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Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Take 10: What’s Georgia’s best high school football region?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Conference pride always seems to be a big thing these days in college football. There are important factors to consider: depth, strength of the top teams, competitiveness, how bad the bottom teams are.
On the high school level, it’s a little more difficult to rank regions. But we’re going to try.
The playoffs are a week away, so we at Take Ten decided to take a quick look at the best regions in the state during the 2008 season. Our guru Todd Holcomb shared his thoughts with a class-by-class breakdown back in September. Let’s see how those stack up now.
Here are the 10 best:
10: Region 5-AAAA — This is one of the larger regions with 13 teams, but with Sandy Creek (9-0), Villa Rica (8-1) and Mays (7-2), there is a lot to like at the top. Banneker (6-3) and Whitewater (6-3) add depth.
9: Region 1-AAA — Undefeated Cairo (8-0) is the staple. Peach County (7-2) and Crisp County (6-3) are solid. Then you have four teams hovering around a .500 record with only one bottom-dweller … Perry.
8: Region 6-AAAAA — It’s difficult to decide if these teams are super competitive or just not that good. The playoffs will decide. We do give points for competitiveness, however. Kell (8-1) and Walton (8-1) are the heavyweights. Lassiter (7-2) and Milton (7-2) are the next tier down, and Roswell (5-4) and Pope (4-5) have their moments.
7: Region 5-AAA — There are two divisions in this region that are highly competitive. St. Pius X (9-0) and Dunwoody (9-0) are the leaders and both are undefeated. After that, there are six teams with winning records.
6: Region 6-AA — We don’t like that there are two teams (Cross Keys and Avondale) with winless records, but the top is hard to deny. Buford (9-0), Westminster (7-2), Blessed Trinity (7-2) and Lovett (6-3) should be competitive come postseason.
5: Region 3-A — ECI (9-0) will get most of the love here, but don’t forget Johnson County (8-1), Savannah Christian (8-1) and Claxton (6-3). There’s also some competitiveness with Savannah County Day likely to make the playoffs over Claxton (4-5).
4: Region 7-AAAAA — It will be interesting to see how this region performs in the postseason. They’re tested for sure. North Gwinnett (8-1) and Peachtree Ridge (7-2) are the heavyweights, while Norcross (6-3) can’t be overlooked despite the record. Collins Hill (8-1) is one of the best stories in the state.
3: Region 6-AAAA — In most years, this region could be the best in the state. The loss of St. Pius X took away a little, but not too much from an incredible group of teams, including like Marist (8-1), Tucker (8-1), Southwest DeKalb (6-3) and Miller Grove (5-3).
2: Region 5-AAAAA — We actually considered placing this region No. 1 because of the top-tier teams. Going into the final week of the regular season, East Paulding, Etowah and Harrison are all 7-1. We’ve seen two of the three play. What the region doesn’t seem to have in an obvious state title contender, it makes up for in depth. Woodstock, Kennesaw Mountain and McEachern are all solid teams that have been up and down.
1: Region 1-AAAAA — What’s important here is the presence of undefeated Lowndes and 9-1 Northside-Warner Robins. Both are championship contenders in Class AAAAA and not many regions can claim they have two legit title shots. Coffee, 7-2, helps.
Go On. Take Ten. What do you think is the best high school football region? Do any of these look suspect to you? Traditionally, is there one that is better? Let us know. Here’s your chance to vent about the region that you know and love.
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