The best private and city-school basketball teams moving into higher classifications next season will remain top contenders for state titles, but public schools shouldn’t fret about private-school domination in classes 3A and 2A or even Class A, at least not in basketball.
That’s according to MaxPreps computer basketball rankings when applied to next season using the Georgia High School Association’s new classifications ratified this month.
Those rankings, listed below, suggest that the larger city and private powerhouses will continue to be powerhouses.
Highly ranked boys basketball teams at Pace Academy, St. Pius and Greater Atlanta Christian and girls teams at Buford, Jefferson, Woodward Academy, Holy Innocents’ and Woodward Academy would be leading contenders despite the GHSA moving them into higher classifications to address competitive imbalance.
Pace Academy’s boys, ranked No. 1 in Class 2A, would be ranked No. 1 in the new Class 4A. St. Pius’ boys, currently No. 2 in 4A, would be No. 3 in 6A. GAC’s boys, now No. 4 in 3A, would be No. 4 in 5A.
In the girls rankings, No. 1 Holy Innocents’ of Class A Private would be No. 1 in the new 4A. No. 2 Mount Paran Christian of A Private would be No. 1 in 2A. No. 1 Woodward Academy of 5A would be No. 2 in the new 6A.
The GHSA’s classification rules also targeted teams from city school systems, but the computer rankings indicate that a higher class won’t deter them, either. Buford’s girls, ranked No. 2 in 6A, would be No. 1 in the new 7A. Jefferson’s girls, No. 1 in 4A, would be No. 1 in the new 5A.
The ratings comparisons also don’t show a private takeover of classes 3A and 2A, which was the fear of many public schools. They lobbied to move larger private schools such as Lovett, GAC, Westminster and Pace Academy out of 3A and 2A and into higher classes, but the GHSA’s multiplier, applied for the first time to smaller private schools, resulted in several Class A privates such as Wesleyan and Eagle’s Landing Christian moving up into 3A and 2A to fill the void.
It’s just one sport, but the forecast for basketball indicates those fears are overblown. In the projected 3A and 2A top-10 rankings, public schools out-number private schools 20-0 in boys teams and 16-4 in girls teams.
The new reclassification will have a bigger impact on Class A. The GHSA currently has public and private divisions for Class A, meaning two public and two private basketball champions, but beginning next season, the two Class A divisions will mix public and private schools and classify them based on enrollment size.
According to the MaxPreps ratings, three of the four projected No. 1 Class A teams are from public schools (Social Circle, Elbert County, Lake Oconee Academy) and only one from a private school (Greenforest Christian).
The rankings below include 20 teams in each class. They show each team’s projected 2022-23 ranking to the left and current ranking from current classifications to the right. For example, Wheeler’s boys would be No. 10 in 7A, their 2022-23 classification, but they are currently No. 3 in 6A. The rankings also indicate each team’s current classification if it is different than its 2022-23 classification.
BOYS RANKINGS
Class 7A
1/1 Pebblebrook
2/2 Newton
3/3 North Gwinnett
4/4 Berkmar
5/5 Norcross
6/6 Grayson
7/7 Milton
8/2 Osborne [6A]
9/8 McEachern
10/3 Wheeler [6A]
11/5 Westlake [6A]
12/9 East Coweta
13/6 Buford [6A]
14/10 Hillgrove
15/11 South Gwinnett
16/12 West Forsyth
17/13 Archer
18/14 Cherokee
19/17 Parkview
20/18 Lowndes
Class 6A
1/1 Shiloh
2/4 Grovetown
3/2 St. Pius [5A]
4/7 Alexander
5/9 River Ridge
6/11 Sequoyah
7/4 Jonesboro [5A]
8/15 Roswell [7A]
9/16 Etowah [7A]
10/9 Marist [4A]
11/19 Newnan [7A]
12/14 Pope
13/16 Langston Hughes
14/17 Lee County
15/18 Effingham County
16/19 Evans
17/21 Lanier
18/20 Rome
19/22 Glynn Academy
20/23 North Atlanta
Class 5A
1/1 Eagle’s Landing
2/8 Centennial [6A]
3/10 Tucker [6A]
4/4 Greater Atlanta Christian [3A]
5/5 Tri-Cities
6/6 Lithia Springs
7/12 Statesboro [6A]
8/4 Jefferson [4A]
9/7 Chapel Hill
10/13 Kell [6A]
11/9 Jones County
12/10 Lithonia
13/12 Dutchtown
14/14 Mays [4A]
15/14 Warner Robins
16/15 Hiram
17/27 Chattahoochee [6A]
18/17 Northside-Columbus
19/18 Calhoun
20/20 Decatur
Class 4A
1/1 Pace Academy [2A]
2/1 McDonough
3/3 Woodland-Stockbridge [5A]
4/5 Baldwin
5/8 Southwest DeKalb [5A]
6/6 Druid Hills
7/7 Westover
8/8 Bainbridge
9/11 Walnut Grove [5A]
10/11 Madison County
11/10 Miller Grove
12/12 LaGrange
13/13 Fayette County
14/15 East Hall
15/16 Stockbridge [5A]
16/13 North Hall [3A]
17/9 Lovett [2A]
18/16 North Oconee
19/17 Benedictine
20/16 Burke County [3A]
Class 3A
1/1 Sandy Creek
2/2 Monroe [4A]
3/3 Salem
4/7 Cross Creek
5/8 LaFayette
6/9 Groves
7/10 Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe
8/11 Johnson-Savannah
9/12 Beach
10/8 Thomasville [2A]
11/15 Hart County
12/19 Dougherty [4A]
13/17 Oconee County
14/18 Peach County
15/21 White County
16/19 Calvary Day [A Private]
17/22 Liberty County
18/23 Carver-Atlanta
19/24 Franklin County
20/24 Savannah Country Day [A Private]
Class 2A
1/2 Columbia
2/2 Windsor Forest [3A]
3/3 Westside-Augusta
4/4 Washington County
5/5 Thomson [3A]
6/6 Sumter County [3A]
7/3 Spencer [4A]
8/5 Butler
9/6 Vidalia
10/4 Drew Charter [A Public]
11/5 North Cobb Christian [A Private]
12/9 Providence Christian [A Private]
13/7 Callaway
14/10 Walker [A Private]
15/14 Tattnall County [3A]
16/10 South Atlanta
17/15 Eagle’s Landing Christian [A Private]
18/11 KIPP Atlanta Collegiate
19/12 Therrell
20/14 Model
Class A Division 1
1/1 Social Circle
2/2 Mount Pisgah Christian
3/3 Dublin
4/3 Galloway
5/4 King’s Ridge Christian
6/6 Tallulah Falls
7/8 Darlington
8/13 Mount Vernon
9/13 Chattooga [2A]
10/16 St. Francis
11/16 Rabun County [2A]
12/17 Heard County [2A]
13/18 Paideia
14/20 Whitefield Academy
15/19 Swainsboro [2A]
16/20 Woodville-Tompkins [2A]
17/18 Bryan County
18/25 Mount Bethel Christian
19/20 Pelham
20/27 Athens Christian
Class A Division 2
1/1 Greenforest Christian
2/2 Calhoun County
3/7 Christian Heritage
4/5 Manchester
5/6 Mitchell County
6/7 Lanier County
7/8 Turner County
8/9 Washington-Wilkes
9/10 Chattahoochee County
10/11 Wheeler County
11/12 Hancock Central
12/21 Southwest Atlanta Christian
13/22 W.D. Mohammed
14/13 Towns County
15/14 Portal
16/16 Dooly County
17/15 Warren County
18/17 Macon County
19/22 Early County [2A]
20/19 Charlton County
GIRLS RANKINGS
Class 7A
1/2 Buford [6A]
2/1 Brookwood
3/3 Grayson
4/4 Harrison
5/4 Carrollton [6A]
6/6 Norcross
7/7 Cherokee
8/8 West Forsyth
9/9 South Forsyth
10/10 Peachtree Ridge
11/12 Campbell
12/13 Lowndes
13/14 Archer
14/17 Valdosta [6A]
15/15 Hillgrove
16/17 East Coweta
17/18 McEachern
18/19 North Paulding
19/20 Marietta
20/21 Colquitt County
Class 6A
1/1 Brunswick
2/1 Woodward Academy [5A]
3/3 River Ridge
4/2 North Forsyth [7A]
5/5 Tift County [7A]
6/5 Lovejoy
7/7 Rome
8/9 Langston Hughes
9/11 Sequoyah
10/12 Houston County
11/3 Forest Park [5A]
12/3 Marist [4A]
13/11 Woodstock [7A]
14/14 Sprayberry
15/15 Lee County
16/16 Grovetown
17/18 Rockdale County
18/16 Roswell [7A]
19/19 Habersham Central
20/22 Alpharetta [7A]
Class 5A
1/1 Jefferson [4A]
2/6 Statesboro [6A]
3/8 Dalton [6A]
4/10 Kell [6A]
5/2 Jackson
6/4 Northside-Columbus
7/5 Calhoun
8/6 Warner Robins
9/13 Winder-Barrow [6A]
10/8 Greenbrier
11/7 Union Grove
12/9 Cass
13/20 Cambridge [6A]
14/21 Bradwell Institute [6A]
15/5 Greater Atlanta Christian [3AA]
16/12 Loganville
17/13 McIntosh
18/14 Ware County
19/16 Eagle’s Landing
20/15 Arabia Mountain [4A]
Class 4A
1/1 Holy Innocents’ [A Private]
2/2 Luella
3/5 Baldwin
4/10 Griffin [5A]
5/7 Cedar Shoals
6/11 Stockbridge [5A]
7/8 Westover
8/9 North Oconee
9/10 Trinity Christian [A Private]
10/10 Heritage-Ringgold
11/12 East Forsyth [3AA]
12/11 Bainbridge
13/13 Burke County [3AA]
14/12 Chestatee
15/15 North Hall [3AA]
16/14 Hardaway
17/15 Southwest DeKalb [5A]
18/16 West Laurens
19/17 Northwest Whitfield
20/25 Wayne County [5A]
Class 3A
1/1 Lumpkin County
2/2 Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe
3/4 Hebron Christian [A Private]
4/3 Cross Creek
5/6 Wesleyan [A Private]
6/4 Carver-Columbus [4A]
7/7 Calvary Day [A Private]
8/6 Pickens [4A]
9/7 Oconee County
10/8 Ringgold
11/10 White County
12/11 Savannah Country Day [A Private]
13/14 Hart County
14/16 Dawson County
15/14 Thomasville [2A]
16/20 Peach County
17/21 Morgan County
18/18 Monroe [4A]
19/19 Dougherty [4A]
20/23 Franklin County
Class 2A
1/2 Mount Paran Christian [A Private]
2/3 Fannin County
3/4 Pierce County [3A]
4/5 Josey
5/6 Northeast
6/6 Murray County [3A]
7/9 Sumter County [3A]
8/7 Union County
9/8 Callaway
10/11 East Jackson [3A]
11/9 Washington County
12/10 Laney
13/12 Dodge County
14/14 Athens Academy [A Private]
15/15 Landmark Christian [A Private]
16/17 Tattnall County [3A]
17/18 Thomson [3A]
18/19 Central-Macon [3A]
19/20 Fellowship Christian [A Private]
20/22 Redan [3A]
Class A Division 1
1/1 Elbert County [2A]
2/3 St. Francis
3/2 Swainsboro [2A]
4/5 Galloway
5/4 Rabun County [2A]
6/8 Darlington
7/12 Tallulah Falls
8/11 Heard County [2A]
9/13 Lamar County [2A]
10/15 Woodville-Tompkins [2A]
11/3 Screven County
12/4 Pelham
13/5 Bryan County
14/17 Mount Vernon
15/6 Dublin
16/19 Prince Avenue Christian
17/16 Bacon County [2A]
18/17 Oglethorpe County [2A]
19/19 Pepperell [2A]
20/12 Claxton
Class A Division 2
1/1 Lake Oconee Academy
2/2 Montgomery County
3/7 Taylor County
4/8 Telfair County
5/10 Clinch County
6/9 Mount Zion
7/11 Charlton County
8/13 Schley County
9/14 Hancock Central
10/23 Early County [2A]
11/16 Turner County
12/18 Central-Talbotton
13/19 Randolph-Clay
14/21 Seminole County
15/32 Greenforest Christian
16/33 Aquinas
17/23 Dooly County
18/24 Jenkins County
19/26 Manchester
20/27 Towns County
About the Author
