Last week, the Class AAAA blog took a look at each of the eight regions in the classification and listed the updated region assignments for each one. On Thursday, it began a region-by-region breakdown of Class AAAA's new landscape and highlighted the six teams that will be competing in Region 1-AAAA and the new Region 2-AAAA field of nine teams. Today, we will look at Region 3. There are no returning teams as Burke County, Baldwin, Cross Creek, Richmond Academy and Thomson departed. Four newcomers are set to join Region 3. This group includes former Class AAA programs Benedictine, Islands and Jenkins and former Class AAAAA program New Hampstead.
Benedictine: The Cadets have won a pair of state titles since 2014 and have collected region championships in five of the last seven seasons. Last year's 8-4 finish, however, was the fewest wins by Benedictine since 2012, which is also the last time that the program failed to reach the quarterfinals. Benedictine has gone 2-0 against Islands the last two seasons and has split its last two games against Jenkins. The Cadets and New Hampstead have never faced in their respective histories.
Islands: The Sharks have been around for just six seasons and have reached the playoffs on one occasion. The program looked poised to add another playoff appearance this last season, but a recruiting violation handed down by the GHSA forced forfeitures and they finished the season 4-6.
Jenkins: The Warriors made the semifinals for the first time in program history in 2019 and are in the midst of the most successful stretch that the school has seen. After the season, however, former head coach Jason Cameron left to take the Vidalia head coaching job and now Gene Clemons will lead the program for the first time.
New Hampstead: The Phoenix were led by former McEachern head coach Kyle Hockman this past season and closed out a 3-7 finish in Class AAAAA. Jenkins handed New Hampstead a 35-12 loss when they met in the season opener. Defensively, the Phoenix struggled in 2019 with a 34.8 ppg allowed average.
