Articles

GHSA Restricts Travel Time On School Nights

Carlos Frias, AJC Staff
February 12, 2004

The Georgia High School Association sent a message to its member schools Thursday afternoon: No more staying out late on a school night.

In a special meeting, the GHSA's executive committee unanimously approved a rule that would prevent teams from having to travel more than 100 miles during the school week to play regular season games.

The vote followed the introduction of a bill in the state House that would have required the GHSA to make the change, compromising the organization's autonomy. Instead, GHSA executive director Ralph Swearngin said the GHSA showed it can adequately make its own rules.

"We wanted to show we can identify and solve problems in our procedures...and that we're willing to listen," Swearngin said. "We recognized our problem and took steps to get it fixed."

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Hinson Mosley of Jesup, whose constituency includes Wayne County High in southeast Georgia. The school is in the same region with Evans High near Augusta, more than 170 miles away. In all, the GHSA found "20 or 21" cases statewide where a team would have to travel more than 100 miles one-way to play a game.

The rule, which goes into effect next school year, will require teams that far apart to play their games on Fridays or Saturdays. It's not an unprecedented rule for the GHSA, which already had it for basketball and simply extended it to all sports.

"Anytime that we do not have to put our teams on the road for an extended period of time during the week, which entails pulling the kids out of class and having them miss classwork, it's a blessing," said Wayne County athletic director Daryl Jones.

Swearngin drew up the proposal after meeting with several state legislators, including Mosley, at the capitol on Jan. 29. Mosley's bill was meant to address the problem of rural schools having to travel long distances during the week to play schools of similar enrollment sizes.

"If you load a child up on a bus and drive four hours to a game, sometimes you have to take them out of school to do it, and that's not what they're in school for," Mosley told the Associated Press earlier this month. "It's not good for them physically or mentally."

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