The Georgia High School Association (GHSA) has released a list of schools that will are set to move up or down to new classifications come 2014, which is news that directly affects the Pickens Dragons.Several teams that called Region 7-AAAA home in 2013 will be playing elsewhere next season, including the Cass Colonels, the Dalton Catamounts, and the River Ridge Knights, which are all preparing to move to AAAAA, as well as the Cedartown Bulldogs, who are planning to drop down to AAA.

With four teams planning to move out of Region 7-AAAA (and three playing in Sub-region A with the Dragons), it looks like Pickens will have some new competition in the upcoming athletic season. Although there is a chance Pickens gets moved to a new region as well, chances are that the Dragons remain in their current location (region projections will be decided by the GHSA executive committee on January 17th).

The question now is who will step up to fill the four spots vacated in 2014? It is purely speculation at this point, but here is a list of six of the AAA schools who have announced intentions to move to AAAA and why they may be soon battling the Dragons:

Buford High School
Location: 2750 Sawnee Avenue, Buford, GA
Estimated Travel Time from Pickens High School: 1 hour and 3 minutes
Information: The Wolves’ football program has wreaked havoc on 7-AAA the last two seasons, posting an overall record of 23-3 including an 11-0 mark this season. Buford High School’s spot in 7-AAA alongside Fannin County makes it obvious that travel time is not an issue when it comes to the Wolves traveling north, which makes this move a very realistic–and frankly frightening–possibility.

Cartersville High School
Location: 320 E Church St, Cartersville, GA
Estimated Travel Time from Pickens High School: 48 minutes
Information: Cartersville and Pickens are relatively close to each other and as a result have faced off on the gridiron eighteen different times, with the last meeting being back in 2011. I would be highly surprised if the Hurricanes do not find themselves positioned in 7-AAAA once it is all said and done.

Chapel Hill High School
Location: 4899 Chapel Hill Road, Douglasville, GA
Estimated Travel Time from Pickens High School: 1 hour and 22 minutes
Information: A bit farther away from the other listed schools, Chapel Hill would pose a very intriguing matchup with Pickens, especially in football due to Dragons head coach Chris Parker’s tenure there. Parker posted a 26-17 record with the Panthers over the course of four seasons before electing to take the Pickens job following the 2011 campaign, which means that there would be some familiar faces on both sides during these matchups. The distance may cause this to not happen, but considering the fact that Pickens is in the same region as Ridgeland High School that is nearly on the Tennessee state line, it looks like anything is possible.

Johnson High School
Location: 3305 Poplar Springs Road, Gainesville, GA
Estimated Travel Time from Pickens High School: 1 hour and 6 minutes
Information: The Knights and the Dragons are very familiar with each other, as the two have faced off the last two seasons and eleven of the last twelve years thanks to being in 7-AAA for the better part of the decade. Hall County schools look to be a comfortable fit in this region, and given Johnson’s recent history with Pickens, they could call it home in 2014 as well.

North Hall High School
Location: 4885 Mt Vernon Rd, Gainesville, GA
Estimated Travel Time from Pickens High School: 1 hour and 1 minute
Information: Another Hall County school, the Trojans have been in the same slot as Buford in 7-AAA and have been very successful as well, shown in the team’s 8-3 record this season. These teams are no strangers to sharing regions, as the two found themselves in 7-AAA from 2002 to 2009 and in sub-region A in 2008 and 2009.

White County High School
Location: 2600 U.S. 129, Cleveland, GA
Estimated Travel Time from Pickens High School: 1 hour and 11 minutes
Information: The Warriors were in region 7-AAA along with North Hall and Pickens for eight years but still compete against Pickens from time to time, with the last meeting in football coming in 2009 and games between both the boys’ and girls’ varsity squads coming this season on December 6th. Reclassification could possibly bring back several rivalries that were developed in the early 2000’s, including the one between these two schools.

To see the entire list of projected teams in each classification, please click here.