Stephenson’s Ron Gartrell collected his 200th career coaching victory when his Jaguars opened subregion play Friday night with a 34-0 victory over Miller Grove.
Gartrell became only the second coach in DeKalb County Schools history to reach the milestone. He is 200-107 in 28 seasons at Stephenson and Shamrock.
Former Southwest DeKalb coach Buck Godfrey is the all-time leader, posting a 273-89-1 record in 30 seasons. No other active coach is among the top 10 in DeKalb victories. Third place on the list belongs to Crawford Kennedy, who won 168 games in 25 seasons at Druid Hills and Avondale.
Stephenson improved to 4-1 overall this season and is tied for first place in 6-AAAAA Div. A with Southwest DeKalb and the winner of Saturday’s Dunwoody-Druid Hills game. The Jaguars will be favored to win the remainder of their regular-season games and earn a spot in the region championship game for the second consecutive season.
Here are some of the other big stories in Class AAAAA from Week 7:
- Warner Robins became the first member of 2-AAAAA’s “big four” to face a tough test against the region’s other six teams, escaping with a 21-19 victory over Evans. Houston County, Northside-Warner Robins, Jones County and Warner Robins have outscored their opponents by an average of 40-7 when not playing each other. Northside’s 30-7 win over Lakeside-Evans had been the closest game.
- No. 3 Stockbridge opened play in 4-AAAAA Div. B with a 12-0 victory over Dutchtown, which fell to 0-2 in the subregion. Jalen Holston rushed for 171 yards and scored both Stockbridge touchdowns, on runs of 1 and 40 yards. The Tigers, who won the region title last season and reached the state semifinals, travel next weekend to Luella, which handed them their only subregion loss in 2014.
- Losses by Creekview and Woodland-Cartersville have created a mess in 7-AAAAA Div. A, as six teams are in a virtual tie for first place with one loss each. Cass, Dalton and Creekview are slightly ahead at 2-1 (with 1-1 records against each other). Rome, Sequoyah and Woodland are right behind at 1-1. Riverwood leads Division B at 3-0, followed by Cambridge at 2-0.
- Cedar Shoals ended the longest losing streak in school history at 15 games with a 20-3 victory over Heritage-Conyers in an 8-AAAAA game. Heritage fell to 0-6 for the first time since 1987. The victory was the Jaguars’ first since beating Salem 34-21 on Nov. 1, 2013. Cedar Shoals had only one losing season from 1973 to 2008 but has not won more than five games in a season since.
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