By Gerald Thomas III and Mike Brown.

For the second time in as many reclassifications, Richmond Hill High School plans to appeal its placement in the Georgia High School Association’s classification for the state’s largest public schools, a school official said Wednesday.

The GHSA announced Tuesday RHHS, which currently competes in Class 6A, will again be in class 7A for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 academic years.

“We will be appealing our reclassification to 7A to the GHSA on Wednesday, Nov. 10,” RHHS Athletic Director Mickey Bayens said. “The appeal will be based on the travel distances. We have to think of what is best for our student-athletes and remember they are students and academics come first.”

Richmond Hill was reclassified two years ago to 7A but was successful in its appeal to remain 6A.

Should their appeal be turned down Richmond Hill would be in Region 1-7A with Camden County, Lowndes County, Colquitt County and Valdosta. Valdosta is also being bumped up to 7A while Tift County, a current member of Region 1, is being dropped down to 6A. Tift is appealing to remain in 7A also citing travel as an issue.

Camden County is the closest school to Richmond Hill at 85 miles while the distances for the others range from 170-200 miles.

Bryan County, which spent the last two years in Class 1A, will apparently go back to 2A, where they will be the smallest school by enrollment with a reclass count of 606 students.

Other area 2A schools in the latest reclassification include Bacon County, Savannah, Toombs County, and Jeff Davis.

Both local schools are among a number of area schools to see a change, with nearby Bradwell Institute, a Region 2-6A foe of RHHS, being dropped down to 5A.

In 7A, the largest school by the GHSA’s reclassification count is Brookwood, with 4,210 students. Richmond Hill, by contrast, has a count of 2,514.

Bryan County Schools is currently building a new RHHS which will hold an estimated 3,500 students.