Athletics: Welcome Back & GHSA Update

Welcome back to school! It’s great to see the campus full of eager faces of students, faculty, and supporters. I am thrilled to be a part of the 2015-2016 school year and hope to serve to the best of my ability. I am thankful for each student and parent I meet and am eager to celebrate the commitment made by so many.

The summer has been inspiring as I have watched so many of our teams work and prepare for the seasons that lie ahead. Volleyball and softball are already competing, and I hope you will come out and cheer on these fine teams as soon as possible. Cross country had their first unofficial run this past Saturday, and I know the excitement around that program is great. Crew has begun the process of establishing their expectations, and I know they will be on the water soon. Football participated in a scrimmage last Friday and they are heading to Orlando at the end of the week for their contests with Melbourne Central Catholic (varsity) and Desoto Central High School (junior varsity) at Walt Disney World. The fabulous cheer squads have been by them at the squad scrimmage and will accompany them to Orlando.

I hope you will make plans to support us at as many events as possible this year. The time and commitment by so many of our student-athletes, coaches, and community members is truly appreciated and should be celebrated.

Please make plans to attend the many festivities that will be happening on Friday, Aug. 28, before the Tigers face Bremen on Chris Hunter Stadium’s Jerry Sharp Field at 7:30 p.m. There will be a pep rally in The Quad at 2:15 p.m. for all students ELA-12, and at 3:30, Tigerfest will begin. All families are invited to attend. Tigerfest will include two super-sized water slides, an obstacle course, laser tag, face painting, carnival food, and more. At 5:30 p.m., there will be a barbecue dinner on Zelle Patio followed by face painting at 6:30 p.m. and a spirit parade to the game. I hope everyone will attend the ribbon cutting ceremony at 7:00 p.m. to celebrate our new turf field prior to kickoff. Alumni football players and cheerleaders have been invited to join us and are asked to wear an old jersey, T-shirt or shake a pom pom! These alumni athletes will be recognized at a very brief on-field ceremony during halftime.

GHSA

As reported by several media outlets, the GHSA has voted on a proposal that will influence the reclassification for member schools across the state. I wanted to briefly summarize what we understand about this policy.

There will essentially be seven classifications, a small school class which will be split between public and private (currently Class A); a super 44 or 45, which will be the largest schools with enrollment over 2,000; and five classifications in between. GHSA is currently meeting about where the classifications will be divided.

If a school lands in the small school class, it will not have to submit to any other criteria. If a school lands in a larger class, then a new policy will go into effect. This policy states that if more than 3% of the school’s student body resides outside of its service area, then that school must move up one classification.

If we used the current naming system A-7A, we feel that there are two options for Darlington:

We could be classified as a Class A school.
If we are too large for Class A, then we would be AA; however, with the new rule, we would have to play up to Class AAA because more than 3% of our students live outside of our service area.

Rest assured that we feel comfortable and hope that our current enrollment allows us to play in the classification that best fits the needs of our students. I will keep you informed as this process unfolds.

Go Tigers!