committee, but the request was denied 15-1, firmly planting the Greyhounds in Region 2-AAAA for the next two years. Jones County’s appeal for a lateral transfer was of the three out of six from teams in AAAA that were denied.
“If you’ve never been to one of those (appeals), there’s a lot of backdoor talk, phone calls and text messages beforehand. People don’t realize the region you are trying to go into. They should not have a say-so, but they do with those on the committee,” Alligood said. “Pretty much what was told to me from those on the committee was that Region 8 did not want us. Historically, we have been all over the map region wise. We did what we could do, and that was all we can do.”
In the end, it means that the Greyhounds will have a region of closer travel than it would have had for a region toward southeast, west or northeast Georgia but less room for non-region games and less bargaining power for decision-making across the region.
“It’s like I told our coaches, we are where we are,” Alligood said. “Let’s go dominate the region.”
In football, for example, JCHS will only have one non-region game next year compared to the four it had this year. In basketball, this year’s schedule outside of tournaments is made up of 19 games. Under next year’s schedule, region games would command 18 of those dates.
“What it does is that with the games you have left to schedule, coaches will have to schedule games close to us, rivalry games and things that will bring fans,” Alligood said. “The worst thing you can do is play teams that won’t draw. It’s up to us to make our schedule as good as we can make it.”
Compared to the Greyhounds’ current region, it will lose Warner Robins and Dutchtown but gain Hampton, McDonough, Eagles Landing Christian, Stockbridge and Woodland Stockbridge.
It will be similar to what Jones County encountered in 2016 and 2017 in a nine-team region of eight Henry County Schools. That region included three teams that were not in the JCHS region this year but will be next year – Hampton, Stockbridge and Woodland. Other inbound teams will be McDonough and Eagles Landing Christian.
“The travel was never an issue. If you look at the travel, it’s where we need to be,” Alligood said. “On the bright side, we don’t have any long road trips. It’s what it is, and we’ll play where they put us.”
