Only 28 Georgia high school football teams are still playing football in December. Here is some fairly random trivia about this weekend's semifinals and the teams that are in them. Thanks to Loren Maxwell of the Georgia High School Football Historians Association for help in answering some of them.
Q - Colquitt County has won 28 consecutive games and is aiming for a second straight state title. How many schools in the highest classification have gone undefeated two seasons in a row?
A - Only two schools have gone unbeaten and untied over consecutive seasons in the highest class. They are Valdosta (1960-62) and Parkview (2000-02). Valdosta went 12-0 and 11-0-1 in 1968 and 1969.
Q - Roswell went 0-10 in 2011. What's the shortest period that a team went from winless to state champion?
A - Roswell has a chance to tie a record set by Palmetto in 1982 by going from 0-10 to state champion in four seasons. The shortest time between 0-10 and a state title in the highest class (of which Roswell is a member) is the 13 seasons from Warner Robins' 0-10 finish of 1963 to the Demons' vaunted 1976 squad. Here are the eight schools that have gone from winless to champion in 10 seasons or fewer:
4 - Palmetto (1978-1982)
6 - Lincolnton (1954-60)
6 - Southeast Bulloch (1966-72)
6 - Bainbridge (1976-82)
6 - Oconee County (1993-99)
7 - Stephens County (1951-58)
8 - Pepperell (1982-90)
10 - Villa Rica (1976-86)
Q - Mickey Conn started Grayson's football program in 2000 and won a state championship in 2011. Shannon Jarvis, who joins Conn in this year's Class AAAAAA semifinals, started the Mill Creek football program in 2004 and is two wins from its first state title. What coaches have won state titles at programs they have started?
A - It's very rare, even with Conn and Mount Paran Christian's Mitch Jordan (2014) joining the elite list in recent years. Here are 11 coaches who have done it. It probably should include the legendary Wayman Creel. He won a state title at Northside of Atlanta in 1957, six years after overseeing the program's first full season. But the school had a coach in place the year before to get it off the ground.
2014 - Mitch Jordan, Mount Paran Christian
2011 - Mickey Conn, Grayson
1980 - Dwight Hochstetler, Greenville
1979 - Steve Shankweiler, Redan
1972 - Fred Shaver, Southeast Bulloch
1969 - Leonard Jones, North Springs
1968 - George Maloof, St. Pius
1965 - Paul Kennedy, West Rome
1951 - Al Jeffrey, Forest Park
1949 - J.E. DeVaughn, Brown
1949 - Knuck McCrary, Cook
Q - Three of the semifinals are rematches of regular-season games. They are Pace Academy at Greater Atlanta Christian, Ware County at Glynn Academy and Stratford Academy at Aquinas. The home teams this week were the original winners. How often does a semifinal provide a rematch?
A - It has happened 40 times since the GHSA began doing statewide playoffs in all classes in 1948. There also were three in 2011. The original winner is 26-13. (One of the 40 original meetings was a tie.) But, the original loser is on a four-game winning streak, with a pair of victories each in 2013 and 2014. In fact, in 2013, the Class A public-school semifinals featured two rematches, each involving revenge, as Marion County beat Hawkinsville and Charlton County beat Irwin County. In 2014, Hawkinsville was the avenger, beating Marion County, while St. Pius defeated Woodward Academy.
Q - Northgate was 6-4 last season and missed the playoffs. When is the last time that a team won a state title after missing the playoffs?
A - It used to happen all the time when only region champions made the state playoffs. As a result, 71 of 313 GHSA state champions failed to make the playoffs the previous season, dating to 1948. But, by the 1980s, most regions were holding region playoffs, and by the 1990s, the state playoffs had expanded to 16 and then 32 teams per class. So Northgate would be unusual in the current era. Here are those that have done it since 1980:
2010 - Chattahoochee
2008 - Wesleyan
2007 - Lowndes
2006 - Peachtree Ridge
2004 - Warner Robins
1996 - Brookwood
1990 - Pepperell
1986 - Villa Rica
1982 - Bainbridge
1982 - West Rome
1981 - Commerce
1981 - Douglass (Montezuma)
Q - Allatoona is the lone Cobb County team still playing. What is the last Cobb County Schools team to win a state title?
A - It has never happened. Cobb is the second-largest school system in Georgia behind Gwinnett. Marietta, a city school, won a state title in 1967. Mount Paran Christian, which won the Class A private-school title in 2014, is based in Kennesaw. Cobb County schools that have won semifinal games are Acworth (1957), North Cobb (1959), Wheeler (1973), McEachern (1998), Harrison (2000) and Walton (2011). They're 0-6 in finals.
Q - In a Class AAA semifinal, No. 1 Calhoun takes on No. 2 Blessed Trinity. In the A private-school final, No. 1 Prince Avenue Christian plays No. 2 Eagle's Landing Christian. How often have No. 1 and No. 2 played in a semifinal?
A - This is the first time you'll see two in one season since 2002. Here are the most recent 10:
2011 - #1 Tucker 17, #2 Northside (Warner Robins) 16
2010 - #2 Sandy Creek 35, #1 Peach County 17
2004 - #2 Lowndes 30, #1 Camden County 0
2002 - #2 Buford 38, #1 Americus 12
2002 - #1 Clinch County 36, #2 Hawkinsville 0
1996 - #1 Thomas County Central 22, #2 Marist 21
1994 - #1 Washington County 35, #2 Carrollton 7
1991 - #1 Cedar Grove 10, #2 Mitchell County 8
1987 - #1 Lincoln County 14, #2 Clinch County 7
1984 - #1 Greenville 26, #2 Palmetto 23
Q - Jefferson County was created in 1995 as a consolidation of Louisville and Wrens high schools. What was the last school that was formed by consolidation to win a state title?
A - Creekside, the 2013 AAAAA champion, opened in 1990 as a merger of Palmetto and Campbell high schools in south Fulton County. Dunwoody, which absorbed Peachtree in 1988 and won a state title in 1993, might be considered another example. In short, they are hard to find. Consolidations are typically greeted with great optimism, followed by disappointment. Rome, Americus-Sumter and Upson-Lee are examples of new schools that consolidated former ones that had some football tradition.
Q - The semifinals in AAAAAA and AAAA both have four top-five teams from the final regular-season AJC rankings. How common is that?
A - Let's go back to 1982, the first year of the AJC rankings. Before that, the Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution had separate polls. In the 34 seasons since '82, it has happened only eight times, counting the current two. That's not exactly an endorsement of the AJC rankings, although the major culprits are probably parity and the GHSA's pre-set draws, which often match highly ranked teams in the quarterfinals, sometimes sooner. Here are the eight, with the state champions noted in bold.
1986 (AAAA) - #1 Valdosta, #2 LaGrange, #3 Clarke Central, #4 Bradwell Institute
1988 (AAA) - #1 Stephens County, #3 Dalton, #4 Thomasville, #5 Thomson
1991 (A) - #1 Clinch County, #2 Lincoln County, #3 Bowdon, #5 R.E. Lee
1999 (AAA) - #1 Oconee County, #2 Marist, #4 Mount Zion (Jonesboro), #5 Cairo
2005 (AAAAA) - #2 Brookwood, #3 Lowndes, #4 Stephenson, #5 Dacula
2013 (AAAAA) - #1 Tucker, #2 Kell, #3 Gainesville, #4 Creekside
2015 (AAAAAA) - #1 Colquitt County, #2 Grayson, #3 Roswell, #5 Mill Creek
2015 (AAAA) - #1 Cartersville, #2 Buford, #3 Woodward Academy, #5 Bainbridge
Q - Emanuel County Institute can win its third state title in nine seasons. When is the last time a Class A school did that?
A - Clinch County hopes to stop ECI in hopes that Clinch can maintain that boast. The Panthers of Homerville won Class A titles in 2002, 2004 and 2010.
Q - Stratford Academy, a semifinalist for the first time in the GHSA, won eight state championships in the Georgia Independent School Association. Have any former GISA schools won GHSA state championships?
A - Yes, two. Savannah Christian (2011) was the first, followed by Eagle's Landing Christian (2012).
Q - Prince Avenue Christian coach Jeff Herron won state titles at Oconee County and Camden County. Has a Georgia head coach won state titles at three schools?
A - No. Only 14 have won state titles at two. Herron also could become the first coach since Jerry Sharp (1977-78 East Rome, 1998 Darlington) to win state titles at schools in the same county. Prince Avenue is in Oconee County (although it was in Clarke County in 1999, when Herron won at Oconee.)
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