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Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Take 10: Georgia’s top surprise high school football teams of 2008
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s the end of the regular season, so it’s time to take a look at what we learned. Lowndes? Still very, very good. Peachtree Ridge? Shouldn’t have written them off after starting 0-2. Cairo? Still the best mascot ever. Todd Holcomb? Still smarter than us.
It has been a fun season, but the surprises have been even more fun. We’re sure we’re going to miss a few, but here are some teams that caught our eye. Take 10 took a look at top coaching turnarounds a few weeks ago. Some of those are on this list. Some aren’t.
Here’s a look at the top 10 surprise teams of 2008:
10: Eagles Landing — The Golden Eagles finished 6-4 after only producing one victory in the previous two seasons. That’s nice, but aside from the victory totals, Eagles Landing will be making its second trip ever to the postseason with Friday’s game against No. 2 Baldwin. Good first year for coach Joe Teknipp.
9: Kell — You’ll remember the Longhorns from our look at surprise first-year coaches. They finished the year at 8-2 under Derek Cook after a 2-8 campaign. We’re not denying Kell has plenty of talent but finishing with a complete reversal is impressive.
8: North Clayton — As we mentioned, there have been some stellar first-year coaching campaigns. Here’s another. North Clayton finished 9-1 and was one point away from being unbeaten. The Eagles were 5-5 a year ago and 6-4 in 2006.
7: Collins Hill — Seriously, there must be something about Eagles this season. Collins Hill finished 8-2 under first-year coach Billy Wells. The Eagles were 4-6 a year ago, but they staged this turnaround with a six-game winning streak to start the year.
6: Woodstock — We acknowledge the love for Cherokee County in this Take 10, but it’s warranted. The Wolverines finished a modest 6-4 with four straight victories to secure a playoff berth - the first since 2005. The season ending winning streak included a key defeat of East Paulding. Perhaps more indicative of strong season are the losses. Woodstock dropped four games by a total of 16 points.
5: Dunwoody — Why? Well, they’re undefeated and a legitimate threat for their first state crown since 1993. The Wildcats went 8-2 a year ago and didn’t even make it out of their own region. Not all surprises have to be turnarounds. We expected St. Pius X to be the heavyweight here.
4: Lassiter — It has been a long decade for the Trojans. Lassiter’s 8-2 mark is the first winning season since 2005 and best record since 1999. It’s the program’s first postseason trip since 2000. That means the baseball program has been rubbing it in for about eight seasons now. Chip Lindsey took a team that was 3-7 for two straight years and gave it the school’s first victory against Walton since 2001.
3: Milton — Sure, they’ve got Toney Williams. But the Eagles had him last season, too. What they didn’t have was a playoff berth and a No. 2 seed in Region 6-AAAAA. Milton hasn’t been to the playoffs since 1999 and hasn’t won this many games in a season since 1993.
2: Etowah — It’s hard to be surprised by anything Bill Stewart is doing, but that said, his team is 9-1 and three points against East Paulding from being undefeated. The Region 5-AAAAA champs have half the roster size of most of their competitors and come from (basically) a golf community.
1: Chapel Hill — Consider what the Panthers have done. They went 8-2 in Chris Parker’s first season for the highest victory total in school history. They’re making their first-ever trip to the postseason. Heck, the school has only produced 15 victories since it started the program in 2000.
Go on. Take Ten. Who are your surprise teams this season? Who was better than you thought? Was it a dynamic turnaround or a nearly flawless performance? Let us know. Here’s you chance to voice your opinion.
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