Region Turns Kell, Sprayberry 180 Degrees

The new regions the Georgia High School Association announced Tuesday will turn and toward the north and east while keeping with most of the same schools.

The changes are part of the GHSA’s .

A primary reason for the GHSA's change is to cut travel time, the association says on its website. “The Reclassification Committee continued to emphasize that viewpoint by establishing sub-regions in nearly every region.”

It will be up to the principals of the high schools in each region to decide whether to compete based on those subregions or to play schedules across the full region.

There won’t be much reason for Lassiter to worry about subregions. Its new Region 5-AAAAAA is largely the same as its current 5-AAAAA.

The Trojans still are grouped with , , , and . is leaving the region, to be replaced by and , which have a history of being in a region with Cobb schools.

Subregions could come into play for Kell and Sprayberry when they join the new 11-school Region 7-AAAAA, which is largely a combination of their current Region 5-AAAA North and nearby Region 7-AAAA.

The new alignment cuts the Northeast Cobb schools' regional ties to the high schools to the west and south in Paulding and Douglas counties.

Instead, the Longhorns and Yellow Jackets will be in a subregion with Cobb schools and , plus in Sandy Springs and the new north Fulton high school, Cambridge.

The other subregion consists of Cherokee County’s and , , in Sandy Springs, and in Johns Creek.

Schools have until noon Dec. 16 to ask for a lateral move from Tuesday’s arrangement; the GHSA’s Reclassification Committee will hear those appeals Dec. 19. The new regions go into effect at the start of the 2012-13 school year.

What do you think of the new regions for the schools in Northeast Cobb?