GHSA announces Gainesville-Langston Hughes football game to be played on Dec. 5

Ready or not, but it looks like the legal showdown between the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) and Gainesville (Ga.) has come to an end.

The GHSA announced on Monday that the Class AAAAA state semifinal between Gainesville–Langston Hughes will be played this upcoming Friday, Dec. 5. Per the release by the GHSA, the Red Elephants will have use of their entire roster and no players are suspended for the contest.

‘GHSA Executive Director Dr. Tim Scott announced that Gainesville and Langston Hughes to play despite the organization’s appeal of the injunction granted to Gainesville High School last Wednesday. The judge’s ruling overturned the suspension of 34 Gainesville players who were penalized for leaving the sideline and fighting with Brunswick two weeks ago.

That means , the Class 5A quarterfinal between Langston Hughes and Gainesville is officially rescheduled for December 5th and the Red Elephants will be able to compete with all of their players.

The delay also impacts the opposite side of the bracket: Roswell and Thomas County Central will no longer play on Friday, December 5th. Their semifinal matchup has been moved to Thursday, December 11th.

Additionally, the winner of Langston Hughes–Gainesville will face Rome on December 11th as well, to determine which two teams will advance to the GHSA state championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 17th at 8pm.

The 6A game will swap places with the 5A finals which was previously scheduled for Tuesday December 16th.‘

The GHSA had previously indefinitely postponed the Class AAAAA Gainesville–Langston Hughes matchup until further notice due to a challenge of the judge’s ruling made last week that granted the Red Elephants a request for an injunction against the governing body of Georgia high school sports.

The GHSA filed an appeal to the ruling made by Hall County Superior Court Judge Clint Bearden that gave Gainesville an injunction that would’ve allowed all 35 suspended players to play in the state quarterfinal against Langston Hughes.

The Georgia governing body for high school sports had initially decided to suspend 39 Gainesville players, but decided to uphold 35 of those suspensions and to not suspend four Red Elephant athletes.

Now Gainesville will have no players suspended for the contest and be ready with its entire roster on Friday night against Langston Hughes.

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