Since its launch in January 2007, the NFHS Learning Center (www.NFHSLearn.com) has strived to make the NFHS the national leader in interscholastic education.

In that time, NFHSLearn has mainly been geared toward high school coaches, offering 16 sport-specific coaching courses as part of its National Certification Program. Individuals can become an Accredited Interscholastic Coach or a Certified Interscholastic Coach at www.NFHSLearn.com.

However, the Learning Center also offers many other courses that can be taken by students, parents, administrators and officials, several of which are free such as "Concussion in Sports" and the newly released "Sudden Cardiac Arrest."

This year, in an effort to improve the educational experience for a broader audience, NFHSLearn has launched several new courses, including the first-ever course designed specifically for officials.

The new course, "Interscholastic Officiating," is available for free to full members of the NFHS Officials Association, and covers the introductory skills and concepts required of officials in all sports.

"Up to this point, NFHSLearn has been a coach-driven website. With these new developments, we are hoping to truly become the learning center for all constituents," said Dan Schuster, director of coach education at NFHS.

New courses have also been launched for student team captains and music adjudicators, providing more useful resources for both students and educators. Read more...

MCDONOUGH - It's been 31 years since former girls and boys basketball coach Chuck Miller opened Henry County High's gym to schools in metro Atlanta for the first Warhawk Christmas Classic.

The gym was brand new at the time, one of the best in the area. It made sense for Henry County to host a big tournament.

The high school basketball landscape has inevitably changed over the years. Tournaments popped up all over the metro area, to the point where schools had scores of GHSA-sanctioned events to choose from when they made their schedules this year.

But the Classic, which was renamed in its founder's honor in 2009, continues to go strong.

"The important thing is the tournament has lasted this long," said Miller, 72. "We've had different groups of people running it, taking it over, continuing it. The last two years, (current Henry County High head coach Vincent) Rosser has been in command of it."

What astounds Miller the most about the tournament's longevity is that even with all the turnover and the more competitive tournaments north of McDonough, people keep coming back.

"It's not a big moneymaker," said Miller, who is just the third person in state history to be inducted into both the Georgia Athletic Directors Hall of Fame and the Georgia Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame after his 45-plus years in high school sports. "The crowds aren't what they used to be. But, and I think it was Winston Churchill who said this about the Royal Air Force, 'Never have so few done so much for so many.' That's the same thing that the booster clubs and the people of Henry County, the small group of parents, the small group of coaches that work their hineys off have done for the kids over there." Read more...

Two Gwinnett schools, Discovery and Duluth, had their appeals to switch regions denied Tuesday by the Georgia High School Association.

Both schools were placed in Region 6-AAAAAAA of the state's new seventh classification beginning with the 2016-17 school year, and both made appeals Tuesday morning in Thomaston for a switch to 7-AAAAAAA.

The two teams were better fits competition-wise in Region 7 with Berkmar, Brookwood, Central Gwinnett, Lakeside-DeKalb, Meadowcreek, Norcross and Parkview, rather than in a loaded Region 6 with all-sports powers Collins Hill, Mill Creek, Mountain View, North Gwinnett and Peachtree Ridge.

Of the 14-member GHSA panel, one wasn't in attendance and Dave Hunter, with his Gwinnett ties, abstained from the votes on the two county programs. The group voted 12-0 to deny Duluth's appeal, while Discovery fell painfully short with five votes to approve a switch and seven to deny it.

Hunter, a longtime member of the GHSA's Executive Committee, said he spoke to the appeal panel on behalf of Discovery's request and backed up its legitimacy. Discovery hoped to move into Region 7 with Berkmar and Central, two schools that sit within seven miles of Discovery. The first-year school drew its student body almost entirely from Berkmar and Central, which is only 3.4 miles from Discovery, yet in a different region. Read more...

Woodward Academy (1,096) is one of three local programs in Class 4A including Marist (793) and St. Pius X (1,076). Woodward was placed in Region 4AAAA with Druid Hills (1,279), Eastside (1,384), Henry County (1,060), Luella (1,137), North Clayton (1,320) and Salem (1,294). Read more...

    

The Sports Turf Education Program under the direction of the Sports Turf Committee has been serving NIAAA members since 1992. The committee desires to provide a greater awareness among athletic administrators for sports turf safety and serves as a resource for athletic administrators relating to sports turf. The committee engages in a number of activities relating athletic administrators to sports turf. Among its many activities, the committee has written articles for the IAA magazine, conducted focus groups for athletic administrators, conducted sports turf seminars for athletic administrators at the national conference and performed faclity renovations for high schools. The committee, chaired by an active athletic administrator, is the only NIAAA committee whose membership is a blend of active athletic administrators and persons from the sports turf industry.