THOMASVILLE — A meeting between Region 1-AAAA athletic directors on Wednesday provided some clarity about the state of fall sports competition between the six schools following the Dougherty County Schools’ decision on Tuesday to suspend fall sports through September.

Thomas County Central Athletic Director Sam Holland confirmed after the meeting that the football teams at Dougherty, Monroe and Westover will be able to continue practicing but only in helmets. Holland said Central, Bainbridge and Cairo hope to have guidance from the Dougherty County School System by Sept. 25 if they’re going to follow through on a football season this year.

“Tentatively, if we have no guarantee of, if they’re going to play or not going to play by Sept. 25, we can schedule other football games during those dates, if there are any games out there available to schedule at that point,” Holland said. “It still revolves around the decisions that Dougherty County Schools will have to make by the end of September. Who’s to say everybody doesn’t get put back… the SEC is Sept. 26…who’s to say that won’t be opening date for high school football also?”

Currently, the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) has marked Sept. 4 as the starting date for high school football but that could change, especially since the GHSA canceled football scrimmages on Aug. 6. GHSA Executive Director Robin Hines issued the following statement about the Dougherty County Schools decision via email:

“We will support Dougherty County in their decision and assist them any way we can. Their decision does not affect GHSA plans moving forward. As stated from the beginning, it is a local decision on whether or when to participate. However, the situation is fluid at best and can change at any time.”

While the football impact remains unknown, the effect on softball is clear. Teams in the region were scheduled to play a three-game series against each other which would determine state playoff seeding.  With Dougherty, Monroe and Westover not playing at least through October, Bainbridge, Cairo and Central are guaranteed state playoff berths and the top three spots in the region standings, depending on how the region games progress. But on the flipside, those are games that Bainbridge, Cairo and Central will not get to play this year.

“Softball it hurt. Softball loses nine games,” Holland said. “We’re in the process of trying to find (games) to replace them but yes, nine games that we don’t have.”

He added that if the Dougherty County schools resume competition in October, they’ll have until Oct. 10 to complete a two-day round-robin tournament to determine the region’s fourth seed.