Private school associations discussing possible merger

ALBANY — According to a story published late last month by the Valdosta Daily Times, two of Georgia’s biggest private school associations could merge to form one league as early as the 2018-19 season.

Deerfield-Windsor School Athletics Director and boys basketball coach Gordy Gruhl confirmed Tuesday that talks of a potential merger of the Georgia Independent School Association and the Georgia Independent Christian Athletic Association have been active for a few years.

Gruhl also noted that the subject of a possible merger came up during a meeting of the GISA state athletic committee in May and was discussed by the association.

“I was not surprised by the Valdosta Daily Times story. When the committee met, it was brought before us just to let us know what was going on,” Gruhl said. “We were told that the association had been approached by (the GICAA) and they would like to merge. All I know for sure is they wanted to talk about it.”

Over the last three years, the GISA has lost at least four schools, including Sherwood Christian Academy, to the GICAA. Prior to those defections, the league also lost three Macon schools — First Presbyterian, Stratford and Mt. De Sales — to the public Georgia High School Association.

“There is no doubt losing the Macon schools was a big loss for our league,” Gruhl said.

According to Times writer Glendon Poe, three Lowndes County private schools — Georgia Christian School, Highland Christian Academy and Grace Christian Academy — recently chose to leave the GISA and join the GICAA following the 2016-17 athletic calendar year.

While the most recent departures are not yet a tsunami, it does represent a troubling trend for the GISA. According to GISA Athletics Director John Dorminy, the association now “probably has 35 to 40” football-playing members remaining in the fold.

“Yes, we have been losing schools, and I am alarmed by that,” Gruhl said. “We’ve lost a lot of the Atlanta schools to the GHSA, and we’ve lost some very good tiny schools when we went to two classifications. This is just my opinion, but they didn’t feel like they could be competitive. Everybody wants to play for a state championship every year, and it’s not going to be like that every year. But that’s a lot like society is today.”

In November of 2013 Sherwood officially left the GISA and joined the GICAA. At that time, then AD Eddie Dixon, explained the rationale behind the move.

“It’s going to give our student-athletes a better opportunity to compete,” Dixon said. “We don’t have the numbers some of the schools we are competing against (in the GISA) have. In the GICAA, we will be competing in same-size student bodies that we have here.”

Gruhl said since the advent of crossover play and add-on games with GHSA schools, the defections have not been that difficult to schedule around.

“The (crossover games) have been a tremendous window that has opened up for our association,” the D-W coach said. “It’s great. We played Miller County last year. Next year, we’ve rescheduled, and in talking to (football coach Alan Lowe) I know he’s going to want to add a couple of GHSA teams. I know I am as well (for basketball).

“With the crossover play, it’s not as big of a problem as it could have been.”

So, if Gruhl could break out his crystal ball, where does he see the GISA five years down the road?

“There has been some talk, and I’m intrigued by it,” he said. “I’d rather us work on merging with some Class A teams of the GHSA. You could really put together a powerhouse league with that move. You want to talk about a league that would be outstanding, that would be it. That would be my hope, that we could pull some teams from the GHSA.

“They split for the playoffs right now anyway, and we could have a pretty damn good league right here.”