The Georgia High School Association’s reclassification committee, which met Tuesday at association headquarters in Thomaston, has placed Bainbridge High School in the new six team Region 1-AAAAA for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years.

With the addition of the new AAAAAA classification for the biggest schools,  Bainbridge High School moved up from Class AAAA to Class AAAAA.

Beginning next school year, they will be in Region 1-AAAAA’s Sub-region B, along with Thomas County Central and Lee County. Hardaway of Columbus, Harris County and Northside-Columbus will be in Region 1-AAAAA’s Subregion A.

Bainbridge head football coach Ed Pilcher, who is a member of the reclassification committee, said the region alignment was made possible because of a last-minute Monday-night decision.

“The Savannah schools, which were classified AAAA, decided at the last minute to  go up to class AAAAA,” Pilcher said. “That made it possible to form our six-team Region 1-AAAAA.”

“If the Savannah schools had not made the decision to go up by choice, we would have been in a AAAAA region with the three Warner Robins schools, Warner Robins, Northside-Warner Robins and Houston County, along with Jones County.

“That would have meant that we would have had several trips of more than 150 miles to games.”

Pilcher said the smaller region will allow for additional flexibility in scheduling. Previously, Bainbridge had seven region opponents, and that only allowed for three non-region games.

“In football, we will play each of the other five Region 1-AAAAA teams,” he said. “That means that we will have to find five non -region opponents to fill out our 10-game regular-season schedule.

“I’m not sure about the other sports, but they will probably play sub-region schedules during the regular season.”

Schools have until Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, to request a move to another region.