The Georgia High School Association released its latest classification assignments Wednesday afternoon, leaving the majority of Gwinnett County's largest schools in the new Class AAAAAAA.

The GHSA's Reclassification Committee met to hear final appeals Wednesday, then placed schools in classifications for the next athletic cycle beginning with the 2016-17 school year. Seventeen of Gwinnett's 24 high schools will be part of AAAAAAA, which will feature 48 total schools.

Dacula can stay in the class where it was placed or it can request to play up a classification in AAAAAAA to remain with the 17 Gwinnett schools - Mill Creek, Norcross, Brookwood, Peachtree Ridge, Meadowcreek, Collins Hill, Parkview, Berkmar, Grayson, North Gwinnett, Duluth, South Gwinnett, Archer, Shiloh, Central Gwinnett, Discovery and Mountain View. Read more...


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For Berry, giving up has never been an option. He's a tri-sport athlete at Hampton High School in metro Atlanta who recently signed a wrestling scholarship to wrestle at reigning NCAA DII national champion St. Cloud State. Berry will attend St. Cloud State next fall, joining a wrestling team that contends for the NCAA Division II national title year after year.

"I've always said that having confidence is the start of having success and in order to be something you have to do something," said Berry, when discussing his overcoming of adversity to receive his wrestling scholarship. "I lost almost all of my matches in middle school and in high school I decided I didn't want to be the minority anymore."

Morgan County High School Athletic Director Steve Cisson announced this week that all of the Bulldog athletic teams have joined forces with Positive Athlete Georgia. The organization is headed up by former University of Georgia star Hines Ward who also played 14 years for the Pittsburg Steelers of the NFL. Morgan County's first recipient was swimmer Kylie Harris this past summer.

Here's a description from the Positive Athlete Georgia website at Geogia Positive Athletes. Positive Athlete Georgia is a movement by high-character professional athletes tied to Georgia professional and collegiate sports teams to promote the benefits of "positivity" to young athletes. These athletes believe it is crucial to begin shaping the futures of young athletes for life skills beyond athletic competition and to learn how to give back to their community. Current and former and professional athletes are members of this organization, and high school athletes will be invited to join based on being nominated by a coach, school administrator, parent or fan for the annual Georgia Positive High School Athlete Awards. Read more...

Vernetta Head's 13 year-old son, Harrison, is academically inclined - he favors chess and robotics over basketball or football.

But Head wants the Sutton Middle School eighth-grader to be well-rounded and to be more physical. So she attended the Nov. 18 meeting of the North Atlanta Parents for Public Schools held at SMS to find out what options are available to him when he heads off to North Atlanta High School.

"We have had a talk about it and I said, 'This year, you will play a sport,'" she said with a smile. The first semester Harrison ran cross country; now he is training to play lacrosse.

Approximately 50 parents attended the Wednesday afternoon meeting titled, "Sports & Team Spirit in Our North Atlanta Cluster."

On hand to talk about what is offered at North Atlanta High School and at SMS were Dwike Leonard, SMS athletic director; Scotty East, NAHS sports booster board president; and Andre Regan, NAHS athletic director.

"Sports will help our students learn coping skills," Leonard told parents. "We are trying to develop the whole child."

At SMS, students can participate in sports such as basketball, football, cheerleading, track and field, softball, soccer, cross country, golf, volleyball, tennis and wrestling.