November 15, 2025 • 49 mins
Coach Parker and Curt Miller discuss reclassification that occurs every 2 years in the Georgia High School Association. Dr. Miller is the leader of the Reclassification committee.
This episode covered several key topics related to Georgia high school sports reclassification:Main Discussion Areas:
This episode covered several key topics related to Georgia high school sports reclassification:Main Discussion Areas:
- Reclassification Process Overview: How the GHSA Executive Committee works, with each region electing representatives who make rules (not the state office)
- Power Rankings Implementation: Extension of power rankings from A-3A to all classifications (A-7A), with 1-32 rankings across all classes
- Classification Changes: Renaming of divisions (bringing back 7A name while maintaining 7 total classifications)
- Current Cycle Specifics: 11 months of committee work, competitive balance considerations, multipliers, and out-of-district enrollment rules
- Pod System Proposal: Geographic grouping of schools across classifications to reduce travel and isolation issues
- Scheduling Flexibility: Allowing schools to schedule games across classification levels within pods
- Formula Refinement: Potential adoption of Maxwell power ranking formula over current PSR system
- Appeals process and regional balancing challenges
- Minimum 9-game requirement for power ranking eligibility
- Region champion safeguards (guaranteed top-16 placement)
- Geographic considerations vs. competitive balance
- Travel and isolation issues for rural schools
- Guaranteed game scheduling
- Executive committee representation
- Maintaining rivalries while improving equity
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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is sid services dot com. All right, I'm please be
joined by my friend Kurt Miller. Doctor Kurt Miller, you
got a lot of titles my friends on to give
me a minute. This is the Athletic rerecord ok Coney
Uny High School, but also serves as JHSA President. He's
(01:14):
leader of vice president, leader and leader of the reclass Committee.
So doctor Miller, thanks for joining me. Great to be
on with you, sir, so we'll get right into it
reclassification time. And for my friend, you know, I know
this is hard to believe, Kurt, but we have a
decent number of people listening to this and the stats
show us that about half the people are from Georgia,
(01:36):
in about half aren't. So for those of you a
disclaimer that aren't from Georgia. We're going to talk about
a lot of Georgia reclassification tonight, but it may be
interesting to you from another state, but a lot of
Georgia talk today as doctor Miller heads up our reclassification
committee in Georgia with the JSA. So let's talk about
I found this in my second world here away from sports,
(01:57):
and I do this for fun. A lot of coaches,
a lot of athletic directors don't quite understand this process.
They think they do. They complain about it, they talk
to people about it, but they say the GHSA said this,
or the GHSA ruled this, or and they don't realize
they sent those people. The GHSA is them, you know.
(02:20):
So let's talk a minute about the process to how
you get an executive committee of the Georgia High School
Association and then how that group becomes a reclass there's
a group of those people that become the reclassification committee
that you had.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So anybody could.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Come up to you and said, what does that, how
does that even happen? What would you tell them?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Right? So, basically, what we're doing now, we're reclassing and uh,
at the end of this, we'll we'll have our regions. Right,
and so every spring, the GHSA charges each region to
come up with the President, vice President, the region officers.
But one of those officers is the GHSA Executive Committee rep.
And so basically that's like a state rep. A senator.
(03:03):
You know, someone that you have in your own area
where you live, but this person represents your region. You
then become a voting member on anything that gets brought
up to the state Executive Committee. And we have two
formal meetings. We have one in the spring, one in
the fall. This year, obviously we'll have a third one
to ratify the new regions that we're going through right now,
(03:23):
we'll do that right after Thanksgiving. But those individuals, they're
the ones that make up the White Book or the constitution,
and it goes back years past. The membership makes the rules,
the State Office is there to enforce the constitution. And
I know that, you know, I catch myself going down
(03:44):
some rabbit holes of you know, the State Office getting
trashed from use. You know, I could use a better
term there probably, But they're just enforcing the membership. You know,
voted inn and so the State Office does a lot
of good work. They do a lot of tough work.
They don't get the credit that they deserve. But they're
not the ones that are making up the rules. It's
(04:06):
the membership and the people that are elected from the
regions are the ones that make those rules. Now I
will say this too. There are some at large members
of the Executive Committee and it's your letter groups, your GACA,
your ga DA, those executive directors, your gassp rep state
superintendents on there.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So you know that's a handful of people though they
can't and so to reiterate your point, and this is
to anybody that wasn't following. If we said if I
was a coach, and I used to be one, and
I used to say dumb things, so and I wanted
to say the GHSA, the State Office, the old guys
up there that coached a long time ago, and the
(04:44):
old superintendents. All those guys made these dumb transfer rules
that would be inaccurate, that would be an actually correct,
that would be inaccurate correct whatever. I'm not saying they're dumb.
I'm just saying, and that's what's saying. But whatever rule
we came up with that you don't like, there's you know,
(05:06):
sixty or seventy people that voted on that, and one
of them was from your region. Now, your region might
have voted no, and might you might have wanted to
say yes or vice versa. But I'm just reiterating that
to even move on Kirk, because I found that that's
the biggest hurdle when I'm trying to explain to somebody
that this isn't like the principle. Doctor Tim Scott, the
(05:27):
current execut director, he's not the principal. He doesn't sit
up there and make all the rules right, and you're
the assistant president. It's not like that he has to
just enforce whatever. Actually, I've been around doctor Hines and
doctor Scott when sometimes they probably didn't agree with the
rule that the whole committee passed, and then they spent
the entire year getting criticized for it and having to
(05:49):
enforce it.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Right, Yes, yes, that has happened.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
So I mean, I just want to explain that. I
hope we didn't lose anybody in that process if they
already knew all that. But I want to explain that
because any rule we're gonna talk about reclassication today, but
any rule which could be transfers or it could be
you know, some other eligibility or rules like heated heat index, right,
things like that, they're going to come to you guys
(06:13):
as a big, big committee. They may start in a
small committee, go to the big hole executive committee, and
that whole group has to vote on it or it's
not happening. That is correct, Okay, So for reclass in
this year, we would take some people from that executive committee.
So every region sent there one person. We would get
(06:34):
a group of those people and they would form a
committee among them called the reclassification committee. And you're now
the leader of that. How about how many people serve
on that?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
We were eighteen?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Okay, so eighteen of those people are going to serve
on that committee and tell us a little bit about
how that process works. So usually there is a so
the state, you know, back in the day, you edge
North your North state champion, South state champion.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
They played well. We still kind of divide one through
four being in the South and five through eight being
in the north. So basically every classification has one rep
from the North and the South, so the North and
the South is represented in every classification. And then there's
also some large members that are on that. And then
(07:22):
obviously doctor Scott is in there with it, and then
you know, Marvin's takes the minutes, and then Don corr
is the one who is in charge of placing the
schools in the regions. When I took over that, however
many moons ago, that was that was the first thing
we did was get rid of the committee actually placing
the schools just because there's too much that could go
(07:44):
wrong there and we think that the state office doing
it is probably the best way to go about that.
But what that committee would do is talk about and
then we're past this now, but we're gonna talk about
next time in a minute. So hanging there, we got
some really good ideas coming me and Kurt back here
in a minute. So I just want to set what
you can and can't do, because I found I'm telling
(08:04):
you people's biggest error is not understanding what they can
and cannot influence. And so that group would talk about
some maybe different ideas, right, So you could propose competitive
balance is something we heard.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
You could propose a multiplier. You could propose, you know,
some other variation of upper and lower divisions, or do
we go to seven classes or six or eleven or
fourteen or power rankings and like all those are things
that are you your committee could discuss and come up
with a recommendation to that whole executive committee.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Correct. That is correct, and that is something that we
started this past January and we probably met more over
a longer period of time than reclass ever has met.
And obviously you mentioned one proposer that was out there
with competitive balance, and there's some you know, some other
things than that people wanted to see. And this time
(09:03):
power rankings was the big, the big change statewide. You
know A through three A is doing it currently, but
now we're going A through seven A and that'll be
doing power rankings next year. And you know, we can
talk a little bit more about that later. But that's
correct that the reclass committee comes up with the guidelines
and procedures of the reclass cycle, right, and then you
(09:26):
mentioned this already, But then you guys come up with
some parameters.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
The state, the Department of Education, puts people in. They
have an FTE number. They give you a list. So
if you guys decided the top twenty percent are going
to be this or the top fifty schools or whatever
it is, then they give you the list of who
those people are. And then you just cut it off.
There's really nothing you can do there, and then people
can appeal they don't like their classification. But then the
(09:51):
GHSA office and you already said this once, but I'm
highlighted again in the process. Now it's not the reclass
committee who were all representing schools too.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
In regions, we give it to the office, the state office,
and they put Region six as these teams. Reagion seven
is these teams, Reagon eight is these teams. And then
people can appeal that and that's the entire process and
then it starts over again. So did I miss anything?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
No, And you know you mentioned the FTE and then
schools are responsible for reporting they're out of district number.
And I think that that's been a challenge too, is
people understanding how to come up with your out of
district number, and I think that that's not I don't
think that's people not you know, wanting to have fidelity
with that job. I think there's just a lot of
people that transition in and out of a D roles,
(10:39):
transition in and out of principal and central office roles,
and I think sometimes there's just new people doing it
and there's some confusion and maybe we could do a
better job on our end and reclass it's putting out
some information exactly how to you know, a video or something,
just exactly how to count you're out of district number.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
So for people listening to understand that or from another state,
in the state of Georgia, you have to say, how
many kids in your school your high school, uh, don't
live in that school district? And that may be teachers, kids,
it may be people you take some tuition. You have
a different rule where you let people come in and
you guys came up with the rule last time, because
it's where I think it's I think I got this right,
(11:16):
correct me if I don't. But if they were like
fifth grade or below there you don't have to count
on is that right?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah? So if they came into your your school feet
or pattern in fifth grade or below, they do not
count against you. If they came above that, they do.
If they're active military, they and they live out of
district and go to your school, they do not count.
And then if the parent is a teacher at the
high school that that kid's high school and they live
out of district, they don't count. Now if they're at
(11:44):
the middle school, the elementary school, or the district office,
if they teach in the district, they got to count.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
If it's another school, but it's got to be at
that it's got to be at that high school, and
that is something that's a little unique. And then they
take that number and then multiply times three. So if
you had ten out of district kids, they have to
count as thirty. So if you had one thousand other
kids ony and ten total kids, you would count as
one one thousand and thirty, right, And that's.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
The center that you've got your fte number, And so
they're already in there once and so you just doubled
that out of district number, and.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
That's even better. Yeah, yeah, even better. Yeah. So talk
a little bit about this time. It was trying to
be pretty generic just to kind of paint a picture.
But now let's talk about this time. And you said
you guys met a lot. Obviously this is really hot
right now because we just came out with classes and
regions within the last seven days of us recording this.
(12:38):
So what was the what is something you want people
to know as they pulled up this form and looked
at their region, And of course they're going to have
questions and their own criticism, But as somebody that's been
working on this for eleven months, eleven months, y'all been
working on this, what's something that we want to know
(12:59):
about this Pacific time?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, so there were there was an appetite two by
the larger schools to to look at to look at
the power ranking and and how could we do that,
you know, across the board but not use the region
final standings one, two, three, four. And I think we
(13:22):
were able to do that, you know, I think what
we did this current this current cycle with the regions
and the ones and the twos and everybody getting certain
places in the bracket. And when the power when the
private schools got pulled out, what she ended up fighting
out was the top left bracket was super strong and
and a lot of a lot of regions faced off
in the first or second round, and including us last year.
(13:44):
You know, but it is what it is. I mean,
we were complaining about it. It's just that's just kind
of how it fell. So I think going one through
thirty two, it's going to be something that people are
going to be excited about. We still have not nailed
down the formula. That's something I want to make sure
it's clear to everybody. We're not hung on the PSR.
I've spoken to Todd Holkm and they've got the Maxwell
(14:05):
rankings and they put something out in the Georgia High
School and I send it to doctor Scott and I'm
actually gonna get that out to the reclass committee tomorrow
for us to discuss Monday when we have our our
region appeals. Because if there, if that formula is better
and can account more for what we're doing versus PSR,
than we want to use it. We want to use
(14:25):
the best formula that's out there, not just something we're
comfortable with. I think when you do that, you set
yourself up for some issues and some concerns. And I'll
be honest with you. I think George has got the
best athletics in the country, and we need to make
sure we're doing what's best for our membership and our
student athletes and taking a look at that. I mean
Todd and those guys that I mean, they've gone through
(14:46):
it with a fine tooth comb and they swear by it,
and so I think that's something we need to take
a look at. But for this time, the Power rankings
has been the big every every classification going one through
thirty two. And then I saw a lot of stuff
as man, they just got rid seven A one the
world are they bringing it back? And yes, we're bringing
the number back, But we didn't add any classifications. We
(15:07):
did was single A was divided up into Division two
and Division three, and we basically just made them A
and double A. So whoever is double A right now?
Your triple A. So seven A is the current six
A group. So nobody.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
We didn't add a CLA seven classifications correct. I actually
had to have a conversation with a board member about this.
I got a text like hear we were going up.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I had to know, ma'am, you.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Know we are.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yes, that is true, it's one A higher, but you know,
I had to explain there was you know, there's seven
classifications last year, there'll be seven classifications next year. Were
just calling them a little bit different. It's a little easier.
I preferred this way, by the way. I appreciate you
doing that, because I didn't love those divisions single A,
double A, triple A for you know what I mean whatever.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I would get confused on them, just to be quite honest.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
So I like that better. That's gonna be the same.
And power rankings were the thing. And what I I
heard you say to clarify for anybody listening, power rankings
are happening one to thirty two, all seven classes. But
the formula is not nailed down exactly. The formula we
used this year is not necessarily what we're guaranteed to
use next year. When would you have to make a
(16:15):
final decision on that, like at the January meeting.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Well, we're gonna we're gonna meet uh at the end
of November early December to ratify everything, and I think
we'll have enough information by then to do it. I
think we got everything we need now. It's just finding
time when you're not hearing appeals from from from nine
eighty get to uh F thirty, you know, but that's
that's what we signed up for. You know. It was
(16:40):
it was a long day, but it was fun. But
I think within that time frame, hopefully Monday, we'll have
time to sit down and look at it, and I'll
have some more time to get on the phone with
Todd and doctor Scott can talk.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
To DoD and and uh, who's the guys, Lauren Max? Listen,
Lauren Maxwell is where Todd's getting pod and Laura Maxwell.
I mean, for what it's worth my opinion, it shouldn't
matter too much, But for what it's worth, I agree.
By the way, I love Power rankings. I swear by him,
just like Todd Holcomb. Todd's my friend. I don't know
how he does them. I don't know how it works.
I don't understand the formula, but I know that they
(17:13):
are accurate when they go a little deeper, if that
makes sense, and that Maxwell formula goes a little deeper,
because you did. We did have a couple issues this year.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
One was with the like you said, the bracket, it's
where that eight seed or that nine seed was actually
really really good because of how the rules we can
and then the second thing was you would have and
I know Southeast Bullock Jared Zido, great dudes, a friend
of ours, uh was the coach there. They felt like
they'd beaten the team had the same record. And there
is some things that when you don't go real deep
(17:43):
into power ranks, you just go opponent's record and opponents
of opponent's record, it's like going to be like ninety
percent efficient, you know, and it does suck for the
few teams that you felt like had a good argument.
But if you go a little deeper, you know, those
guys do swear that it gets the best teams in.
And that's what everybody wants, the best team in, right,
that's all you want.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
That's right, And and you know, not not getting too
deep in the Southeast Bullock thing, but there's gonna be
times mother nature takes over and there is only nine
games or whatever, and you know, if we've got a
formula that can that can help us, you know, get
the right teams in, that's what we need to do.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Is there any advantage? Is there any worry about there
being an advantage to scheduling nine games? Let's talk about
like Grayson and Milton and Colquook County or I don't know.
I'm just throwing names out there, Buford that just have
a hard time scheduling games, but they haven't had to
live in a power incing system thing before. Is there
any benefit to them playing less games?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Well, I'll be honest as an Now you're only going
to have when you're you're only going to have four
home games. So we'll make sure we're playing playing ten games.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
But but you wouldn't have to write that in right
like you? That's what I guess I'm asking is that
the type of thing you would have to talk about
eventually on like you have to play this many games
or you can't because of the weather and things like that.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Right, Yeah, we approved nine games? Is the minimum you
have to play nine? Yeah? That that got approved that
the last executive could be mean, so you've got to
play nine to get in. Now, if something were to happen,
obviously everything can be appealed, whether you know, just situations
that are out of control of the schools. I mean,
those are gonna be taken into consideration. But we feel that,
(19:28):
you know, something, something will come up.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So before we get into our the thing everybody will
to hear, which is all our scenarios of what ought
to happen, be like those two old guys on the Muppets.
You ever seen the Muppets and two old guys that
sit up in the balcony and tell everybody what they
ought to be doing that time's coming. So let's talk
about these appeals. Now, when I first started coaching, I
don't remember there being appeals, and if there was, nobody
(19:53):
hardly did them or they all got denied. And now
it is a little more customary for people to appeal.
And my stance on that, for what it's worth is
I'm kind of okay with it, Like like I feel like
it's kind of cool. You come up with these things
like a multiplier, You come up with these things that
are going to be ninety percent efficient, and if you
think you're one of the ten percent inefficient, then appeal.
(20:13):
I know all you does just make for a long
day for you. But can you explain anybody listening kind
of what you're so people appeal for their classification this week?
What is kind of some generic things you're listening for
as you hear their appeal, just so they know if
they're wasting their time or not next time.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, I mean, I think I think any school that
feels like they should be in another region, I mean,
I think they owe it to their community. I'm not
gonna sit here and tell you everybody in the world
should come upill because I don't want to. You know,
it'll be a long day. But but you know, I
think if you look at travel, I think you look
at where what region have you traditionally been in? You
(20:54):
know that might that might be something you want to
want to argue and come appeal. You know, I think
that the travel piece is usually it. Some people will
come in and upheal gate revenue. You know, those are
just some things we've had in the past, and you know,
we really do try to take that into consideration. Somebody
wants to leave a region that's already small, you know,
how is that going to impact if we allow them
(21:15):
to move, How is that going to pack the region
they're leaving, Because finding a game in week six, just
a non region game is going to be next to impossible.
And and we just, you know, we just try to
take all that into consideration. And what does not This
doesn't come into play all the time, but what does
the region leaving think or the region they're leaving, think,
and what is the region they want to go to? Think?
(21:36):
I mean, there's there's just a lot of variables that that.
You know, every situation, especially in this one, situations are
always different.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I'm going to get a chance to say, like you said,
I think it's I think it's good. They get a
chance to say their piece. I mean, many will get denied,
but that's okay. Some will get hurt and or some
will get approved. So along that line, power rankings are
a big deal. We're getting to where we want to
get to here. The power rankings are a big deal.
(22:06):
Help me understand the thing I've probably heard the most
that actually is a valid question. If power rankings are
determining one to thirty two, why do I need a
region period? Why do I even bother appealing with you?
Why can't I just go schedule some games and you
guys figure out how good I am by those power rankings.
See if I make the playoffs? Why do we still
(22:28):
need that whole process for regions?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, Chris, and I'll be honest, you and I talked
about this the other day, but I agree with you,
young percent. I don't think number one, I'm not really
sure we the state the membership. Whoever was ready for
one through thirty two power rankings and no regions in
one year. I don't think that that. I just don't
(22:51):
think we can. We can, you know, get all that accomplished,
but I think we how that model did not work?
And then look at one through thirty two hopefully this model.
I think this model is going to work. And then
start the discussion of if I'm going to force teams
to be power ranked, then why am I locking them
in to five or six teams or seven teams or
(23:13):
eight teams that they've got to play when at the
end of the day it really doesn't matter. We can
go to pods or go to some system and like, again,
this is not I don't have anything you know, ironed
out and finalized, but you know, could we do pods
to where you know, schools are grouped in a certain
area and it's A through seven A schools and you're
charged to go get games and maybe in your class
(23:34):
you have to find four games in the class above you,
one in the class below you two. You know, we'd
have to figure out seven day with that situation. But
there's got to be a way to guarantee games in
a pod system to where you can help build your
own power ranking versus being told this is who you
have to play like we do in the regions right now,
because some state, some parts of the state are stronger
(23:55):
in some sports versus the other sports. And when you
lock in those teams in and you're really you're really
kind of hurting the power ranking in a way. You
can still always go pick up a strong football team
because right now, you know, if you've got a strong region,
you might not want to run from it because it's
gonna help you in your power ranking.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And you wouldn't make that determination. So I love this
pod idea, by the way, That's one of the main
reasons we're talking tonight. I love this idea. So I
use a South Georgia example, and then I use a
North Jordan. So like Thomas County Central is really good, right,
like State Champ good. Right, they're in six there, there'll
be in the next class like six a out of seven.
(24:36):
But if in a pod system, a lot of those
teams would all be kind of grouped together. So like
Lownes Valdosta, call quit Thomas King Central, you know whoever
else is in that top few classes and they could
all play each other if they felt like it, or
they could go find whoever. Because Thomas k central I
got news for coach Rogers. There ain't a lot of
people lining up to play them, right, They ain't getting
(24:59):
four or five more games, and then they're those poor
teams that are playing them in the region from out
Albany or Houston County or someone they don't you know,
that's a long way too. So now they can choose
if they play them, or in North Georgia, we can
have Lumpkin County in two A and Fannin County in
single A and Pickens in three A or whatever it is,
(25:21):
and we can all play each other because it's right
down the street. And maybe it helps our gate but
also maybe it helps our powering. But for us sometimes
maybe it just helps people get a win.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
But if you put Pickens in the region in south
in Atlanta, or you put Lumpkin Counties the only I
think Lumpkins the only Mountain school in their class, they
have to go kind of away. Then they miss out
on those things and they may miss out on some
winning too. Is that and that's what you're saying right
it is.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
And I you know, I think back of Town's county
and all the driving they've been having to do. You know,
a pod system helps them out. Yeah, they're they're playing
with all the schools up in the mountains and they're
not having to drive quite as far, but they're still
working on their power ranking and they're still going to
be in that same state tournament, same.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
State tournament, right, so they wouldn't be in the other
mountain school state tournament, and they would have the luxury
if they wanted to go drive everywhere like they are
right now. They could because they could schedule games however
they want. You would just instead of a region, you
would give them a region based on more geography in
general sense of I know North Carolina did a up
(26:22):
and I think one time you guys looked at some
upper and lower thing where it's like less classes, but
there was an upper and lower division or something. ELI
had a I think a little small and small sixty
big sixty, and I think he's gonna bring that back
next time. And uh, like I said, there were a
lot of good proposals, and you know, I just I
just think when when you're looking at at the travel
(26:45):
and that always seems to come up. But you're you know,
the pod system again, there's a lot of there's a
lot of things that have to be ironed out with
that and guaranteeing games. You know, you mentioned Thomas County, Central,
you think Lee County, you think Brooks County.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
You think somebody want to play, who's gonna want? You
know what I'm saying, there's got to be mandates on
games that they This is how it's got to happen.
And I don't know what that is right now. It's
just an idea and I'm sure we come up with
some with some you know, rules and policies and all
that stuff, but there's got to be something that we
can because this state is so it is so different
(27:20):
in every corner, in every area of the state. I
mean it's you've got large school in the South, You've
got a ton of schools in the in the north
central Atlanta area. Then you've got your Mountain schools, you
got Augusta, you got Columbus. I mean, you just got
pockets that just have a lot of schools, and you've
got a lot of rural areas where there's only one
school and the next closest schools an hour and a
half away.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
And when you say, in your fifteen to twenty years
of being around this that travel and isolation is the
biggest thing you've heard. Like, even if it's true or not,
they may be using it for a reason to do
something else. But the thing you hear is we're out
here all by ourself in East Georgia, South Georgia. Well,
that eliminate some of that, you know, because they could
(28:01):
play the classification above and below them. And the only
answer I could find to the question why do I
need a region is guaranteed games. Yeah, I mean that's
really the only thing I can think.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
There's only one other, and it would be how are
we gonna how are we going to fill the executive
committee because they are Yeah, that would be only too
that I could I can immediately think of.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Even in that pod, if you had if you had
half the pods, you send two people, you know, or
something like that, if you had half the pods that
we have regions now you just everyone send two people
or you know, something like that. But yeah, that there's
some stuff to iron out there. But I think what
I'm hearing from you and I want to talk about
this was It's a long process. It's been a long
(28:46):
process for you, I know, going back to ten years
ago to getting as much equity as we could. We're
not going to talk about private public stuff today, but
I know y'all get hammered for that, right, I mean,
I know that's the thing. They both got valid points.
But I do know that Fannin County won the girls
state basketball championship this year and Union played for the
(29:07):
boys championship. Like those kind of things never happen up
here in my way. So and they had generational teams.
They had generational teams. Their Union will never have probably
never have another basketball team like that, but they had
one and they made it to the state championship game.
So I commend you guys for that. Man, that was great. Now,
in addition to all that, it's been a process to
(29:28):
get there. Now, it's a process with these power rankings.
So step one is to put it in triple A
to single A, which you'd done last time. Step two
is put it in all the classes, which we're doing now.
And step three is to figure out how we can
schedule better and travel better, travel less and more efficiently
if you want and not let one school with twelve
(29:50):
hundred kids and another one with eleven fifty, but they're
right under the cutoff and now they feel like they
can't play each other and they're right down the road,
right yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And that and that's you know, and that's been the
way it's been. But you know, that's okay, this is
the way it's been. But there's also nothing wrong with
looking and trying to change that mindset of that of
that piece of it and looking at a different way
to save the travel. You know. I just think there's
a way to do that and everybody can, you know,
(30:22):
kind of play together and maybe we keep some of
the same rules we have right now when it comes
to the state tournament, but getting to the state tournament
could look a lot different.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
I think that's an important note. All those teams we
mentioned go to their state tournament. They were assigned Mama's County,
Central or Lee County. You know, they're all going to
wherever they were assigned. The POD system allows them to
have a bigger region. Think of eything like the SEC.
You know, the SEC got what sixteen teams now, yeah,
but you only play eight games. So Texas has got
(30:50):
a different schedule than Uga, than Alabama and everybody's got me.
Some years it's your year and some years it's not.
But you're going to play eight of these sixteen teams, right,
there's this sixteen team pod in the SEC, and you're
not going to play all. They don't even do East
and West anymore. It's just sixteen straight teams. You know,
You've got a couple of guarantees, right, and everything else
just rotates. Is that kind of what what you would
(31:15):
envision something like that?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, I mean I'm thinking, you know, and again this
is all I don't want the people listening and thinking
that this is how it's going to be, because it's not.
I mean, this is something that we're kind of years
out now. Yeah. Yeah, you think about it and then
but you're right in the middle of this current reclass
and you've got to make sure this one gets done.
So you haven't put a lot of thought into it.
But you know, you've got forty fifty schools that are
(31:37):
in a pod, and you know, maybe there are some
ground rules that that maybe there is an automatic schedule
that's set when you've got your smaller schools and you
look at them, one you know, a through three and
then maybe four through seven. You know, maybe those are
the ones that you have to get six or seven
football games from and then you can you can mix
it up however you want to for the other three.
(31:59):
I don't know what that looks like, but I think
there's a way to do that to help your travel,
to help your gates, to keep your rivalries, to help isolation.
I mean, I think right now, Augusta, they could have
one heck of a pot over there with all of
their schools and they don't have to worry about coming
this way unless they want it to.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Yeah, because they also to keep all the options. There'd
be a couple of games they could come if they
wanted to, so it's not limiting them.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Yeah, but their parents aren't gonna have to worry about
driving to to Rockdale County or Atlanta. They can go
right go right down the street and watch them play
on the way. Game versus what's you know happened in
the past.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Same thing in Savannah, same thing even that all the
period Columbus. Yeah, I mean that's what I'm saying here,
though I can't take isolation is the main thing people
complain about. That is a valid point I mean, people
complain about a lot of things, but I feel like
that's the most valid point. When you're a Columbus team,
you're the only one in four A and you're in
(32:56):
an eight or nine team region, so you don't even
get to pick up many games, and you're going every
week to South Georgia somewhere. That's a problem. And so yeah,
I think that's the move. So what else could be
something on the horizon, Like what else have you heard?
What do you know other states do that That could
(33:18):
be something that would come up in a reclass model
and the connects say five years or six years.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, you know, I think the things that were brought
up this year will probably come back, which is fine,
you know, you want to have healthy discussions on everything.
But I really do think with the power rankings, I
think that's a game changer to where we really have
to think differently on how we do our regions or
if we do regions. I think that's gonna be the
next step. And I know everybody thinks, my gosh, I'll
(33:44):
charge y'all change everything every two years. But I don't
think change is bad. I think change in if you're
if you're headed down the right way, and you're building
on top of things that you've done in the past,
like we're doing with this power ranking the power ranking system.
You know, now we're looking at what do we do
with regions. I think that's a natural you know, you're
(34:06):
naturally falling right into where it's going to help all
schools and they're all going to benefit from it from
you know, versus you hurting schools with weak or reach
so called weaker regions or schools with fewer schools in
the region where they're free to go get schedule whoever
they want, versus a region that's locked in with nine
and now they're limited to maybe those nine or though
I guess those eight. If there's nine in there and
(34:28):
then only two pickup games and so there's a disadvantage there.
But if you're not locked into regions, then you don't
have that.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
So and that's why I think we are going to
have if you go on through thirty two, you've got
to think a little out of the box to really
get it all the way fixed, which is you know,
maybe sometimes a five to ten year process, but you
do have to figure that out and then put them
in a ranking. We do have the capability now to
do that. And this isn't all sports. I mean, I assume,
I guess not wrestling, and I'm sure there's some other
(34:56):
sports where they don't, but.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
It's just the bracketed sports. Yeah, excuse me, the Power
rank sports. It won't be everybody, but like team sports. Yeah.
One thing I do want to add about the Power
rankings too is I want to make sure they understand
that even though it's one through thirty two, we do
have a safeguard end for region champions, so if they
fall outside the top sixteen, they are automatically brought to
(35:21):
the sixteenth spot, so they're guaranteed at least to host
one game. Yeah, so we made that was important too.
I remember that was the one thing that everybody was
concerned about, that the region champions should be rewarded with
two or one home hosting opportunities. And I think that's fair.
That's you're talking minimal movement, and in A through three
a this past year, I think I went back and
(35:42):
counted twelve times in all Power Rank sports that that
would have happened. So that's not a lot in the
grand scheme of things.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
I'll tell you another story to take with you about
power rankings. So our softball team played in the second
round of the playoffs at Long County in ludah Wiss, Georgia. Okay,
let me tell you how many people in the Pickens
County knew where Ludawi See.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Georgia was zero?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Okay. They didn't even know what direction to go to
get to Long County until they put it in the GPS.
We went. I mean, I actually I did actually go
to that only went to a few games this year,
but I went down that day. Our superintendent went to.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Most of them.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
It was great, Like are people love? Mean? You know,
like I mean, you've seen a bunch of Georgia you
never seen before. I mean I'd never been there. I
saw Coach Feaster, my man. You know, it was a
good time. I kind of like like going and seeing
some places you hadn't seen. I mean, what grown people,
our whole fan base, parents, I'm telling you, none of
them knew where that place was. And you know, the
(36:48):
people were really nice. We had two good games, you know,
and they didn't know anybody from the North Georgia Mountains.
Like it was nice.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
I agree, you know. Before I came to Coney, you know,
I'm my dad was a basketball legend, and we knew
about the Hart County girls teams that won all those
state championships. Well, we host or they host us in football,
and that's where our football team's dressing. So I get
to walk in the gym that the Hart County Lady
Bulldogs won all those states. That's it. I mean, I'm
all about high school history. And then you know, a
(37:17):
volleyball team gets knocked out by Calhoun, but I get
to go to Calhoun to see their facilities and I'd
never been there before, and I just think it's you know,
I think it's cool that you're not just locked into
the same old areas. You get to go see different schools,
different you know, you've always heard about this that or
the other. And I remember one time when I was
at Older, we played Columbus and softball. Man, I went
(37:38):
right over there to the baseball field and saw the
Frank Thomas stuff. You know, It's just that that kind
of stuff is to me, is really cool.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
I just I like the uniqueness of it. And I
tell you something else I really liked that I didn't
think about. You know, football, especially football coaches are the
worst at this they've all figured out by week eight
who they're going to match up with in the playoffs
and who if they win that one, who they're gonna play.
And they're calling trying to get some film on the
team and they can't do that anymore. Baby, you're sitting
(38:09):
there like the damn NCAA tournament, like looking for the
bracket reveal to figure out who you're gonna play. That
was kind of cool, Like that may be something you
could do even more of, like when you get Marvin
on that, it's like a as a marketing opportunity to
do even more as you got more classes of like
almost a real life statewide show of putting these things
(38:31):
out or uh, it's really cool to see who plays
who and it all comes out at the same time.
And then as a coach, you got to get to
work because in football especially you got to get to
work right then.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
But I know our football coaches in this state, and
I trust that they will have that formula. They will
have an assession working on that all summer, and they
said that they will know it all.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Yeah, some poor guy will be working on that thing
all night and he'll be the only one. He'll be
figured it out before Todd holkm. Yeah, so I'll get
you out of here on this. Man, I appreciate you
talking to me. What is anything anything I didn't ask you?
I guess period, But what's anything that maybe we didn't
talk about that you wish people knew? As you take
(39:16):
a lot of time from your family to do this,
this reclass committee, Jay, this is not a lucrative venture,
my friend. Okay, this is something this is not a
look for anybody thinking this is you have a full
time job as the athletic director and assistant principal and
you're dealing with vapes and you know whatever else all
day and then you take extra work for this. What
(39:37):
is something you wish people knew that they just don't about?
What all you guys try to do?
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Well? I first of all, I want to thank the
committee because man, the emails, the phone calls, the meetings,
I mean getting out of school, you know, I mean,
you remember what it was like being in the school.
When you're out one day, it takes two days to
catch up. And and I hate leaving my team, you know,
my school down, or letting them down when I leave.
But there's work that's got to be done, and I
(40:06):
just you know, the people that are on that committee.
We don't go down there and just play around. I mean,
we get to work and I won't I just want
to thank them. But you know, the State office and
what don does you know with the way he puts
in schools. I know people are going to look at
those maps and just think, what in the world. But
you know, when you're trying to when you're trying to
ensure that geographically schools are together and at the same
(40:30):
time take in travel and travel and balancing the regions,
and that's balancing the regions is so important now, especially
with power rankings, and you may see that outlier school
like what in the world were they thinking putting that
school in there? Well, when you're trying to balance the
regions and you're trying to make it geograph graphically make sense,
(40:51):
that school could go over here. It would balance them.
They still have an opportunity to appeal. But if we
put them over here, that's going to give them ten
regions schools and now they only have one or you know,
if there's eight, seven, whatever, they've only got one or
two opportunities to pick up a game. And in football,
and that's what they try to do when it comes
(41:12):
out to balancing the regions, even though it may not
make sense to everybody, there is a method behind the
madness in trying to balance the regions, even though sometimes
the travel may look a little off.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
It's a puzzle. It's a puzzle. It's really hard to
put together.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
It is. And you know, do you work inside out?
Do you work outside in? You know, do you look
at where they currently are in the region versus where
they could go? And and uh, you know, people get
a lot of flak for the for the way some
of those regions are laid out, but when again, when
you're trying to balance the regions and take geography into consideration,
(41:50):
it's tough. It is tough.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
And I'll add that you know what I see and
I wish people knew is one how hard you guys work,
because it is like we had to work this hard
to screw all this up before, you know what I mean,
We had to do all this just to come up
with that that had all these people have no idea
the mnd of work.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
You guys do.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
This behind the scenes, just trying to get it right
for everybody, and everybody everybody's listening this as a head
coach or an ad or something. They know you're not
gonna please everybody, And it's interesting that we know that
about our current job. You know it O Coney County
High School. You're not gonna please every parent about the
policy on cell phones or vapes or whatever. It's not
going to you accepted that. But in this world, we
(42:35):
don't want to accept that. We want to make everybody
you know, and just can't. And I wish people saw
hard you guys work, but I wish people put their
self in that shoe, because I think they'd be surprised.
We got a lot of people that'll say what we
ought to be doing until they were one of the
people deciding, and they're mad about parents doing that. And
I know some people's things you on Twitter's satire and
(42:57):
some of it's you know, negative, and that's okay, there's
a place for that. I laugh at some of it.
But some of us, let's get some solutions. As long
as I've known you, you've been trying to do some solutions,
and you'll come on here and you'll talk to us
about it because you're not scared. And I appreciate that
because I think it is easy for people to criticize
(43:19):
when they're not the one doing it, And I just
want to commend you for that, and we're going to
keep trying to find something because here's my last word
on this, and then I'll give you the actual last word, Georgia.
No offense to my friends listening in other states, but
we are the envy of most of these other state associations,
(43:41):
So quit whining about things that aren't perfect. And doctor
Scott leads our group that was the number one for safety,
if I remember right, number one? Is that right in safety?
And we already know we got We're number one in
a lot of coverage, you know, I mean obviously for football,
(44:01):
Texas and California, Florida got great teams too, But I
mean you take our coverage, take our media, take our
athletes that are playing in all sports, not just football.
I mean, we got a lot of things to be
thankful for and don't need to be trying to tear
it up from the inside all the time whining about
stuff that you don't have. But you have a problem
with no solution. So that is the end of my rand.
(44:22):
I'm sorry, doctor Miller, and I give you the last
word before we bid people to do.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Yeah, so I did. Again, I just want to thank
the State Office State when when I did start doing
leading reclass the one thing we did was let the
State Office put put schools in regions. And it's a
tough job and they know the state, all pockets of
the state a lot better than most of us on
reclass do. So I commend them for the work they did.
Obviously they're going to be appills and that's what I
(44:50):
love about the ghsays you can come upeal that and
and so we'll look forward to hearing those on Monday. Again,
I want to thank the committee. You know, they just
they worked tell off and I'm proud of them. And
I'll say this, and I've said this to several people
that I've met through messaging on Twitter or whatever. We'll
get on the phone and talk and I talked to
(45:10):
one coach tonight. And but come come to the meeting.
Saying it on Twitter, say in your thoughts and concerns
and whatever on Twitter, that's that doesn't get anywhere. Come
come to the meeting, pick up the phone, call somebody
on the committee and just just have a conversation. Anybody's
gonna talk to you. But but that's the one thing
(45:30):
that that always blows my mind is that it never
matters until the classifications drop on the internet, and then
all of a sudden, we've got all these solutions, but
we haven't heard those solutions on the front end. And
and I we've got this famous thing. Bring that energy
at the beginning of reclass not after it. And so
(45:51):
I would just encourage people to to to come be
a part of the process. We want you, we want
you to be with us and work with us on
this because it is a it's and it's an initiative
for the whole state. And we would love to hear
and talk to anybody that wants to talk to us
about it. My number is not hard to find.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
And any complaints if you have any complaints about anything
curder I said tonight, you email Chad dot Flat at
Cherokee K twelve dot net. That's where you send all
your complaints. Chad Flat will be glad to hear all your.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Complaints and the filter those out for us and we
will accordingly.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Thanks man, I do appreciate you taking some time and
talk to me.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Thing obviously, Uh, you know you leave early, you get
home really late. And tonight I'm doing this really late,
and uh tomorrow I'm driving to West Georgia to watch
my oldest daughter in volleyball. Thursday, we're hosting north and
basketball Friday and going to Northwest Whitfield to watch football,
and then Saturday and want to make him to watch cheerleading.
But I just want to just say something about my
(46:52):
wife and my family because this takes a long this
takes a lot away from their their reclass season. And
luckily my wife played college volleyball, she understands athletics. My
youngest is is playing flag football now, and Olivia is
probably glad she's at West Georgia she don't have to
hear all this stuff. But I just want to thank
them for allowing me to do this, and my admin
and my district, because you know, you do miss a
(47:12):
lot of time and and you miss some stuff there
and work, but I think they know it's important work,
and you know, I think they're they're happy that that
I'm a part of it. So I just want to
thank them. And then Chris, thank you because you've always
been a positive influence for a lot of folks and
and you know, ever since we became friends, when I
used to live in Jackson and was working in Henry County.
We did that first podcast, if you remember, we did
(47:34):
it outside my neighbors. We'd eat and we had to
redo the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
I would say, we've come a long way in there,
but I don't even know if we have. I think
people just know us more.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
No.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
I appreciate you, my man, and it is a thankless job,
and I appreciate what's doing. I appreciate your family letting
you too, because we got to have some good people
carrying this forward. And so appreciate you being tough, not
getting discouraged, and in continuing to lead, which is what
we ask our coaches to do right all the time.
So yeah, if I can ever help you, please let
(48:07):
me know what I mean that.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Yeah, man, well I appreciate it. And I realized somebody
took a picture at reclass the other day. You can
tell I'm getting older and my grades are starting to
come out.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
So yeah, I'm past that. I just gave up. You're
gonna have to get to get christ and get some that.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Just from me, and I like it forstly how great
I can get.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
So I'll see you, MANI William thank you. The Parker
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is sid services dot com. All right, I'm please be
joined by my friend Kurt Miller. Doctor Kurt Miller, you
got a lot of titles my friends on to give
me a minute. This is the Athletic rerecord ok Coney
Uny High School, but also serves as JHSA President. He's
(01:14):
leader of vice president, leader and leader of the reclass Committee.
So doctor Miller, thanks for joining me. Great to be
on with you, sir, so we'll get right into it
reclassification time. And for my friend, you know, I know
this is hard to believe, Kurt, but we have a
decent number of people listening to this and the stats
show us that about half the people are from Georgia,
(01:36):
in about half aren't. So for those of you a
disclaimer that aren't from Georgia. We're going to talk about
a lot of Georgia reclassification tonight, but it may be
interesting to you from another state, but a lot of
Georgia talk today as doctor Miller heads up our reclassification
committee in Georgia with the JSA. So let's talk about
I found this in my second world here away from sports,
(01:57):
and I do this for fun. A lot of coaches,
a lot of athletic directors don't quite understand this process.
They think they do. They complain about it, they talk
to people about it, but they say the GHSA said this,
or the GHSA ruled this, or and they don't realize
they sent those people. The GHSA is them, you know.
(02:20):
So let's talk a minute about the process to how
you get an executive committee of the Georgia High School
Association and then how that group becomes a reclass there's
a group of those people that become the reclassification committee
that you had.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So anybody could.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Come up to you and said, what does that, how
does that even happen? What would you tell them?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Right? So, basically, what we're doing now, we're reclassing and uh,
at the end of this, we'll we'll have our regions. Right,
and so every spring, the GHSA charges each region to
come up with the President, vice President, the region officers.
But one of those officers is the GHSA Executive Committee rep.
And so basically that's like a state rep. A senator.
(03:03):
You know, someone that you have in your own area
where you live, but this person represents your region. You
then become a voting member on anything that gets brought
up to the state Executive Committee. And we have two
formal meetings. We have one in the spring, one in
the fall. This year, obviously we'll have a third one
to ratify the new regions that we're going through right now,
(03:23):
we'll do that right after Thanksgiving. But those individuals, they're
the ones that make up the White Book or the constitution,
and it goes back years past. The membership makes the rules,
the State Office is there to enforce the constitution. And
I know that, you know, I catch myself going down
(03:44):
some rabbit holes of you know, the State Office getting
trashed from use. You know, I could use a better
term there probably, But they're just enforcing the membership. You know,
voted inn and so the State Office does a lot
of good work. They do a lot of tough work.
They don't get the credit that they deserve. But they're
not the ones that are making up the rules. It's
(04:06):
the membership and the people that are elected from the
regions are the ones that make those rules. Now I
will say this too. There are some at large members
of the Executive Committee and it's your letter groups, your GACA,
your ga DA, those executive directors, your gassp rep state
superintendents on there.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So you know that's a handful of people though they
can't and so to reiterate your point, and this is
to anybody that wasn't following. If we said if I
was a coach, and I used to be one, and
I used to say dumb things, so and I wanted
to say the GHSA, the State Office, the old guys
up there that coached a long time ago, and the
(04:44):
old superintendents. All those guys made these dumb transfer rules
that would be inaccurate, that would be an actually correct,
that would be inaccurate correct whatever. I'm not saying they're dumb.
I'm just saying, and that's what's saying. But whatever rule
we came up with that you don't like, there's you know,
(05:06):
sixty or seventy people that voted on that, and one
of them was from your region. Now, your region might
have voted no, and might you might have wanted to
say yes or vice versa. But I'm just reiterating that
to even move on Kirk, because I found that that's
the biggest hurdle when I'm trying to explain to somebody
that this isn't like the principle. Doctor Tim Scott, the
(05:27):
current execut director, he's not the principal. He doesn't sit
up there and make all the rules right, and you're
the assistant president. It's not like that he has to
just enforce whatever. Actually, I've been around doctor Hines and
doctor Scott when sometimes they probably didn't agree with the
rule that the whole committee passed, and then they spent
the entire year getting criticized for it and having to
(05:49):
enforce it.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Right, Yes, yes, that has happened.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
So I mean, I just want to explain that. I
hope we didn't lose anybody in that process if they
already knew all that. But I want to explain that
because any rule we're gonna talk about reclassication today, but
any rule which could be transfers or it could be
you know, some other eligibility or rules like heated heat index, right,
things like that, they're going to come to you guys
(06:13):
as a big, big committee. They may start in a
small committee, go to the big hole executive committee, and
that whole group has to vote on it or it's
not happening. That is correct, Okay, So for reclass in
this year, we would take some people from that executive committee.
So every region sent there one person. We would get
(06:34):
a group of those people and they would form a
committee among them called the reclassification committee. And you're now
the leader of that. How about how many people serve
on that?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
We were eighteen?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Okay, so eighteen of those people are going to serve
on that committee and tell us a little bit about
how that process works. So usually there is a so
the state, you know, back in the day, you edge
North your North state champion, South state champion.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
They played well. We still kind of divide one through
four being in the South and five through eight being
in the north. So basically every classification has one rep
from the North and the South, so the North and
the South is represented in every classification. And then there's
also some large members that are on that. And then
(07:22):
obviously doctor Scott is in there with it, and then
you know, Marvin's takes the minutes, and then Don corr
is the one who is in charge of placing the
schools in the regions. When I took over that, however
many moons ago, that was that was the first thing
we did was get rid of the committee actually placing
the schools just because there's too much that could go
(07:44):
wrong there and we think that the state office doing
it is probably the best way to go about that.
But what that committee would do is talk about and
then we're past this now, but we're gonna talk about
next time in a minute. So hanging there, we got
some really good ideas coming me and Kurt back here
in a minute. So I just want to set what
you can and can't do, because I found I'm telling
(08:04):
you people's biggest error is not understanding what they can
and cannot influence. And so that group would talk about
some maybe different ideas, right, So you could propose competitive
balance is something we heard.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
You could propose a multiplier. You could propose, you know,
some other variation of upper and lower divisions, or do
we go to seven classes or six or eleven or
fourteen or power rankings and like all those are things
that are you your committee could discuss and come up
with a recommendation to that whole executive committee.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Correct. That is correct, and that is something that we
started this past January and we probably met more over
a longer period of time than reclass ever has met.
And obviously you mentioned one proposer that was out there
with competitive balance, and there's some you know, some other
things than that people wanted to see. And this time
(09:03):
power rankings was the big, the big change statewide. You
know A through three A is doing it currently, but
now we're going A through seven A and that'll be
doing power rankings next year. And you know, we can
talk a little bit more about that later. But that's
correct that the reclass committee comes up with the guidelines
and procedures of the reclass cycle, right, and then you
(09:26):
mentioned this already, But then you guys come up with
some parameters.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
The state, the Department of Education, puts people in. They
have an FTE number. They give you a list. So
if you guys decided the top twenty percent are going
to be this or the top fifty schools or whatever
it is, then they give you the list of who
those people are. And then you just cut it off.
There's really nothing you can do there, and then people
can appeal they don't like their classification. But then the
(09:51):
GHSA office and you already said this once, but I'm
highlighted again in the process. Now it's not the reclass
committee who were all representing schools too.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
In regions, we give it to the office, the state office,
and they put Region six as these teams. Reagion seven
is these teams, Reagon eight is these teams. And then
people can appeal that and that's the entire process and
then it starts over again. So did I miss anything?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
No, And you know you mentioned the FTE and then
schools are responsible for reporting they're out of district number.
And I think that that's been a challenge too, is
people understanding how to come up with your out of
district number, and I think that that's not I don't
think that's people not you know, wanting to have fidelity
with that job. I think there's just a lot of
people that transition in and out of a D roles,
(10:39):
transition in and out of principal and central office roles,
and I think sometimes there's just new people doing it
and there's some confusion and maybe we could do a
better job on our end and reclass it's putting out
some information exactly how to you know, a video or something,
just exactly how to count you're out of district number.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
So for people listening to understand that or from another state,
in the state of Georgia, you have to say, how
many kids in your school your high school, uh, don't
live in that school district? And that may be teachers, kids,
it may be people you take some tuition. You have
a different rule where you let people come in and
you guys came up with the rule last time, because
it's where I think it's I think I got this right,
(11:16):
correct me if I don't. But if they were like
fifth grade or below there you don't have to count
on is that right?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah? So if they came into your your school feet
or pattern in fifth grade or below, they do not
count against you. If they came above that, they do.
If they're active military, they and they live out of
district and go to your school, they do not count.
And then if the parent is a teacher at the
high school that that kid's high school and they live
out of district, they don't count. Now if they're at
(11:44):
the middle school, the elementary school, or the district office,
if they teach in the district, they got to count.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
If it's another school, but it's got to be at
that it's got to be at that high school, and
that is something that's a little unique. And then they
take that number and then multiply times three. So if
you had ten out of district kids, they have to
count as thirty. So if you had one thousand other
kids ony and ten total kids, you would count as
one one thousand and thirty, right, And that's.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
The center that you've got your fte number, And so
they're already in there once and so you just doubled
that out of district number, and.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
That's even better. Yeah, yeah, even better. Yeah. So talk
a little bit about this time. It was trying to
be pretty generic just to kind of paint a picture.
But now let's talk about this time. And you said
you guys met a lot. Obviously this is really hot
right now because we just came out with classes and
regions within the last seven days of us recording this.
(12:38):
So what was the what is something you want people
to know as they pulled up this form and looked
at their region, And of course they're going to have
questions and their own criticism, But as somebody that's been
working on this for eleven months, eleven months, y'all been
working on this, what's something that we want to know
(12:59):
about this Pacific time?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, so there were there was an appetite two by
the larger schools to to look at to look at
the power ranking and and how could we do that,
you know, across the board but not use the region
final standings one, two, three, four. And I think we
(13:22):
were able to do that, you know, I think what
we did this current this current cycle with the regions
and the ones and the twos and everybody getting certain
places in the bracket. And when the power when the
private schools got pulled out, what she ended up fighting
out was the top left bracket was super strong and
and a lot of a lot of regions faced off
in the first or second round, and including us last year.
(13:44):
You know, but it is what it is. I mean,
we were complaining about it. It's just that's just kind
of how it fell. So I think going one through
thirty two, it's going to be something that people are
going to be excited about. We still have not nailed
down the formula. That's something I want to make sure
it's clear to everybody. We're not hung on the PSR.
I've spoken to Todd Holkm and they've got the Maxwell
(14:05):
rankings and they put something out in the Georgia High
School and I send it to doctor Scott and I'm
actually gonna get that out to the reclass committee tomorrow
for us to discuss Monday when we have our our
region appeals. Because if there, if that formula is better
and can account more for what we're doing versus PSR,
than we want to use it. We want to use
(14:25):
the best formula that's out there, not just something we're
comfortable with. I think when you do that, you set
yourself up for some issues and some concerns. And I'll
be honest with you. I think George has got the
best athletics in the country, and we need to make
sure we're doing what's best for our membership and our
student athletes and taking a look at that. I mean
Todd and those guys that I mean, they've gone through
(14:46):
it with a fine tooth comb and they swear by it,
and so I think that's something we need to take
a look at. But for this time, the Power rankings
has been the big every every classification going one through
thirty two. And then I saw a lot of stuff
as man, they just got rid seven A one the
world are they bringing it back? And yes, we're bringing
the number back, But we didn't add any classifications. We
(15:07):
did was single A was divided up into Division two
and Division three, and we basically just made them A
and double A. So whoever is double A right now?
Your triple A. So seven A is the current six
A group. So nobody.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
We didn't add a CLA seven classifications correct. I actually
had to have a conversation with a board member about this.
I got a text like hear we were going up.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I had to know, ma'am, you.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Know we are.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yes, that is true, it's one A higher, but you know,
I had to explain there was you know, there's seven
classifications last year, there'll be seven classifications next year. Were
just calling them a little bit different. It's a little easier.
I preferred this way, by the way. I appreciate you
doing that, because I didn't love those divisions single A,
double A, triple A for you know what I mean whatever.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I would get confused on them, just to be quite honest.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
So I like that better. That's gonna be the same.
And power rankings were the thing. And what I I
heard you say to clarify for anybody listening, power rankings
are happening one to thirty two, all seven classes. But
the formula is not nailed down exactly. The formula we
used this year is not necessarily what we're guaranteed to
use next year. When would you have to make a
(16:15):
final decision on that, like at the January meeting.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Well, we're gonna we're gonna meet uh at the end
of November early December to ratify everything, and I think
we'll have enough information by then to do it. I
think we got everything we need now. It's just finding
time when you're not hearing appeals from from from nine
eighty get to uh F thirty, you know, but that's
that's what we signed up for. You know. It was
(16:40):
it was a long day, but it was fun. But
I think within that time frame, hopefully Monday, we'll have
time to sit down and look at it, and I'll
have some more time to get on the phone with
Todd and doctor Scott can talk.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
To DoD and and uh, who's the guys, Lauren Max? Listen,
Lauren Maxwell is where Todd's getting pod and Laura Maxwell.
I mean, for what it's worth my opinion, it shouldn't
matter too much, But for what it's worth, I agree.
By the way, I love Power rankings. I swear by him,
just like Todd Holcomb. Todd's my friend. I don't know
how he does them. I don't know how it works.
I don't understand the formula, but I know that they
(17:13):
are accurate when they go a little deeper, if that
makes sense, and that Maxwell formula goes a little deeper,
because you did. We did have a couple issues this year.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
One was with the like you said, the bracket, it's
where that eight seed or that nine seed was actually
really really good because of how the rules we can
and then the second thing was you would have and
I know Southeast Bullock Jared Zido, great dudes, a friend
of ours, uh was the coach there. They felt like
they'd beaten the team had the same record. And there
is some things that when you don't go real deep
(17:43):
into power ranks, you just go opponent's record and opponents
of opponent's record, it's like going to be like ninety
percent efficient, you know, and it does suck for the
few teams that you felt like had a good argument.
But if you go a little deeper, you know, those
guys do swear that it gets the best teams in.
And that's what everybody wants, the best team in, right,
that's all you want.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
That's right, And and you know, not not getting too
deep in the Southeast Bullock thing, but there's gonna be
times mother nature takes over and there is only nine
games or whatever, and you know, if we've got a
formula that can that can help us, you know, get
the right teams in, that's what we need to do.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Is there any advantage? Is there any worry about there
being an advantage to scheduling nine games? Let's talk about
like Grayson and Milton and Colquook County or I don't know.
I'm just throwing names out there, Buford that just have
a hard time scheduling games, but they haven't had to
live in a power incing system thing before. Is there
any benefit to them playing less games?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Well, I'll be honest as an Now you're only going
to have when you're you're only going to have four
home games. So we'll make sure we're playing playing ten games.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
But but you wouldn't have to write that in right
like you? That's what I guess I'm asking is that
the type of thing you would have to talk about
eventually on like you have to play this many games
or you can't because of the weather and things like that.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Right, Yeah, we approved nine games? Is the minimum you
have to play nine? Yeah? That that got approved that
the last executive could be mean, so you've got to
play nine to get in. Now, if something were to happen,
obviously everything can be appealed, whether you know, just situations
that are out of control of the schools. I mean,
those are gonna be taken into consideration. But we feel that,
(19:28):
you know, something, something will come up.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So before we get into our the thing everybody will
to hear, which is all our scenarios of what ought
to happen, be like those two old guys on the Muppets.
You ever seen the Muppets and two old guys that
sit up in the balcony and tell everybody what they
ought to be doing that time's coming. So let's talk
about these appeals. Now, when I first started coaching, I
don't remember there being appeals, and if there was, nobody
(19:53):
hardly did them or they all got denied. And now
it is a little more customary for people to appeal.
And my stance on that, for what it's worth is
I'm kind of okay with it, Like like I feel like
it's kind of cool. You come up with these things
like a multiplier, You come up with these things that
are going to be ninety percent efficient, and if you
think you're one of the ten percent inefficient, then appeal.
(20:13):
I know all you does just make for a long
day for you. But can you explain anybody listening kind
of what you're so people appeal for their classification this week?
What is kind of some generic things you're listening for
as you hear their appeal, just so they know if
they're wasting their time or not next time.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, I mean, I think I think any school that
feels like they should be in another region, I mean,
I think they owe it to their community. I'm not
gonna sit here and tell you everybody in the world
should come upill because I don't want to. You know,
it'll be a long day. But but you know, I
think if you look at travel, I think you look
at where what region have you traditionally been in? You
(20:54):
know that might that might be something you want to
want to argue and come appeal. You know, I think
that the travel piece is usually it. Some people will
come in and upheal gate revenue. You know, those are
just some things we've had in the past, and you know,
we really do try to take that into consideration. Somebody
wants to leave a region that's already small, you know,
how is that going to impact if we allow them
(21:15):
to move, How is that going to pack the region
they're leaving, Because finding a game in week six, just
a non region game is going to be next to impossible.
And and we just, you know, we just try to
take all that into consideration. And what does not This
doesn't come into play all the time, but what does
the region leaving think or the region they're leaving, think,
and what is the region they want to go to? Think?
(21:36):
I mean, there's there's just a lot of variables that that.
You know, every situation, especially in this one, situations are
always different.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I'm going to get a chance to say, like you said,
I think it's I think it's good. They get a
chance to say their piece. I mean, many will get denied,
but that's okay. Some will get hurt and or some
will get approved. So along that line, power rankings are
a big deal. We're getting to where we want to
get to here. The power rankings are a big deal.
(22:06):
Help me understand the thing I've probably heard the most
that actually is a valid question. If power rankings are
determining one to thirty two, why do I need a
region period? Why do I even bother appealing with you?
Why can't I just go schedule some games and you
guys figure out how good I am by those power rankings.
See if I make the playoffs? Why do we still
(22:28):
need that whole process for regions?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, Chris, and I'll be honest, you and I talked
about this the other day, but I agree with you,
young percent. I don't think number one, I'm not really
sure we the state the membership. Whoever was ready for
one through thirty two power rankings and no regions in
one year. I don't think that that. I just don't
(22:51):
think we can. We can, you know, get all that accomplished,
but I think we how that model did not work?
And then look at one through thirty two hopefully this model.
I think this model is going to work. And then
start the discussion of if I'm going to force teams
to be power ranked, then why am I locking them
in to five or six teams or seven teams or
(23:13):
eight teams that they've got to play when at the
end of the day it really doesn't matter. We can
go to pods or go to some system and like, again,
this is not I don't have anything you know, ironed
out and finalized, but you know, could we do pods
to where you know, schools are grouped in a certain
area and it's A through seven A schools and you're
charged to go get games and maybe in your class
(23:34):
you have to find four games in the class above you,
one in the class below you two. You know, we'd
have to figure out seven day with that situation. But
there's got to be a way to guarantee games in
a pod system to where you can help build your
own power ranking versus being told this is who you
have to play like we do in the regions right now,
because some state, some parts of the state are stronger
(23:55):
in some sports versus the other sports. And when you
lock in those teams in and you're really you're really
kind of hurting the power ranking in a way. You
can still always go pick up a strong football team
because right now, you know, if you've got a strong region,
you might not want to run from it because it's
gonna help you in your power ranking.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And you wouldn't make that determination. So I love this
pod idea, by the way, That's one of the main
reasons we're talking tonight. I love this idea. So I
use a South Georgia example, and then I use a
North Jordan. So like Thomas County Central is really good, right,
like State Champ good. Right, they're in six there, there'll
be in the next class like six a out of seven.
(24:36):
But if in a pod system, a lot of those
teams would all be kind of grouped together. So like
Lownes Valdosta, call quit Thomas King Central, you know whoever
else is in that top few classes and they could
all play each other if they felt like it, or
they could go find whoever. Because Thomas k central I
got news for coach Rogers. There ain't a lot of
people lining up to play them, right, They ain't getting
(24:59):
four or five more games, and then they're those poor
teams that are playing them in the region from out
Albany or Houston County or someone they don't you know,
that's a long way too. So now they can choose
if they play them, or in North Georgia, we can
have Lumpkin County in two A and Fannin County in
single A and Pickens in three A or whatever it is,
(25:21):
and we can all play each other because it's right
down the street. And maybe it helps our gate but
also maybe it helps our powering. But for us sometimes
maybe it just helps people get a win.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
But if you put Pickens in the region in south
in Atlanta, or you put Lumpkin Counties the only I
think Lumpkins the only Mountain school in their class, they
have to go kind of away. Then they miss out
on those things and they may miss out on some
winning too. Is that and that's what you're saying right
it is.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
And I you know, I think back of Town's county
and all the driving they've been having to do. You know,
a pod system helps them out. Yeah, they're they're playing
with all the schools up in the mountains and they're
not having to drive quite as far, but they're still
working on their power ranking and they're still going to
be in that same state tournament, same.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
State tournament, right, so they wouldn't be in the other
mountain school state tournament, and they would have the luxury
if they wanted to go drive everywhere like they are
right now. They could because they could schedule games however
they want. You would just instead of a region, you
would give them a region based on more geography in
general sense of I know North Carolina did a up
(26:22):
and I think one time you guys looked at some
upper and lower thing where it's like less classes, but
there was an upper and lower division or something. ELI
had a I think a little small and small sixty
big sixty, and I think he's gonna bring that back
next time. And uh, like I said, there were a
lot of good proposals, and you know, I just I
just think when when you're looking at at the travel
(26:45):
and that always seems to come up. But you're you know,
the pod system again, there's a lot of there's a
lot of things that have to be ironed out with
that and guaranteeing games. You know, you mentioned Thomas County, Central,
you think Lee County, you think Brooks County.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
You think somebody want to play, who's gonna want? You
know what I'm saying, there's got to be mandates on
games that they This is how it's got to happen.
And I don't know what that is right now. It's
just an idea and I'm sure we come up with
some with some you know, rules and policies and all
that stuff, but there's got to be something that we
can because this state is so it is so different
(27:20):
in every corner, in every area of the state. I
mean it's you've got large school in the South, You've
got a ton of schools in the in the north
central Atlanta area. Then you've got your Mountain schools, you
got Augusta, you got Columbus. I mean, you just got
pockets that just have a lot of schools, and you've
got a lot of rural areas where there's only one
school and the next closest schools an hour and a
half away.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
And when you say, in your fifteen to twenty years
of being around this that travel and isolation is the
biggest thing you've heard. Like, even if it's true or not,
they may be using it for a reason to do
something else. But the thing you hear is we're out
here all by ourself in East Georgia, South Georgia. Well,
that eliminate some of that, you know, because they could
(28:01):
play the classification above and below them. And the only
answer I could find to the question why do I
need a region is guaranteed games. Yeah, I mean that's
really the only thing I can think.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
There's only one other, and it would be how are
we gonna how are we going to fill the executive
committee because they are Yeah, that would be only too
that I could I can immediately think of.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Even in that pod, if you had if you had
half the pods, you send two people, you know, or
something like that, if you had half the pods that
we have regions now you just everyone send two people
or you know, something like that. But yeah, that there's
some stuff to iron out there. But I think what
I'm hearing from you and I want to talk about
this was It's a long process. It's been a long
(28:46):
process for you, I know, going back to ten years
ago to getting as much equity as we could. We're
not going to talk about private public stuff today, but
I know y'all get hammered for that, right, I mean,
I know that's the thing. They both got valid points.
But I do know that Fannin County won the girls
state basketball championship this year and Union played for the
(29:07):
boys championship. Like those kind of things never happen up
here in my way. So and they had generational teams.
They had generational teams. Their Union will never have probably
never have another basketball team like that, but they had
one and they made it to the state championship game.
So I commend you guys for that. Man, that was great. Now,
in addition to all that, it's been a process to
(29:28):
get there. Now, it's a process with these power rankings.
So step one is to put it in triple A
to single A, which you'd done last time. Step two
is put it in all the classes, which we're doing now.
And step three is to figure out how we can
schedule better and travel better, travel less and more efficiently
if you want and not let one school with twelve
(29:50):
hundred kids and another one with eleven fifty, but they're
right under the cutoff and now they feel like they
can't play each other and they're right down the road,
right yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And that and that's you know, and that's been the
way it's been. But you know, that's okay, this is
the way it's been. But there's also nothing wrong with
looking and trying to change that mindset of that of
that piece of it and looking at a different way
to save the travel. You know. I just think there's
a way to do that and everybody can, you know,
(30:22):
kind of play together and maybe we keep some of
the same rules we have right now when it comes
to the state tournament, but getting to the state tournament
could look a lot different.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
I think that's an important note. All those teams we
mentioned go to their state tournament. They were assigned Mama's County,
Central or Lee County. You know, they're all going to
wherever they were assigned. The POD system allows them to
have a bigger region. Think of eything like the SEC.
You know, the SEC got what sixteen teams now, yeah,
but you only play eight games. So Texas has got
(30:50):
a different schedule than Uga, than Alabama and everybody's got me.
Some years it's your year and some years it's not.
But you're going to play eight of these sixteen teams, right,
there's this sixteen team pod in the SEC, and you're
not going to play all. They don't even do East
and West anymore. It's just sixteen straight teams. You know,
You've got a couple of guarantees, right, and everything else
just rotates. Is that kind of what what you would
(31:15):
envision something like that?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, I mean I'm thinking, you know, and again this
is all I don't want the people listening and thinking
that this is how it's going to be, because it's not.
I mean, this is something that we're kind of years
out now. Yeah. Yeah, you think about it and then
but you're right in the middle of this current reclass
and you've got to make sure this one gets done.
So you haven't put a lot of thought into it.
But you know, you've got forty fifty schools that are
(31:37):
in a pod, and you know, maybe there are some
ground rules that that maybe there is an automatic schedule
that's set when you've got your smaller schools and you
look at them, one you know, a through three and
then maybe four through seven. You know, maybe those are
the ones that you have to get six or seven
football games from and then you can you can mix
it up however you want to for the other three.
(31:59):
I don't know what that looks like, but I think
there's a way to do that to help your travel,
to help your gates, to keep your rivalries, to help isolation.
I mean, I think right now, Augusta, they could have
one heck of a pot over there with all of
their schools and they don't have to worry about coming
this way unless they want it to.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Yeah, because they also to keep all the options. There'd
be a couple of games they could come if they
wanted to, so it's not limiting them.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Yeah, but their parents aren't gonna have to worry about
driving to to Rockdale County or Atlanta. They can go
right go right down the street and watch them play
on the way. Game versus what's you know happened in
the past.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Same thing in Savannah, same thing even that all the
period Columbus. Yeah, I mean that's what I'm saying here,
though I can't take isolation is the main thing people
complain about. That is a valid point I mean, people
complain about a lot of things, but I feel like
that's the most valid point. When you're a Columbus team,
you're the only one in four A and you're in
(32:56):
an eight or nine team region, so you don't even
get to pick up many games, and you're going every
week to South Georgia somewhere. That's a problem. And so yeah,
I think that's the move. So what else could be
something on the horizon, Like what else have you heard?
What do you know other states do that That could
(33:18):
be something that would come up in a reclass model
and the connects say five years or six years.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, you know, I think the things that were brought
up this year will probably come back, which is fine,
you know, you want to have healthy discussions on everything.
But I really do think with the power rankings, I
think that's a game changer to where we really have
to think differently on how we do our regions or
if we do regions. I think that's gonna be the
next step. And I know everybody thinks, my gosh, I'll
(33:44):
charge y'all change everything every two years. But I don't
think change is bad. I think change in if you're
if you're headed down the right way, and you're building
on top of things that you've done in the past,
like we're doing with this power ranking the power ranking system.
You know, now we're looking at what do we do
with regions. I think that's a natural you know, you're
(34:06):
naturally falling right into where it's going to help all
schools and they're all going to benefit from it from
you know, versus you hurting schools with weak or reach
so called weaker regions or schools with fewer schools in
the region where they're free to go get schedule whoever
they want, versus a region that's locked in with nine
and now they're limited to maybe those nine or though
I guess those eight. If there's nine in there and
(34:28):
then only two pickup games and so there's a disadvantage there.
But if you're not locked into regions, then you don't
have that.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
So and that's why I think we are going to
have if you go on through thirty two, you've got
to think a little out of the box to really
get it all the way fixed, which is you know,
maybe sometimes a five to ten year process, but you
do have to figure that out and then put them
in a ranking. We do have the capability now to
do that. And this isn't all sports. I mean, I assume,
I guess not wrestling, and I'm sure there's some other
(34:56):
sports where they don't, but.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
It's just the bracketed sports. Yeah, excuse me, the Power
rank sports. It won't be everybody, but like team sports. Yeah.
One thing I do want to add about the Power
rankings too is I want to make sure they understand
that even though it's one through thirty two, we do
have a safeguard end for region champions, so if they
fall outside the top sixteen, they are automatically brought to
(35:21):
the sixteenth spot, so they're guaranteed at least to host
one game. Yeah, so we made that was important too.
I remember that was the one thing that everybody was
concerned about, that the region champions should be rewarded with
two or one home hosting opportunities. And I think that's fair.
That's you're talking minimal movement, and in A through three
a this past year, I think I went back and
(35:42):
counted twelve times in all Power Rank sports that that
would have happened. So that's not a lot in the
grand scheme of things.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
I'll tell you another story to take with you about
power rankings. So our softball team played in the second
round of the playoffs at Long County in ludah Wiss, Georgia. Okay,
let me tell you how many people in the Pickens
County knew where Ludawi See.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Georgia was zero?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Okay. They didn't even know what direction to go to
get to Long County until they put it in the GPS.
We went. I mean, I actually I did actually go
to that only went to a few games this year,
but I went down that day. Our superintendent went to.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Most of them.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
It was great, Like are people love? Mean? You know,
like I mean, you've seen a bunch of Georgia you
never seen before. I mean I'd never been there. I
saw Coach Feaster, my man. You know, it was a
good time. I kind of like like going and seeing
some places you hadn't seen. I mean, what grown people,
our whole fan base, parents, I'm telling you, none of
them knew where that place was. And you know, the
(36:48):
people were really nice. We had two good games, you know,
and they didn't know anybody from the North Georgia Mountains.
Like it was nice.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
I agree, you know. Before I came to Coney, you know,
I'm my dad was a basketball legend, and we knew
about the Hart County girls teams that won all those
state championships. Well, we host or they host us in football,
and that's where our football team's dressing. So I get
to walk in the gym that the Hart County Lady
Bulldogs won all those states. That's it. I mean, I'm
all about high school history. And then you know, a
(37:17):
volleyball team gets knocked out by Calhoun, but I get
to go to Calhoun to see their facilities and I'd
never been there before, and I just think it's you know,
I think it's cool that you're not just locked into
the same old areas. You get to go see different schools,
different you know, you've always heard about this that or
the other. And I remember one time when I was
at Older, we played Columbus and softball. Man, I went
(37:38):
right over there to the baseball field and saw the
Frank Thomas stuff. You know, It's just that that kind
of stuff is to me, is really cool.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
I just I like the uniqueness of it. And I
tell you something else I really liked that I didn't
think about. You know, football, especially football coaches are the
worst at this they've all figured out by week eight
who they're going to match up with in the playoffs
and who if they win that one, who they're gonna play.
And they're calling trying to get some film on the
team and they can't do that anymore. Baby, you're sitting
(38:09):
there like the damn NCAA tournament, like looking for the
bracket reveal to figure out who you're gonna play. That
was kind of cool, Like that may be something you
could do even more of, like when you get Marvin
on that, it's like a as a marketing opportunity to
do even more as you got more classes of like
almost a real life statewide show of putting these things
(38:31):
out or uh, it's really cool to see who plays
who and it all comes out at the same time.
And then as a coach, you got to get to
work because in football especially you got to get to
work right then.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
But I know our football coaches in this state, and
I trust that they will have that formula. They will
have an assession working on that all summer, and they
said that they will know it all.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Yeah, some poor guy will be working on that thing
all night and he'll be the only one. He'll be
figured it out before Todd holkm. Yeah, so I'll get
you out of here on this. Man, I appreciate you
talking to me. What is anything anything I didn't ask you?
I guess period, But what's anything that maybe we didn't
talk about that you wish people knew? As you take
(39:16):
a lot of time from your family to do this,
this reclass committee, Jay, this is not a lucrative venture,
my friend. Okay, this is something this is not a
look for anybody thinking this is you have a full
time job as the athletic director and assistant principal and
you're dealing with vapes and you know whatever else all
day and then you take extra work for this. What
(39:37):
is something you wish people knew that they just don't about?
What all you guys try to do?
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Well? I first of all, I want to thank the
committee because man, the emails, the phone calls, the meetings,
I mean getting out of school, you know, I mean,
you remember what it was like being in the school.
When you're out one day, it takes two days to
catch up. And and I hate leaving my team, you know,
my school down, or letting them down when I leave.
But there's work that's got to be done, and I
(40:06):
just you know, the people that are on that committee.
We don't go down there and just play around. I mean,
we get to work and I won't I just want
to thank them. But you know, the State office and
what don does you know with the way he puts
in schools. I know people are going to look at
those maps and just think, what in the world. But
you know, when you're trying to when you're trying to
ensure that geographically schools are together and at the same
(40:30):
time take in travel and travel and balancing the regions,
and that's balancing the regions is so important now, especially
with power rankings, and you may see that outlier school
like what in the world were they thinking putting that
school in there? Well, when you're trying to balance the
regions and you're trying to make it geograph graphically make sense,
(40:51):
that school could go over here. It would balance them.
They still have an opportunity to appeal. But if we
put them over here, that's going to give them ten
regions schools and now they only have one or you know,
if there's eight, seven, whatever, they've only got one or
two opportunities to pick up a game. And in football,
and that's what they try to do when it comes
(41:12):
out to balancing the regions, even though it may not
make sense to everybody, there is a method behind the
madness in trying to balance the regions, even though sometimes
the travel may look a little off.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
It's a puzzle. It's a puzzle. It's really hard to
put together.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
It is. And you know, do you work inside out?
Do you work outside in? You know, do you look
at where they currently are in the region versus where
they could go? And and uh, you know, people get
a lot of flak for the for the way some
of those regions are laid out, but when again, when
you're trying to balance the regions and take geography into consideration,
(41:50):
it's tough. It is tough.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
And I'll add that you know what I see and
I wish people knew is one how hard you guys work,
because it is like we had to work this hard
to screw all this up before, you know what I mean,
We had to do all this just to come up
with that that had all these people have no idea
the mnd of work.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
You guys do.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
This behind the scenes, just trying to get it right
for everybody, and everybody everybody's listening this as a head
coach or an ad or something. They know you're not
gonna please everybody, And it's interesting that we know that
about our current job. You know it O Coney County
High School. You're not gonna please every parent about the
policy on cell phones or vapes or whatever. It's not
going to you accepted that. But in this world, we
(42:35):
don't want to accept that. We want to make everybody
you know, and just can't. And I wish people saw
hard you guys work, but I wish people put their
self in that shoe, because I think they'd be surprised.
We got a lot of people that'll say what we
ought to be doing until they were one of the
people deciding, and they're mad about parents doing that. And
I know some people's things you on Twitter's satire and
(42:57):
some of it's you know, negative, and that's okay, there's
a place for that. I laugh at some of it.
But some of us, let's get some solutions. As long
as I've known you, you've been trying to do some solutions,
and you'll come on here and you'll talk to us
about it because you're not scared. And I appreciate that
because I think it is easy for people to criticize
(43:19):
when they're not the one doing it, And I just
want to commend you for that, and we're going to
keep trying to find something because here's my last word
on this, and then I'll give you the actual last word, Georgia.
No offense to my friends listening in other states, but
we are the envy of most of these other state associations,
(43:41):
So quit whining about things that aren't perfect. And doctor
Scott leads our group that was the number one for safety,
if I remember right, number one? Is that right in safety?
And we already know we got We're number one in
a lot of coverage, you know, I mean obviously for football,
(44:01):
Texas and California, Florida got great teams too, But I
mean you take our coverage, take our media, take our
athletes that are playing in all sports, not just football.
I mean, we got a lot of things to be
thankful for and don't need to be trying to tear
it up from the inside all the time whining about
stuff that you don't have. But you have a problem
with no solution. So that is the end of my rand.
(44:22):
I'm sorry, doctor Miller, and I give you the last
word before we bid people to do.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Yeah, so I did. Again, I just want to thank
the State Office State when when I did start doing
leading reclass the one thing we did was let the
State Office put put schools in regions. And it's a
tough job and they know the state, all pockets of
the state a lot better than most of us on
reclass do. So I commend them for the work they did.
Obviously they're going to be appills and that's what I
(44:50):
love about the ghsays you can come upeal that and
and so we'll look forward to hearing those on Monday. Again,
I want to thank the committee. You know, they just
they worked tell off and I'm proud of them. And
I'll say this, and I've said this to several people
that I've met through messaging on Twitter or whatever. We'll
get on the phone and talk and I talked to
(45:10):
one coach tonight. And but come come to the meeting.
Saying it on Twitter, say in your thoughts and concerns
and whatever on Twitter, that's that doesn't get anywhere. Come
come to the meeting, pick up the phone, call somebody
on the committee and just just have a conversation. Anybody's
gonna talk to you. But but that's the one thing
(45:30):
that that always blows my mind is that it never
matters until the classifications drop on the internet, and then
all of a sudden, we've got all these solutions, but
we haven't heard those solutions on the front end. And
and I we've got this famous thing. Bring that energy
at the beginning of reclass not after it. And so
(45:51):
I would just encourage people to to to come be
a part of the process. We want you, we want
you to be with us and work with us on
this because it is a it's and it's an initiative
for the whole state. And we would love to hear
and talk to anybody that wants to talk to us
about it. My number is not hard to find.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
And any complaints if you have any complaints about anything
curder I said tonight, you email Chad dot Flat at
Cherokee K twelve dot net. That's where you send all
your complaints. Chad Flat will be glad to hear all your.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Complaints and the filter those out for us and we
will accordingly.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Thanks man, I do appreciate you taking some time and
talk to me.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Thing obviously, Uh, you know you leave early, you get
home really late. And tonight I'm doing this really late,
and uh tomorrow I'm driving to West Georgia to watch
my oldest daughter in volleyball. Thursday, we're hosting north and
basketball Friday and going to Northwest Whitfield to watch football,
and then Saturday and want to make him to watch cheerleading.
But I just want to just say something about my
(46:52):
wife and my family because this takes a long this
takes a lot away from their their reclass season. And
luckily my wife played college volleyball, she understands athletics. My
youngest is is playing flag football now, and Olivia is
probably glad she's at West Georgia she don't have to
hear all this stuff. But I just want to thank
them for allowing me to do this, and my admin
and my district, because you know, you do miss a
(47:12):
lot of time and and you miss some stuff there
and work, but I think they know it's important work,
and you know, I think they're they're happy that that
I'm a part of it. So I just want to
thank them. And then Chris, thank you because you've always
been a positive influence for a lot of folks and
and you know, ever since we became friends, when I
used to live in Jackson and was working in Henry County.
We did that first podcast, if you remember, we did
(47:34):
it outside my neighbors. We'd eat and we had to
redo the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
I would say, we've come a long way in there,
but I don't even know if we have. I think
people just know us more.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
No.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
I appreciate you, my man, and it is a thankless job,
and I appreciate what's doing. I appreciate your family letting
you too, because we got to have some good people
carrying this forward. And so appreciate you being tough, not
getting discouraged, and in continuing to lead, which is what
we ask our coaches to do right all the time.
So yeah, if I can ever help you, please let
(48:07):
me know what I mean that.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Yeah, man, well I appreciate it. And I realized somebody
took a picture at reclass the other day. You can
tell I'm getting older and my grades are starting to
come out.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
So yeah, I'm past that. I just gave up. You're
gonna have to get to get christ and get some that.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Just from me, and I like it forstly how great
I can get.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
So I'll see you, MANI William thank you. The Parker
Resource Podcast is brought to you by Coastal Sports Turf.
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safe natural turf grass playing surfaces for athletes and coaches
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