GHSA relents, allows Gainesville to play Friday against Hughes at near full strength

Gainesville will play Hughes in the Class 5A football quarterfinals Friday at near full strength as the Georgia High School Association decided Monday not to fight a restraining order that kept it from suspending 34 Gainesville players.

The turning point in the deadlock took place Sunday, according to GHSA executive director Tim Scott.

Gainesville pointed out an inconsistent ruling between the Gainesville case and one involving Macon schools Southwest and Northeast in a game played Aug. 22.

Similar to the Nov. 21 Gainesville-Brunswick playoff game, the Northeast-Southwest game was suspended in the third quarter and one team declared the winner, but the GHSA did not suspend all players who left the bench area during the Macon altercation.

“We didn’t address it the same way we addressed this situation,” Scott said Monday afternoon. “I felt we handled this one (the Gainesville case) by the bylaws, but the earlier one, I’m not sure we did what we needed to do and felt I needed to correct the situation. ... When there’s an inconsistency with what we do at the office, it’s my responsibility, and I needed to correct it.”

The GHSA suspended 79 players after Gainesville’s Nov. 21 playoff victory over Brunswick, 38 for Gainesville. after a fight that a Brunswick player initiated.

The decision to play the Gainesville-Hughes game Friday resulted in a schedule change for both 5A semifinals, which now will be played Thursday, Dec. 11.

The Roswell-Thomas County Central game, originally scheduled for this Friday, will be pushed back to ensure all semifinal teams have the same rest before the championship game. Rome will play winner of Gainesville-Hughes game.

The schedule change also affects Class 6A, which was scheduled to play its championship game Wednesday, Dec. 17. Class 6A now will take the Tuesday slot, allowing the 5A finalists six days of rest before a Dec. 17 title game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Gainesville suspension background

The Gainesville drama began with an altercation among players during the Red Elephants’ second-round playoff game against Brunswick.

Most of the suspended players did not physically engage other players but were found on video to have left the bench area during the altercation, subjecting them to penalties.

Gainesville won an appeal Nov. 24 before the GHSA’s board of trustees to get four players reinstated. Two days later, a Superior Court judge in Hall County granted Gainesville City Schools a restraining order preventing the GHSA from enforcing the suspensions until a hearing.

The GHSA later that day announced it was indefinitely postponing the Gainesville-Hughes semifinal game, scheduled for last Friday. The GHSA indicated it would file an appeal, though Scott was not certain if one was filed officially.

Scott said the decision to suspend the Gainesville players was the right one, just not in light of inconsistent rulings. He defended the principle of automatic suspensions for players leaving the bench area during altercations.

“It’s a whole lot safer dealing with seven or eight kids fighting than 80 fighting and running around,” Scott said. “Your fight plan should be to send a few coaches to the field to help and the rest of the coaches should turn their back to the field and make sure no one enters.”

Scott said his office and the GHSA’s executive committee would review bylaws this month and beyond to make fight and ejection rules are clearer. Gainesville pointed out unclear language that was persuasive to the judge.

The GHSA originally announced that 39 Gainesville players were suspended, then corrected the number to 38. Gainesville chose not to appeal the suspensions of four players who actively engaged in the altercation and will hold those players out of Friday’s game, Gainesville athletic director Adam Lindsey said.