The heat-related policy for football, the legality of last spring’s reclassification vote and splitting Class A schools into two subdivisions by urban and rural areas are some of the top items to be discussed at Monday’s meeting of the Georgia High School Association.
The GHSA’s 50-person Executive Committee holds two regular meetings per year for the purpose of reviewing and voting on policy and procedures for the state’s 443 high schools.
The most pressing issue is the GHSA’s policy for hot weather conditions. Football players at Fitzgerald and Locust Grove high schools died last month after collapsing in practices. However, there have been no determinations that either death was because of heat-related reasons.
Dr. Ralph Swearngin, the GHSA’s executive director, said it is important for the committee to discuss the heat policy, although it is unlikely there will be any major rules changed, proposed or voted upon Monday. The GHSA is awaiting the results of a three-year study on the relationship between heat illness and football participation by the University of Georgia’s Michael Ferrara.
The study’s field work is scheduled to be finished by the end of October, with extensive medical data provided and some medical recommendations expected by January.
“On Monday, we want to hear from everybody and start collecting ideas on what might need our attention,” Swearngin said. “Then we’ll take a look at Dr. Ferrara’s report and see if we’re on the right track or not, and then we’ll probably go a lot further in our discussions at our next meeting.”
A slim possibility is moving the start date for preseason football practices and games. Swearngin said he hasn’t been approached by any committee members with that idea, one that is popular with the general public.
“That’s a very common thing that people send into us, that maybe we’re starting the practices and games too early,” he said. “There are a lot of issues involved with doing something like that, but we’re not discarding any ideas before we discuss them.”
A more likely possibility is for the GHSA to establish a statewide policy on hot weather conditions. Currently, the GHSA lets each school district decide its heat policy.
“What we’re finding out, which is what some other states have already determined, is that a one-size-fits-all ruling might not work so well,” Swearngin said. “First, you don’t have one specific type of policy that all the medical groups agree on.
“Then you’d have the situation where one rule would apply in Rabun County [north Georgia] as it would at Charlton County [south Georgia]. If that happened, Charlton might not ever have a football practice. But again, we’ll discuss every idea out there, review the medical study, and go from there.”
Also, Region 2-A has made a proposal to review and discuss the circumstances surrounding the 26-24 vote in May to expand the state’s five classifications to six. That is scheduled to take effect in August 2012.
“At that meeting last spring, [GHSA attorney Alan Connell] gave his interpretation of the GHSA bylaws and determined what went on was legal, and that particular region wants to challenge that interpretation,” Swearngin said.
When asked what could be the result of the challenge, Swearngin said: “I don’t know. We’ve never had anything like this happen before, so I don’t want to speculate.”
Finally, there’s a proposal to divide Class A between schools located in urban and rural areas in an effort to balance competition.
“I just don’t think it’s fair that a school that pulls from 800,000 people in a county can play in the same league as another school that pulls from 8,000. This is the best way to address that,” Wilcox County football coach Mark Ledford said.
“It may get it to where there are apples playing apples, rather than apples playing oranges like it is right now.”
The athletic director at one of Atlanta’s more successful Class A private schools, Wesleyan’s Marc Khedouri, was on the subcommittee that submitted the proposal.
“I did vote for it because it was one of the few proposals that didn’t separate private and public schools. We are adamantly opposed to any private and public split whatsoever.
“Whether or not this will get enough support by the Executive Committee, I don’t know, because, in effect, it does create a seventh classification. Whether or not that will fly, I don’t know. I think we’re going to have a really hard time from logistical standpoint with people running the new six classifications, so I can’t imagine that we can do seven. But I guess we’ll have to see.”
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