Region Changes Little for Walton, Wheeler

The new regions the Georgia High School Association announced Tuesday will keep and with most of the same schools and force to travel north and east instead of west and south.

Meanwhile, the will remain in the smallest-enrollment classification, A, in a subregion of 6-A with Darlington, , Mount Pisgah, Mount Zion-Carrollton, , and Whitefield Academy.

The new regions are part of the GHSA’s .

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

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

There won’t be much reason for Wheeler and Walton to worry about subregions. Their new Region 5-AAAAAA is largely the same as their current 5-AAAAA.

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

Subregions could come into play for Pope when it joins the new 11-school Region 7-AAAAA, which is largely a combination of the current Region 5-AAAA North and Region 7-AAAA.

The new alignment cuts Pope’s regional ties to the high schools in Paulding and Douglas counties.

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

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

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

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