It comes as no surprise that when asked about the new-look Region 5 and its talented stable of teams, Cedar Grove head coach Miguel Patrick had this to say.
"Man, we thought the old region defined 'tough,'" Patrick said. "Then we get this new one, and you know, it is five times tougher than the last one."
After serving as Cedar Grove's defensive coordinator for years, Patrick took over the head coaching job last season after Jimmy Smith left to take a job on the staff at Georgia State. In his first season, Patrick led the Saints to a Class AAA state title after a 21-14 victory against Crisp County at Georgia State Stadium. The title was a defense of Smith's 2018 championship -- a 14-13 victory against Peach County at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Entering his second season, Patrick has a tall task ahead. Not only does he have to try to follow up a state championship in a vastly different Region 5, he has to do that while weathering the loss of spring practice due to the coronavirus pandemic shutdown.
That's a lot to handle.
The old Region 5, which Cedar Grove dominated with four of the past five region titles, is no more. In the newly shaped region, Cedar Grove, Redan and Westminster are the only "former 5" teams that remain. Pace Academy and Lovett moved.
"Of course, there's always Westminster," Patrick said of the new league. "You know you'll get a very well-coached team every single year. They're always very, very good. They're always dangerous."
But several new threats to Cedar Grove's region supremacy came into the classification from AAAA and AA.
"Then you talk about adding Sandy Creek," he said. "They were a semifinal team in Class AAAA. And then Carver-Atlanta from AAAA. But then don't forgot Douglass is coming up, but they were in the quarterfinals in Class AA."
But one of the biggest threats to Cedar Grove's control of the region is six-time region champion Greater Atlanta Christian, which moved from Region 7. The Spartans, a familiar playoff foe for the Saints, won the 7-AAA region title every year since 2016 and the 6-AA title in 2014 and 2015.
"You add GAC and that's tough," said Patrick. "We played and beat them in the state championship in 2016, and we played them in the semifinals last year and won 28-18. With this region, you are talking about a region where it's very possible that a very good team could get left out of the playoffs simply because they are in our region. It's going to be tough sledding each week because I know the coaches that all those programs ... at GAC, Sandy Creek and (the others) and they do a fantastic job with their programs."
The argument can be made right now that 5-AAA is a head above the rest of the Class AAA regions. And that isn't a controversial statement.
"If I'm not mistaken ..." Patrick said. "I've looked at all of the regions, and I think we might edge them out with the teams that we have and the quality of culture that we have in our region. This is the best region, in my mind."
Of course, some of the other regions might disagree. Reclassification created a Middle Georgia power region (2-AAA), with former AAAA programs Mary Persons and Upson-Lee joining AAA powers Peach County and state AAA runner-up Crisp County.
"For those schools, they hadn't been in really tough regions for the past few years," Patrick said of Crisp and Peach being placed in the same league.
And that's true. Crisp has won the four-team Region 1 over Monroe, Worth County and Cook each season since 2016. Peach, aside from a bizarre 3-2 (not a typo) loss to Jackson in 2015 that cost the Trojans the region, has won its region each season since 2014.
"Crisp kind of dominated and the same thing with Peach," Patrick said. "They were in a region that they had been dominating. I think putting those guys together, and then along with Mary Persons a couple of Macon teams, that will make it real competitive. It'll help those teams, I think, because it'll get them ready for the playoffs. And it will make for some real interesting playoff matchups."
But the worth of the classification cannot be placed simply on two regions. It's a fact not lost on Patrick.
"When you look at it from top to bottom now, you have to think that we are one of the top classifications in the state," he said, "even though we're one of the smaller classifications. When you look at the competition level, from top to bottom, you have to think that this is going to be a tough sled for anybody, and whoever wins is going to be a really, really well-coached team. And they're going to have talent all over the board."
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