May 01, 2026

The GHSA Region Meets are in the books and now we're on to sectionals. Some athletes were able to coast at region while others had to navigate some tough competition to get themselves qualified for the next round. But now that we're at the next round, everybody is pretty close to being on level ground. There's not a single potential state scorer who doesn't at least have a chance to qualify for state. You could potentially argue that the 7th best athlete in a certain event gets 5th at the region meet and misses out. That's rare, but it does happen and it's a fair point. But now that we're at sectionals, it's on you to get yourself or your relay team to the state meet. Top 8 advance, and if you can't finish in the top 8, it's pretty much impossible to argue that you belong at the state meet. Crazy things can and do happen, but for the most part that statement holds true across the board. It's time to bring your best and make sure you "survive and advance" to the all important GHSA State Championships.

And while I'm on the topic of the state meet, I want to address a few things about the changes this year to the state meet. There are several rumblings from the coaching community and I just wanted to take this time to let everybody consider the following:

1. The meet at UGA will not be perfect. It's their first year hosting it, there are likely going to be growing pains. If you are going to be critical of those things, you are not really being kind and fair to the host.

2. This is a world class facility that our athletes get to compete at. It's a one of a kind facility in this state and really in the world, for the most part. The athletes get to compete at the flagship university in the state of Georgia, one where many of them are probably already fans of their sports teams, at a brand new state of the art facility. This meet is about the athletes and they deserve this opportunity to compete here.

3. There will likely be some inconveniences compared to when it's been hosted at other, smaller locations. Those inconveniences are probably worth it because of #2 for the athletes.

4. The one day meet format is not necessarily a bad thing. I know that it's new and there are critics. But to me, I'm mostly a fan. I like the idea that doing a triple or a quadruple got harder, from a team perspective. Athletes have plenty of postseason meet opportunities that take place over the course of 2-4 days if they want to maximize themselves in more than one event. I like that for team scores you likely have to use more athletes to get on the podium. A team trophy should be a true team effort, not 1-2 athletes scoring 90% of your "team" points. I wish we would count relays as double points like they do in swimming to make them more important for the team scores. The main downside that I'd love to find a fix for is the horizontal events only having 4 attempts. If we can find a way to go back to prelims and finals for them, that would be great, but this is not a bad compromise.

I think GHSA is doing a great job in moving the meet to UGA and that it will be a great experience for the kids. It will probably have some flaws, but all things in life have flaws. And I'm all for anything that gets our kids competing at this facility in the most important meet of the year.