Move to 1-6A latest in Blue Devils' region history

Jul. 29—TIFTON — Tift County's athletic schedules have been very familiar over the years. It's a long-established school and others of its size in southern Georgia are long-established, too.

Atlanta city schools have undergone numerous changes over the years. Only one of its 1947 public high schools continues on as one and it doesn't even have the same name (Grady to Midtown). In the suburbs, schools develop like gnats on an August day. With Seckinger opening this fall, Gwinnett County now has 20 traditional high schools and four non-traditional.

But in 2022, the Blue Devils and Lady Devils will experience something a bit different. Reclassification has moved Tift to Class 6A for at least the next two years and, with that, the locals are in a very different region.

Out are Colquitt County, Camden County and Lowndes. In are Lee County, Thomas County Central, Houston County, Veterans and Northside (Warner Robins). Tift has been in a region with all at some time, except for Veterans. They have been close, but not close with Thomas County Centra. In the days of sub-regions, Tift was in an overall region with the Yellow Jackets, but not a sub-region.

The journey of Tift's region placement in the Georgia High School Association has been an adventure over the years, with only a few shifts like this one.

Regions began in the GHSA in 1948 for football, when the Tifton Blue Devils were placed in Class A. Before 1948, the Devils were in the South Georgia Football Association, a conference that declared a champion and participated in unofficial state title games. Basketball at that time was more organized for the GHSA and in District 2-B. Districts referred to congressional districts and they functioned similar to regions.

Fitzgerald, Waycross and Valdosta were Tifton's first region, 2-A, which the Devils resided in from 1948-50. They went to 1-A in 1950 and 1-AA in 1956, when the GHSA added Class AAA as its largest.

These early regions included Cook, Miller County and Irwin County. Miller, whose total county population is barely three times larger than Tift County High's, had consolidated its schools early, thus making it larger than many others around it, including Thomasville.

It's been more than 50 years since the Blue Devils were in any region other than the largest in Georgia. It's so far back that Lyndon Johnson was president and Tommy Guillebeau — whom the GHSA football championships are now named after — was the head coach.

In 1965, Tift shared Region 1-AA-West with Bainbridge, Berrien, Cairo, Crisp County, Lowndes County and Thomasville. The eastern side of 1-AA consisted of Appling County, Coffee County, Dodge County, Dublin, Ware County, Waycross and Wayne County.

Lowndes and Coffee both had 'County' attached to their school name at that time. Both were also different nicknames, Golden Eagles and Comets, respectively. "County" dropped from Lowndes' name in 1966, when Hahira closed its high school. Coffee's changes came about in 1970, Douglas' Carver High School completed integration.

Both region name and region mates might seem a bit strange now. The GHSA only went to AAA as its largest division at that time. More small schools existed in the 1960s, as the littlest classification was C. Omega had belonged to Class C before consolidating its high school with Tift in 1964.

It was a double whammy when the Blue Devils jumped to AAA in 1966, new opponents and a new field; the school had long known it needed an upgraded facility from its 2nd Street location and had Tift County Stadium (now primarily known as Brodie Field) ready to go for its Class AAA debut, an upset win over No. 1 Moultrie.

Tift's initial Region 1-AAA opponents were Albany, Moultrie, Jordan, Baker, Dougherty, Valdosta, Willingham, Mark Smith and Lanier. The latter three were Macon schools and all-male. Bibb County completed integration and co-education in 1970. Macon had an equivalent number of all-girls schools (McEvoy, Lasseter and Miller) but they weren't part of this region. None of them were allowed to play competitive basketball and, for the two years the Devils were in this region, the Tift's Angels played an abbreviated basketball schedule because they had fewer opponents.

That first year in AAA featured a narrow escape on football Friday, albeit off the field. A fan bus returning from Willingham was struck by a concrete block thrown from an overpass. The teens arrested in the incident told police they were angry following Tift's 13-7 victory. Minor injuries were reported to bus riders.

The region began to look more familiar in 1968. The Macon schools moved out and Ware, Monroe (Albany), Wayne County, Lowndes and Coffee County moved in. Tift played all nine in the regular season. Two years later, all of their regular season games were region games.

The Blue Devils continued the trend of nine or 10 region opponents until 1977, when 1-AAA was finally subdivided again. Dougherty, Monroe, Albany, Valdosta and Crisp were the sub-region opponents through 1979, which included a switch to 1-AAAA when the GHSA shifted classes upwards in 1978, eliminating Class B. The Cougars went down to AAA in 1980 and Tift stayed with the others until 1984.

Region 1-AAAA-North switched Albany for Westover in 1984 and moved Valdosta south in exchange for moving Colquitt County north.

Subdividing 1-AAAA stopped in 1986 as two of its teams moved to AAA. That brought Valdosta and Lowndes fully back into Tift's orbit, though they had continued to play them in football. Albany's schools went to AAA in 1988 and Coffee and Bainbridge were again placed with the largest schools.

This non-subdivided lineup, Bainbridge, Coffee, Colquitt, Lowndes, Tift and Valdosta became one of its most long-lasting, from 1988-2002. Ware County was added in 1994 and Lee County in 2000, but no one dropped out until Bainbridge and Ware did in 2002, two years after the GHSA added Class 5A. Neither have been in the largest classification since.

Tift's brand new Region 1-5A added Houston County to the mix in 2002. Warner Robins and Northside came in from 2008, but the region shrunk again in 2010, to Coffee, Colquitt, Valdosta and Lowndes.

Twelve years after 5A was created, 6A followed, along with much added mileage. Camden County, which stayed with Tift until this year, was a two-hour drive each way. For the first two years of 1-6A, however, there was a worse trip, Brunswick, some 30 minutes longer. Coffee, Colquitt, Valdosta and Lowndes continued on until 2014, when Coffee moved down and Lee moved back up.

In 2016, Class 7A came along. Valdosta and Lee both opted not to pay up, leaving one of the smallest, yet high-mileage regions in the state: Tift, Camden, Colquitt and Lowndes. The arrangement lasted until 2022's shake-up, which saw the Devils drop to 6A. The travel situation works out much better for them. Richmond Hill was placed in the region after years of having the numbers, but successfully appealing for isolation. Richmond Hill is a three-hour drive each way.