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GWA making the big move
Published December 17, 2008
MONROE — After 40 years and 11 state titles, George Walton Academy is leaving the Georgia Independent School Association.
Walton County’s largest private school has applied to join the Georgia High School Association in 2010.
“The GISA has been a great fit for us historically,” said Bruce Williamson, chairman of the GWA Board of Trustees. “But it’s gotten to the point where we are having to take kids out of school incessantly to travel all over Georgia to compete, especially with the spring sports. As an institution, our main focus is the classroom and it hurts us academically.”
GWA Head Master William Nicholson brought the recommendation before the trustees in October and the board quickly and unanimously approved the move. Although GWA won’t find out until April whether it’s officially been accepted, GHSA approval is considered a formality.
The biggest unknown is in which region the Bulldogs will be placed. Based on its student population, GWA knows it will compete in Class A, which comprises the states smallest schools with 525 or fewer students in grades 9-12.
The GHSA attempts to construct its regions based on the proximity of the competing schools.
As of now, the best fit for GWA would be Region 8, which currently includes such schools as Social Circle, Athens Academy, Athens Christian, Hebron Christian and Prince Avenue, all within an hour’s drive or less of Monroe.
“There are no guarantees, but we’re hoping to get in that region,” said GWA Upper School Principal Steve Whitley. “It would be a big help as far as travel and time outside of the classroom.”
The GWA administration had been considering making a move for several years but delayed a decision in hopes more schools would either stay or join the GISA. Instead, four Class AAA GISA schools in the metro-Atlanta area have left for the GHSA in the past five years.
“We’ve tried to talk other schools into staying [in GISA],” Nicholson said. “We’ve waited and hoped more schools would get in or come back.
“But instead some schools would join and stay a couple of years and then move to GHSA and leave us high and dry.”
Mostly, it left GWA isolated in north Georgia with few schools its own size to compete against.
This past fall, the Bulldogs football team traveled to Macon twice, Milledgeville, Cumming and Atlanta for games.
“A two or three hour bus ride should be a reward for a good season,” said Doug Ford, former GWA Booster Club president. “It shouldn’t have to be a weekly thing.”
For some sports —such as baseball, softball, basketball, which often require teams to play multiple games each week during the season — the long-distance trips were especially time-consuming and costly.
“Going (to the) GHSA will allow us to play locally and help our kids get home more quickly after games,” said GWA girls basketball coach Lori Hines.
GWA was originally a member of the Southeast Association of Independent Schools when the school opened in 1969. The SEAIS merged with the GISA in the 1980s to form a single private school league.
“The bottom line is, we’re not unhappy with GISA competition,” Nicholson said. “We hate leaving. But when all is said and done, we have to do what best for our students.”
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