ACA UPDATE: AHSAA Board reverses ruling; Eagles to stay at 3A
By TIM GAYLE
Alabama Christian Academy won its case before the Alabama High School Athletic Association Central Board on Tuesday morning and was reinstated as a Class 3A team in football for 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Representatives of the school met with 12 of the 15-member board as well as AHSAA executive director Alvin Briggs at a specially called Central Board meeting after the Eagles were initially classified as a 3A team based on enrollment with the private school multiplier, then bumped back to 4A as a Central Board interpretation of the Competitive Balance Factor.
Tuesday’s decision moves the Eagles back to 3A Region 3 with Greensboro, Prattville Christian, St. James, Southside-Selma, Sumter Central and Trinity.
“The Board and Mr. Briggs were extremely professional and open,” ACA athletic director Aaron Greenwood said. “They chose to side with our argument and revert us to 3A. They took the time to listen to us, to hear our perspective on things and to do what’s right. We’re excited that we’ve got a board and an executive director that are for doing what’s right.
After initially being placed in 3A Region 3 by the Central Board at a reclassification meeting on Wednesday morning, some members of the Central Board went into another special meeting later in the day and quietly elected to instill the bottom threshold of Competitive Balance Factor on Alabama Christian Academy and Madison Academy in football and UMS-Wright in volleyball, not allowing the first two schools to drop into 3A or UMS-Wright to drop to 4A based on enrollment.
Previous CBF interpretations by AHSAA officials applied the rule only to schools which had accumulated enough points over a two-year cycle to move up in classification. Catholic, for example, duplicated ACA’s accomplishment by reaching the quarterfinals of the 4A state playoffs in 2019 before losing to UMS-Wright. When the new classification system was approved in 2020, the Knights were allowed to drop to 3A based on their enrollment because they were not elevated by CBF in 2018-19.
Administrators with ACA, which has never had an athletic program elevated by Competitive Balance Factor in the four-year history of the ruling, immediately appealed and went before the District 3 Legislative Council, which sided with the school.
The four-team District 3 Legislative Council consisted of St. James football coach Jimmy Perry, Marengo County Schools Superintendent Luke Hallmark, Bibb County High assistant principal Matt Geohagen and Chilton County High assistant principal Rosalyn Dixon.
A meeting with the Central Board was then set for Tuesday morning.
“We made the same argument when we met with the District 3 Legislative Council -- here’s what the rule says and the rule is not being applied correctly,” Greenwood said. “We stuck to here are the facts and it’s not right. They listened to the facts and they agreed. They took some time when we were all out of the room. When they brought us back in, they gave us the results of that discussion.”
ACA coach Michael Summers was happy with the ruling and went back to work on completing the Eagles’ 2022 football schedule.
“We were very grateful that the Board was willing to meet on short notice during the Christmas holidays,” Summers said. “I felt like that showed the value they have on student-athletes. They wanted to do what was right. I don’t think you can question that. We didn’t ask why the decision was made to move us up to 4A. It was probably an honest mistake. Mistakes happen, I make them every day, so I can’t hold people to perfection. But when we make mistakes, we’ve got to own them and I think they owned it and corrected it and that’s all you can ask out of anybody.”
In addition to St. James and Trinity as region opponents, ACA will play non-region opponents Catholic in Week 1 and Montgomery Academy in Week 5.
“It’s going to be a fun year for our kids,” Summers said. “This is really what we were working on before all of this happened. Catholic and MA are rivalry games within the city. Those are the games you want to play in high school.
“And I can’t say enough about the other high schools in our city. Jimmy Perry was on the District 3 board and when you compete against somebody on Friday night and they can have your back, that speaks to character. All of those (Capital City Conference) guys, in one way or another, reached out and offered their support. I can’t say enough about those guys.”