Gray Collegiate hits first snag in Class 4A as nearby schools won’t play certain games

Gray Collegiate Academy is once again facing a problem with teams in their region not wanting to play them.

Lexington 2 high schools Airport and Brookland-Cayce are declining to play the War Eagles in junior varsity games in any sport, Gray principal Brian Newsome said in a letter to families and posted on the school’s Facebook page on Tuesday.

Newsome said in the letter that he was made aware of that news last week. Gray Collegiate, Airport and B-C are all in the same Class 4A region in the S.C. High School League (Region 4-4A) for the first time in the 2024-25 school year. All three schools reside within the Lexington 2 attendance zone.

The moves by Airport and B-C do not apply to varsity games.

“We are very aware that the decisions of these schools located in Lexington County School District Two are of concern for many of our families here at GCA,” Newsome wrote. “We have taken numerous steps to ensure that your student-athlete is able to compete at a high level and in numerous sub varsity athletic contests during the 2024-2025 school year and moving forward. We have already been in communication with other schools to replace these games.”

Newsome told The State that Airport and Brookland-Cayce had previously given all indication that they intended to play the War Eagles in JV games during the 2024-25 school year.

The State reached out to the athletic directors at Airport and B-C seeking comment.

Lexington 2 provided the following statement, saying: “This is the first year of transition to a new region makeup, and our varsity teams are excited about competing against all of our region opponents. However, schools have more latitude in scheduling sub-varsity, across all sports, so we’ve decided to make some adjustments at that level for this school year.”

Unlike varsity games where teams are required to play all other teams in their region, junior varsity scheduling is different. There are no rules that require a school’s JV teams to play other JV teams in the same athletic region.

Still, sports such as volleyball, soccer, baseball and softball routinely schedule varsity and JV games together — often on the same dates and in the same locations — just to simplify the process.

In other instances, JV teams might choose to schedule opponents that are closer in proximity than teams in their region. In this case, Gray, Airport and B-C all are in the West Columbia area, meaning travel wouldn’t be an issue.

Newsome also said that not playing them goes against the state’s legislative Proviso 1.49 that “guarantees that private or charter schools are afforded the same rights and privileges that are enjoyed by all other members of the association, body, or entity.”

He also pointed to Section 5 of the proviso, which was added this year, saying, “a uniform system applicable to all member schools establishing fines for the cancellation of a scheduled game regardless of if the game is in or out of region. At a minimum, the school canceling the scheduled game must be fined an amount equal to the cost incurred for officials, tickets, and concessions.”

“We got the games scheduled. They told us in the spring they were going to play us. They told us in the summer they were going to play us,” Newsome said. “The league (SCHSL) has got to create a system that is applicable to all member schools to establish those fines.”

Newsome said SCHSL commissioner Jerome Singleton told him that any fines are for varsity games only unless there are contracts between schools for those contests.

“Show me in there where it is varsity only and we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Newsome said. “... I will not let our kids be treated unfairly. We have a small number people that don’t want to conform.”

This isn’t the first time Gray has faced issues with teams in its region playing them in sports.

In the spring of 2023, when Gray competed at the Class 2A level, a total of nine soccer and softball games were canceled after Region 4-2A teams from Keenan, Fairfield Central and Eau Claire chose not to play against Gray Collegiate.

In 2023-24, no teams from Gray’s region played the War Eagles in any JV or varsity contests, forcing the school to scramble to find opponents. In most sports, Gray was able to find replacements for those games.

The forfeits didn’t have an effect on their performance on the field. Gray won state championships in softball, boys basketball, competitive cheer, and boys track and field, and played for championships in football and boys soccer.

Charter schools like Gray and Oceanside Collegiate in Mount Pleasant have come under scrutiny in recent years. Critics say the charters that are sports-focused are able to build powerful teams and have an advantage with what amounts to a statewide attendance zone. Since its inception, Gray capped enrollment and was able to compete for state championships against the smaller high schools in Class 2A.

The S.C. High School League addressed those concerns by adding an out-of-attendance-zone multiplier for the first time to its formula for determining athletic classifications and addressing competitive balance. Gray and other private and charter schools were moved up in class during the league’s realignment for 2024-26.

The out-of-zone multiplier counted each student who lives outside of a school’s assigned attendance zone as three for total enrollment purposes. The result inflated schools’ official enrollment figures and, in some cases, raised schools up one or multiple levels in classification for athletics.

The War Eagles were moved up from Class 2A to Class 4A.

According to the 45-day average daily membership obtained by The State via a public records request, 400 of Gray’s 496 students come from outside its given attendance zone by the SCHSL, which is Brookland-Cayce High School in Lexington 2. It’s unclear how many of those Gray students play sports.