This year, the GHSA put in place a new rule for the 2024-2025 school year which states that private member schools in A, 2A, and 3A will compete in a combined championship bracket of private membership schools only. Public and Non-Public Schools in Classes A DI, 2A and 3A will play in their assigned regions during the regular season, but private member schools will compete in a combined championship bracket of private schools only.

For many sports such as football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, tennis, soccer and more, a new ranking system ranks the top 32 teams based on Winning Percentage, Opponents Winning Percentage, Opponents Winning Percentage, and Opponents’ Opponents’ Winning Percentage, and puts them in a tournament bracket based on these rankings.

As for cross country, golf, track, and a few other sports, all the A-3A schools are divided into four sections, where sections one and two compete in a preliminary race and sections three and four will compete in a different preliminary race. The top 12 teams in each of these sectionals will qualify for the state meet.

How does this affect Athens Academy sports? For Athens Academy, this new system means that we could be paired up against a 3A Lovett, Holy Innocents, or Wesleyan. Athens Academy has already dropped down to A after being in 2A the past two years, but we will now have to face schools much bigger than us in a fight for a state championship. However, Cross Country coach Geoffrey Walton says he is excited for the tougher competition. When asked about it, he said, “I think we have always had the “bring it on mentality” as a team, and this can only make us better.” Similarly, Tucker Rhodes, starting tight end and defensive lineman for the football team, says that he is “excited to show those 3A schools what we are made of.”

All in all, the new GHSA rule will pose a much tougher challenge for all of our athletics teams this year, but many Spartan athletes are ready for the challenge.