Bibb County sports face new opponents, tough travel thanks to new classifications

Another round of redistricting hits Georgia high schools this year, and Macon’s schools will see quite a shake-up.

The new regions take effect for the 2024-25 season. Every Bibb County school except Rutland will be in a new classification this year, and many will face a slew of new foes in all sports.

Most Bibb County schools played at the AA level in recent seasons. Those schools, Central, ACE, Northeast and Southwest, will now play in the A-Division I classification. Westside, formerly a AAAA school, drops down to AA and joins Rutland in a region.

Howard is the lone Macon public school in its own separate region and now also the highest classification in town, as the Huskies moved to the AAA level and will join a region with schools from a variety of locations including Augusta and Milledgeville.

Bibb County athletic director Kevin Grooms spoke about the new regions and what they would mean for certain schools.

“We’re excited about it,” Grooms said. “There’s gonna be some changes and some things that don’t work, you know, but there’s a lot of good things with it. The classifications are different for almost every school, and we think they make a lot of sense.”

The reshuffling means a better competitive balance for these schools in most sports, but also some interesting opponents — some familiar, others new.

The A-Division I region in particular brings some intrigue.

A-Division I Region 2

• ACE Charter
• Central
• Northeast
• Southwest
• Dublin
• Washington County
• East Laurens
• Dodge County
• Jefferson County
• Bleckley County

Northeast and Southwest played in a similar region in the mid-2010s, facing off regularly against powerful teams like Dublin, Bleckley and Washington County. The move will likely reignite some old rivalries, Grooms said.

“When I coached at Northeast, we played with those guys a lot, and there’s some great history there,” Grooms said. “It’ll be really competitive for football and all the sports.”

Southwest athletic director and head football coach Joe Dupree said he was also familiar with most of the teams in the region. The Patriots coach wasn’t surprised with the new classifications, but more intrigued by the region’s opponents.

“The region that we’re in is a tough one, with a lot of rich tradition that we know about,” Dupree said. “It will be fun to play some of those teams, but my mindset for my team is always to just play whoever they put in front of you.”

Central never played in that region, instead often facing Mary Persons, Upson-Lee and schools hailing from Columbus while they bounced around the 3A level from the 2010s to 2021, but still have some familiarity with them historically.

ACE, on the other hand, will face many of the schools in the region for the first time ever due to the youth of their program. Both Grooms and Dupree praised the level of competition coming from schools like Bleckley, Washington and others.

“It’s good for our kids to play against that elite competition,” Grooms said. “Those are great teams, and it will help them grow to face that level.”

Dupree, familiar with the coaches of the region thanks to his long tenure at Southwest, echoed Grooms’ praise for some of the A-Division I teams.

“The coaches over there are really talented, and our kids will take on that competitive mindset,” he said.

The three Bibb County schools outside the A-Division I region are Westside, Rutland and Howard. The latter two share a region at the AA level, while Howard is the lone Bibb County school alone in a region.

AA Region 2

• Westside
• Rutland
• Callaway
• Morgan County
• Pike County
• Jackson

AAA Region 4

• Howard
• Aquinas
• Baldwin
• Cross Creek
• Harlem
• Hephzibah
• Richmond Academy
• West Laurens
• Westside, Augusta

Westside saw some of their region’s schools in past class reshuffling, including when they shared a AAA region with Pike County and Jackson from 2016 to 2020. Rutland will be a bit less familiar with them.

Seminoles athletic director and girls basketball coach Candice Roberson said that the new region gives them a sigh of relief given their most recent competition at AAAA.

“Facing schools like Griffin, Baldwin and Perry who don’t just win region championships, they win the whole state in multiple sports, that’s tough,” Roberson said. “This new region will have a lot of quality schools, there’s absolutely some tough competition. But it will give us some breathing room.”

Howard will be much less familiar with their opponents. While they have a long history against Baldwin from their time in AAAA, the Huskies have little to no experience with their other foes.

“Looking on the bright side, which you have to do, it’s new opponents, which is always fun,” said Howard athletic director and head girls basketball coach Latavia Coleman. “Overall, for all the athletics together, it’s a good thing competition speaking. Our teams will be better matched for these teams.”

Unfortunately for Coleman’s girls basketball team, the Baldwin Braves will continue to be a thorn in their side. The defending state champs are the latest in a long string of fierce opponents for the Huskies — Howard previously shared regions with Spalding and Griffin, who also regularly competed for state trophies.

Revenue and travel

The six-team region will give the Seminoles and Hurricanes flexibility when it comes to football schedules, but because most Macon schools are in the 10-team region and Howard will be grouped with nine teams, scheduling becomes an issue as far as football is concerned.

“It is hard, because we have so many schools here, to have everyone play each other with the new regions,” Grooms said.

The A-Division I schools have space for just a single non-region game in a 10-game slate, with the other nine reserved for their region contests. This means most won’t get to play longtime rivals like Rutland, Westside or Howard.

“The way I’ve tried to do it is get some of those matches in the preseason, to face the Macon schools then because the kids want to see guys they know on the field,” Dupree said.

Preseason games don’t help with revenue problems, though. While losing the emotions associated with a rivalry game can hurt, lost money can be a bigger issue for Bibb County schools.

“Our inner city games were our biggest revenue sources. The kids want to play against the schools they know. With us not being able to play the Southwests and Centrals in football, our revenue will take a hit,” she said. “There’s pros and cons to it.”

Schools like Dublin or Bleckley County with fervent fanbases should help balance the revenue lost from not playing the schools in AA or AAA, Grooms said.

“It isn’t great for football because yeah, we’ll probably lose some revenue because we won’t see those rivalry games because everyone won’t get to play someone like Westside,” Grooms said. “But that will be counteracted by the big crowds for some of our opposing teams.”

Roberson said it would be tough for football, but other sports would have an easier time scheduling rivals.

“Like I said, it hurts for football, but we’ll be able to work around it in other sports where we play more games. Those Macon schools will get to face each other,” Roberson said, “And a potential fix for football could be subdividing the region if it has 10 teams… there’s always a chance that happens next year.”

As for travel, Howard is the worst off, with six different Augusta area schools in their region on top of trips to West Laurens and Baldwin.

“It’s really difficult for us, I really don’t understand, and I thought about appealing,” Coleman said. “That didn’t happen. But we’ll play the schools. I’ve tried my hardest for scheduling not to (schedule) road games at those Augusta schools back-to-back, but you can’t always avoid that.”

The drive from Howard to Augusta clocks in at around two and a half hours. For the football team that travels once a week, it’s an inconvenience but ultimately not an immense obstacle. For other sports — basketball, baseball or soccer, for example — it means potentially trekking to the northeast Georgia schools twice in the same week.

Coleman said there was no particular reason for the Huskies being lumped in with several Augusta schools

“I feel for (Howard athletic director and girls basketball coach) Latavia Coleman, because she has all that travel to Augusta,” Roberson said. “It’s hard enough for football, but when you think about other sports that travel on a Tuesday, multiple trips that far can get exhausting.”

Westside’s furthest trip will be Callaway, close to two hours away.

“The big thing about trips like that, you just have to stay focused,” Roberson said. “Not only are they one of the toughest teams in most sports, they’re far away. You just gotta lock in when you get off that bus.”

Grooms said the better competitive balance for Howard would hopefully balance the difficult travel requirements. The consolation for the Macon schools in the crowded A-Division I region is that most schools are an hour apart or less.

“That’s one of the things we like about most of our Macon schools being there in that region, we avoided some tougher travel there,” Grooms said.

Travel and revenue aside, Grooms and the athletic directors are most excited about the renewed competitive balance. It will give Bibb County schools an improved shot at a state title, something that has eluded the county for a while now.

“We really think it puts everyone on a better competitive level this time around, and we’re excited to see it,” Grooms said.