The past week brought Georgia high school football fans some of the state's best intra-county rivalries. Among them were Warner Robins vs. Northside and Lowndes vs. Valdosta. This week has Prince Avenue Christian vs. Athens Academy, among others.
What are the state's best counties for football? GHSF Daily asked Loren Maxwell to use his computer ratings to lend objectivity to the search. Maxwell calculated the winning percentage of each county if all of the county's teams played every other team in their classification but not each other. Those results will be cited throughout this article.
One-school counties do well in football. Two-school counties do even better. After that, the more schools, the harder it is to have a majority of them on the winning path.
Here are nine counties that deserve a shout-out for their overall football excellence. They also help demonstrate patterns among larger and smaller counties.
This article explores only GHSA football-playing high schools. The number of those schools in each county below is noted in parentheses.
• Colquitt (1): Colquitt County has won more games than any other team in the highest class this decade, but several one-school counties could be mentioned here - Peach, Clinch, Irwin, Rabun, Coffee, Lee. What's significant is that one-school counties do better in football on average than multi-school counties. There are 99 counties in Georgia with one GHSA high school. Those 99 teams project to win 54.6 percent of their games in their classifications if they played everybody, according to Maxwell. Exactly one in four of these schools have current GHSF Daily top-10 rankings.
• Lowndes (2): The county seat is called Winnersville for a reason. Lowndes (6-0) is No. 1 in Class AAAAAAAA. Valdosta (5-1) is No. 2 in AAAAAA. The only loss to either came when one beat the other. According to Maxwell, both are the best teams in their classifications. There's little else to be said. Per capita, no other county is so good right now.
• Emanuel (2): Most Georgians probably can't find Emanuel County on a map, much less identify it for its football prowess. But according to Maxwell, Swainsboro and Emanuel County Institute would win a combined 80.9 percent of their games in their classifications this season. The only two-school county with a better projected winning percentage is Lowndes (95.3 percent). But more significant is this finding: Two-school counties project to win 57.4 percent of their games statewide, according to Maxwell. There's no more successful setup for widespread success than a two-school county. There are 17 of them in the state, and 12 are better than average in football. In nine of them, both schools are better than average in their classifications. Those would be Chattooga (Trion and Chattooga), Glynn (Brunswick and Glynn Academy), Haralson (Bremen and Haralson County), Polk (Rockmart and Cedartown), Thomas (Thomasville and Thomas County Central) and Toombs (Vidalia and Toombs County), plus Lowndes and Emanuel.
• Troup (3): Troup has the best football of any three-school county. Troup and Callaway were state semifinalists last year. They're both 4-1 and ranked again this year. LaGrange (2-2) is much improved. However, three-school counties aren't overly successful statewide, as though two's company and three's a crowd. There are 11 three-school counties, and only three others have better than .500 projected winning percentages. They are Laurens (Dublin, West Laurens, East Laurens), Mitchell (Mitchell County, Pelham, Baconton Charter) and Clarke (Clarke Central, Cedar Shoals, Athens Christian). Each has two teams that stand out above a struggling third.
• Oconee (4): Athens and Clarke County deserve some credit here. Class A private-school powers Prince Avenue Christian (4-1) and Athens Academy (4-0) attract many Clarke residents but are located just across the border, giving Oconee four strong teams. The public schools are North Oconee (6-0) and Oconee County (5-1). The Athens Academy-Prince Avenue game this week and the North Oconee-Oconee County game Nov. 1 could decide region titles. It's possible that all four Oconee teams will be having early home playoff games this season.
• Houston (5): Houston County's five teams — Northside, Veterans, Warner Robins, Perry and Houston County — would win 74.3 percent of their games in-class, according to Maxwell. All except Perry have been ranked in the top five in their classifications at least one week this season. Perry is 2-3 but with two losses to larger county schools (Houston County, Veterans). There are seven five-team counties in the state. Only one other would win more than half its games in-class. That's Paulding at 59.1 percent.
• Paulding (5): Surprise. None is ranked. None has won a state title, or even played in a championship game. But all five are competitive, and that's rare for counties this size. Yes, even East Paulding, despite its 0-4 record, is rated as an average team in AAAAA with a rough schedule. The other teams are Paulding County (3-2), North Paulding (4-0), South Paulding (4-1) and Hiram (2-2). In short, Paulding is one of only three counties with at least five schools with no below-average teams for their classifications, according to Maxwell.
• Carroll (6): Only one county with between six and 10 GHSA high schools wins more than it loses, and that's Carroll. Carrollton and Bowdon are top-five teams currently, and Mount Zion, Central, Temple and Villa Rica are competitive. Four of the six have won state titles, which lends to the tradition.
• Gwinnett (24): Gwinnett is the model for mega counties. Maxwell projects that Gwinnett teams would win 59.8 percent of games in their classifications when not playing each other. The projection is only 45.1 percent for the other eight Georgia counties with 10 or more high schools. Cobb (51.3 percent), Bibb (52.1 percent) and Henry (50.3) are the others that are above par. That doesn't mean there aren't great teams in other large counties, but they are offset by a soft underbelly. Gwinnett has some of that too, but 10 of Gwinnett's 24 teams would win 79 percent of their games in-class when not playing each other. Five have won state titles this decade. Two — Dacula and Buford — are currently ranked No. 1. Measured by quantity, Gwinnett is Georgia's best football county.
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