GHSA Moves Marietta West

The new regions the Georgia High School Association announced Tuesday will switch ties from east to west while turning toward the north and east.

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.

Marietta shouldn't have to worry about subregions, but the Blue Devils will have to learn the directions to a new set of region rivals.

Instead of , , , , and to the east and north, Marietta will be grouped the next two years in the new Region 4-AAAAAA with , , , , , , and .

Meanwhile, Osborne will be hitting the roads Marietta is using now to get to the schools in its new region, the 11-school 7-AAAAA, which is largely a combination of the current Region 5-AAAA North and Region 7-AAAA.

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

Instead, the Cardinals 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 Marietta, Osborne and Walker?