Today’s interviewee is Tim Hardy, the athletic director and football coach at Greater Atlanta Christian. Hardy’s answers represent a collective response from nine private schools to a proposal to have the state’s largest private schools compete for separate state championships independent of public schools beginning in 2022-23. The nine schools are Benedictine, Blessed Trinity, GAC, Lovett, Marist, Pace Academy, St. Pius X, Westminster and Woodward Academy.
Tim Hardy, AD and head football coach at GAC
1. The reclassification committee chairman is proposing to have the nine largest private schools compete for their own state championships independent of public schools. Why are you opposed to this? “First of all, we are thankful to be part of the GHSA, the guiding organization for the best high school athletics in the nation. Three of the schools in our group (Marist, Woodward, Benedictine) were founding members of the GHSA, and all of us truly value our membership. We also recognize that there has been some imbalance in the GHSA, and we want to be part of coming up with an appropriate solution that truly does improve high school athletics for all members.
“In terms of Dr. Miller’s plan [Dr. Curt Miller is the chairman of the GHSA’s reclassification committee], we categorically reject this model as something that is in any way equitable to the opportunities provided to the other members of the GHSA. In meetings with GHSA leadership in advance of the hearing on Monday, we made it clear that we do not see this as a workable model. The proposed model is based on a separate but equal concept. Though it is separate, it is not even remotely equal and does not treat the large private schools as full-fledged members of the GHSA. The proposal suggested a playoff of only four or five teams, as opposed to the 32 teams in every other division. Dr. Miller also suggested that regions could choose whether to count the games against private schools in the region standings, functionally turning the games between private and public schools into exhibition games that could be easily canceled or not made up if canceled due to weather. We do not see how a plan that makes regular-season games optional and a postseason playoff for four or five teams is equitable to the other classifications.
“There has been a lot of talk about the results of the 2020-21 school year, but it is important to note a few things about last year. First, many of the private schools were in new classifications as the result of the system the GHSA put in place during the last reclassification. Some of the imbalances can be attributed to the current system. Second, it is important to acknowledge the uniqueness of the 2020-21 school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools that were able to be in session all year had a distinct advantage over schools that were virtual. This can be seen around the state as protocols and guidelines varied greatly. We believe it is overreactive to make sweeping structural changes to the organization after the first year of new reclassification guidelines and during a global pandemic.”
2. What is your counterproposal? “The GHSA has identified competitive balance between schools as the significant issue at hand. Every reclassification cycle there is a new ‘solution’ that has numerous unintended consequences sending everyone back to the drawing board. We want to develop a solution that will last over time.
“When you look around the state, what causes some programs to be more successful than others? Is it public vs. private? Is it urban vs. rural? Is it city vs. county schools? Is it North Georgia vs. South Georgia? Is it simply the number of students enrolled in the school? Is it service areas or out-of-district students? Is it socio-economic factors? Is it the stability of coaches or school tradition? If you asked 10 people, you would get 10 different opinions. It is hard to pinpoint the cause of competitive imbalances, but the results are proof that teams are successful. Our proposal uses results, not all of the other debatable factors, to guide efforts to achieve competitive balance.
“Many forward-thinking states have adopted a competitive-balance model and have seen great results. A competitive-balance model promotes teams that have been very successful based on their finish in the state, awarding corresponding points for placement. The model also has the potential to relegate teams that have not experienced any success. In our plan, the teams from the large private schools could be promoted to higher classifications based on their success. Teams could also be relegated to a lower classification, but never below their initial class (example: GAC in 4A). This is sort of thermostat approach that auto-regulates sports based off their actual success.
“Though many states apply a competitive-balance model to their entire membership with great success, the large private schools in Georgia are volunteering to submit themselves to this system, thus promoting the specific sports that achieve at the highest level in their classification. We believe this model will work well for many years to come and might eventually be something that can be applied across the membership in efforts for competitive balance across the board.
“Additionally, we have proposed to move a few schools up from the lower classifications. Specifically, we propose that Lovett and Pace move to 3A and Westminster and GAC move to 4A. These moves will help jump-start competitive balance in these classifications.”
3. Some will say that moving private schools to higher classifications simply passes on the ‘problem’ to another classification. What do you say to that? “First of all, referencing schools that are members of an organization as a ‘problem’ shows a lot of the current mindset. Second, we agree that simply bouncing schools around classifications does not adequately address imbalances. The competitive balance model directly and specifically addresses teams and schools that need to be reclassified based on actual success data rather than perception. Each of the large private schools would have programs promoted to higher classification in the competitive-balance model, but each school also has teams that have experienced limited success that do not need to compete up. Other states have seen that the beauty of the competitive-balance model is it directly addresses the teams that need to be promoted to a higher level without unnecessarily promoting teams that are not very successful.”
4. What is next? “The large private schools will submit a formal proposal to the GHSA by the Sept. 3 deadline. It will be based on the proposal we shared at the hearing on Monday but will have some modifications. We have listened to some of the feedback we received and want to continue to work toward a solution. With such an important issue at hand, we hope there are additional hearings to discuss this before it goes to a vote with the executive committee on Oct. 3. Additionally, the large private schools have formed an exploratory committee comprised of some of our athletic directors and heads of school that continue to work on a wide variety of potential options. We want to be part of the GHSA moving forward, but we will have a good plan for all possible outcomes.”
GHSF Daily’s Four Questions on Wednesday featured GHSA reclassification chairman Dr. Curt Miller. That interview can be found here.
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