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Districts to regions - An odd year to switch
In today's Georgia High School Association, nearly all changes are on a two-year cycle. Reclassification. State tournament setups. Most decisions affecting these are set up so they take place during the even, reclassification year.
One of the league's biggest changes, however, was done in an odd year - 1957. And some of the meat of the changes may not have been formalized until after the school year had begun.
The big change in 1957 was a shift for basketball and activities for Class B and C schools.
Prior to the 1957-58 school year, those two classifications had two sets of divisions. Much like areas for smaller sports, the GHSA had districts for its most popular sport of basketball.
The districts were easy to administer in that their borders were almost always the same. The reason for that was because the boundaries for the 10 districts were congressional districts.
In contrast to basketball, football for B and C used regions. Not every school played football, and in the case of Class C, even a shift from districts to regions still needed further tweaking because of the lack of football schools.
No big article has been found yet announcing the GHSA's plan to switch to regions for basketball, but is mentioned in the June 7, 1956 Macon News, along with other rules changes coming along for the 1956-57 season.
The decision also shows up in the league's "white book," the Constitution and By-Laws for 1956-57.
The 1956-57 "white book" said the switch would be the next year and already knew there would be four regions for Class B and eight for Class C.
Even more details are in the 1957-58 Constitution and By-Laws.
The Constitution and By-Laws article, From The Secretary's Desk detailed the changes. No author is given, but it was possibly GHSA executive secretary himself, Sam Burke.
"This will present no change in Class AAA, Class AA and Class A as the region setup operated for these classifications last year. In these classifications the region program which operated last year will continue.
"In Class B the setup will be that of the Class B football regions of 1955-56. This will present very slight changes which will be made by adding to these regions the non-football playing schools in the respective areas.
"In Class C except for football there will be eight regions with the Class C schools grouped in these regions for all activities and athletics except football. It was not possible to place the football regions in Class C within the 8 region program due to the distribution of schools.
"The football for Class C will operate on the basis of the same four football regions as last year.
"Early in the Fall it will be necessary to revise and complete the region organization in Class B and Class C. For the B this will mean a meeting for all of the schools in the region so as to provide the necessary officers and representatives to the State Executive Committee. The Chairmen of the respective Class B football regions will call the meeting for the regions.
"For the Class C regions it will be necessary to set up in each region a regional organization similar to the previous district organization and to elect a member of the State Executive Committee from each region. The State Executive Secretary-Treasurer will designate a person in each Class C region to act as temporary chairman and to call a meeting of the region."
The November 3, 1957, Macon Telegraph and News said Sam Jones was elected president of the new Region 4-C. Twenty schools were to be in 4-C that season, coming from old districts 3 and 4.
So how late were the new regions set up? It seems like the news of the new way did not trickle into the public mind until right at the start of basketball season.
The Fort Valley Leader-Tribune claimed in the December 12 edition that the decision was recent, though it had been announced 18 months earlier.
Probably some of the finer points of the new basketball system were not known. The Leader-Tribune was particularly pleased that regions automatically received two representatives at the state tournament. The Congressional districts had only been permitted one, unless it was a particularly large region. In that case, the district runner-up went to state as well.
Fort Valley's old district, District 3, was a one-representative one for 1956-57, when the Green Wave boys finished second to Perry at the district tournament and thus missed state.
Why the switch does not seem to have been explained by the GHSA. We can speculate, of course. As put succinctly in the November 21, 1957 Houston Home Journal:
"The dwindling number of Class B schools in the Third District and a desire to get all athletics on a uniform region basis has caused the Georgia High School Athletic Association to change the basketball set-up."
Perry, Fort Valley basketball arch-rival to the point that the two teams had a temporary ban on playing each other beginning in 1949, suddenly had the stakes changed.
Fort Valley was a 3-B school for basketball and Perry went to 2-B. "[T]he complexion of the tournament will be considerably changed," said the November 21 Home Journal.
Schools were shifting, as the Home Journal said. This was both in average daily attendance and merely existing. The state of Georgia was deep into a massive school-building effort, which strongly believed in consolidation.
The GHSA did not print regions in the Constitution and By-Laws during the 1950s, probably at least in part because of the speed of the consolidations. In an extreme example, when East Laurens High's building was completed in April 1956, students moved in immediately from Condor and Brewton-Wilkes.
For the 1957-58 school year alone, Central Gwinnett, Crisp County, Dodge County, East Hall, North Hall, South Gwinnett, South Hall, Turner County, Washington-Wilkes and West Gwinnett opened as consolidated high schools.
Schools known to have closed because of these and other consolidations that year were Air Line, Arabi, Ashburn, Chauncey, Chester, Clermont, Cordele, Dodge High, Duluth, East Crisp, Eastman, Grayson, Lawrenceville, Lowery, Lula, Lyman Hall, Norcross, Oakwood, River Bend, Snellville, Statham, Sycamore, Tate, Tignall, Washington and West Crisp.
In addition, Sandy Springs opened that year because of growth in North Fulton.
Why the GHSA acted during an odd-numbered year is unknown, but it could have been influenced by the amount of big building projects finishing up. Gwinnett and Hall were especially massive. As soon as work began on each of the buildings, the league knew it would be about a year later when they would be ready for use.
1957-58 might have been the year with the most high school changes in GHSA. It came on the heels of very busy years of 1955 and 1956. The congressional district system could easily handle the changes, but it had its flaws.
District 5-C was occasionally mocked when it came time for basketball state tournaments. Like an old English "rotten borough," it had representation despite having few members.
The district was an Atlanta-area district. Even before Metro Atlanta fully began booming after World War II, there were not many Class C schools in its borders.
In the late 1940s, all Mansfield had to do was field a team. It was the only Class C school in District 5. When Newton County consolidated its high schools in 1949, 5-C had no one for years, though somehow Roswell was small enough to fall into that category for 1956-57.
Roswell made the 1957 boys and girls Class C state tournaments because it was the only school; no district tournament was needed or played. That was the last time the GHSA would have a district or region that small.
The 5-C issue might have possibly figured into the thinking of why the GHSA acted in 1957-58 instead of waiting a year.
Both counties with massive building projects, Gwinnett and Hall, were in the same area, District 9.
Now, had 9-C continued as usual for the 1957-58 tournaments, there would have been teams. Two of its new consolidated schools South Gwinnett and West Gwinnett remained in Class C for that year, but there would have been much fewer schools.
West Gwinnett moved to Class B for 1958-59, even as its consolidation failed. When it opened for 1957-58, Norcross and Duluth were combined. Duluth raised enough of a ruckus that it was permitted to be its own high school the next year. South Gwinnett also jumped to Class B in 1958.
Before their 1957 consolidations, the county schools of Hall County were all tiny. North Hall opened as a Class B, but East Hall and South Hall had enough students to be AA schools from the start.
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