Etowah, Woodstock Keep Region Rivals

and will play in a slightly changed region the next two years, while will continue to travel farther to meet its rivals under the regions the Georgia High School Association announced Tuesday.

The new regions are part of the GHSA’s for the next two school years.

A primary reason for the GHSA's change is to cut travel time, the association says on its website. “The Reclassification Committee continued to emphasize that viewpoint by establishing sub-regions in nearly every region.”

It will be up to the principals of the high schools in each region to decide whether to compete based on those subregions or to play schedules across the full region.

The subregions shouldn’t come into play for Woodstock and Etowah, which will remain in the top classification. Their new Region 5-AAAAAA looks a lot like the current, compact Region 5-AAAAA.

Etowah, Woodstock, , , and are staying together in the new region. is leaving, to be replaced by and .

For River Ridge, which is moving from AA to AAAA next year, the subregions could be important.

The Knights will be in Region 7-AAAA in a group with , Cedartown, Gilmer and Pickens. The other subregion consists of Dalton, Heritage-Catoosa, LaFayette, Northwest and Southeast Whitfield, and Ridgeland.

Schools have until noon Dec. 16 to ask for a lateral move from Tuesday’s arrangement; the GHSA’s Reclassification Committee will hear those appeals Dec. 19. The new regions go into effect at the start of the 2012-13 school year.

What do you think of the new regions for Woodstock’s high schools?