Perry spoke with GreerToday.com following the Yellow Jackets final conditioning drill at the practice field today. “The reorganization is good for transportation,” Perry said. “The number one consideration was geographically. This is good for baseball, basketball and softball.”
Transportation costs are projected before the school year. In the past two years school budgets have taken a hit when gas prices inexplicably soared during the school year. Gas vaulted toward the $4 mark in early spring, dipped to under $3.40 a gallon for unleaded regular and is climbing back to near $3.60 a gallon.
Players were disappointed to hear that Union would no longer be in the region for the annual Jacket Bowl. However, Perry said Union and Riverside are natural opponents and discussions are being held to book them as non-conference opponents to open the season on a home and away basis for the next two years.
“We always figured we would have to play Union twice to reach the state playoffs,” Perry said. “Both of our staffs are working to keep the Jacket Bowl alive. We’ll play Union in a non-conference game, either game one or three. Riverside is also an attractive and natural opponent.”
Those games will provide each team with an excellent gate and leave one other non-conference opponent for Greer to fill-in.
Perry said he anticipated the move to the mostly Greenville County schools region. Greer will play in a region with Berea, Blue Ridge, Eastside, Greenville, Pickens, Southside and Travelers Rest. He described the process the conference will use to produce the home and away schedules.
“We’ll declare our non-conference games and make up the non-conference schedule by drawing numbers for the teams when we play them. Then home and away will be decided to give each team an equal schedule. The three non-region and seven region games will give Greer its 10-game regular season schedule.
The regions were based on projected enrollment. Greer is ranked 6th in the region with 1,142 projected enrollment. Pickens and Greenville are tied at 1,420. All are projected over 1,000 except Southside with 926.