GREENEVILLE CITY SCHOOLS

PRESS RELEASE

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2008

The Greeneville City Schools released the following statement.

 After a great deal of research and an examination of all available options, Greeneville High School has decided that its high school athletic teams will participate at the assigned level for the next four years. This means that the school will be considered a Double A school for most sports. While the school will compete with the same conference schools in all sports, football will be further divided to determine playoff participation. Greeneville High School will be placed in the upper half of Double A schools for football playoffs. This is what is being called Four A for football.

 In addition to choosing to participate at the Double A level, the school has requested to be placed in District 1. This district will allow Greeneville High School to compete against Elizabethton and some of the Sullivan County schools, in addition to others assigned to that district.

The school system included the following rationale statements to explain why the decision was made:

1)     Playing in Double A District 1 will allow us to compete against a traditional rival in Elizabethton and we will have the ability to develop additional rivalries with similar sized schools.

2)     Playing at our assigned enrollment level will provide our student-athletes a better chance of achieving the level of success expected by our community.

3)     Choosing to “play up” in the Three A (Five A for football) classification is not an attractive option with the addition of 6A schools in the districts during football’s regular season as this requires playing much larger schools on a yearly basis with those games counting toward regular season records. Such a decision could also result in more injuries due to roster depth. The number of available athletes is also an issue in other sports such as baseball, soccer, track, and wrestling. For example, in the spring baseball, boys’ soccer, and track all require male athletes and it can be difficult to compete against much larger schools. A similar situation occurs in the fall regarding volleyball and girls’ soccer.

4)     Choosing to “play up” and having the larger schools in our basketball district will make it more difficult to achieve advancement to regional play since only four teams advance. The same could be true in our other sports.

5)     When considering the best decision regarding classification, the impact on all sports must be considered. The decision regarding classification will determine opponents in all sports, not just football.

6)     Typically one would expect gate receipts to be larger by playing larger schools; however, that is not always true. Playing in Double A (Four A for football) may result in some football and basketball gates to be smaller, but others may actually be larger, particularly if we end up in a district with the Greene County schools.  While gate receipts must not be a primary factor, it must be remembered that football revenue provides funds for other school athletic programs.

7)     It appears that the travel distances to compete in Double A (Four A for football) will be less than competing at the Three A (Five A for football) level.

8)     Success is important and is a motivating factor for players, coaches, parents, and the community. The decision to play at our enrollment level should not only ensure more success, it will also better energize the community and generate even more community support. It will also eliminate the need to explain how a lesser record against larger schools can still be considered a successful year.

9)     Our coaches and school administration have studied the classification issue in great depth and believe that playing at the Double A level is the best option for our student-athletes. We have confidence in their recommendation and wish to empower them to make the decisions they believe best for our students.

10) Playing at our assigned classification level will not prevent us from continuing to compete against traditional rivals in other classifications as we can schedule them for non-conference games.

The school understands that due to a variety of factors placement in District 1 may not occur. However, a letter has been sent to the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association requesting that efforts be made to honor the request. If such a placement is not possible, Greeneville High School will be assigned to District 2, which typically includes the Greene County Double A schools as well as others.