New Region, Familiar Foes for Cherokee

and will be together in the 11-team Region 7-AAAAA the next two years under the realignment setup the Georgia High School Association announced Tuesday, while will stay with most of its current region rivals.

The new regions are part of the GHSA’s .

A primary reason for the 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.

Either way, neighboring Creekview and Sequoyah will see a lot of each other in the second-highest GHSA class.

The Grizzlies and Chiefs are in a subregion with , and . The other subregion consists of , , and from the current Region 5-AAAA; , which is moving up from AAA; and the new north Fulton high school, Cambridge.

The subregions shouldn’t come into play for Cherokee, which will remain in the top classification. The Warriors’ new Region 5-AAAAAA looks a lot like the current, compact Region 5-AAAAA.

Cherokee, , , , and are staying together in the new region. is leaving, to be replaced by and .

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 the schools in the Canton-Sixes area?