The Georgia High School Association tweaked spring football, reigned in gymnasts’ uniforms and doubled fines for coaches missing rules clinics Monday at a relatively uneventful executive committee meeting in Macon.
The agenda called for more discussion on the GHSA’s competitive-balance model for reclassifying schools based on athletic success instead of enrollment, but the GHSA office felt it did that well enough in Sunday’s sub-committee meetings and adjourned Monday’s meeting without addressing it. No vote was planned or taken on that issue.
GHSA associate director Don Corr, who helped formulate the reclass plan, said that he has received more questions than critiques so far. Corr helped detail the plan, which could go into effect during the 2026-27 academic year, to the AJC on Sunday.
“I don’t know that we got enough feedback one way or the other, mostly questions about how it would work,” Corr said. “A number of our member schools are not familiar with a competitive-balance model.’'
The executive committee approved a proposal to allow football teams to have controlled spring scrimmages and practices involving other teams. The bylaws previously allowed multiple teams to work out together in spring only for games or jamborees.
In gymnastics, the GHSA is mandating that the athletes wear “school-issued uniform of modest proportions” during meets. Wearing school-issued uniforms or apparel is expected in all sports, but the GHSA elected to ensure that gymnasts are toeing the line as they frequently compete in their own leotards, often those representing their club teams.
Coaches who miss rules clinics must now pay $200 instead of $100. The GHSA collected $122,000 in clinic fines during the 2023-24 academic year, meaning 1,220 coaches missed online clinics that educate them on rules and procedures.
“The issue here isn’t to get more money,’’ Corr said. “It’s to make it steep enough that more coaches take classes.”
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