The Georgia High School Association has released the region reclassification for high schools across the state, and it appears Bainbridge has been given one of the better options in terms of travel and competition.
The Bainbridge football team will play in 1AAAAA with eight other schools. Thomas County Central, Hardaway, Northside Columbus, Harris County, LaGrange, Shaw-Columbus, Columbus High School and Carver Columbus have all been placed in the same region as Bainbridge.
Both Bainbridge and TCC will play 1AAAA in every other sport due to travel logistical concerns.
That region includes Cairo, Westover, Monroe (Albany), Crisp County, Americus-Sumter, Albany, Dougherty, Cook County and Worth County.
The reclassification will come into effect fall 2014.
“It’s not a whole lot different than what we had,” Bainbridge football coach Jeff Littleton said. “It’s as good as it can get for us.”
A number of AAAA-sized schools petitioned to play up into 1AAAAA, including LaGrange, Shaw-Columbus, Columbus High School, Carver Columbus and Northside Columbus, who was in Bainbridge’s region last year, but new numbers moved them down to AAAA.
“This will make it a lot easier to make up games,” Bainbridge baseball coach Bryan McCorkle said. “There are awfully good teams in both those regions. Both will be tremendous challenges for our kids.
“It puts more importance on our games against Cairo and Worth County because they’ll be in the region. But at the end of the day, we just want to play.”