Buford celebrates ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ national championship
Friday’s cold snap around metro-Atlanta didn’t chill spirits inside Buford City Arena as Buford commemorated its 2025 national championships in football and softball.
The Buford band opened the event with a fight song as fans piled into the building. The dance team waved gold pom-poms and Buford coaches, administrators and both teams took seats around the podium and seven national championship trophies.
Representatives from three national polls were on site to award trophies to Buford football coach Bryant Appling, whose Wolves beat fellow powerhouse Carrollton 28-21 in the Class 6A final on Dec. 16, 2025.
“I’m just proud of this place, first off,” Appling said. “The whole community as a whole, this is what it comes into. You just don’t get this recognition if you don’t have longevity.”
It’s the first national title in Buford history, but it’s the program’s 15th state championship. Appling has won four in seven seasons.
Buford was crowned national champion by USA Today, MaxPreps, ESPN, NationalHSFB.com and Blue Star Media, earning them the consensus national champion honor. Representatives from NationalHSFB.com, ESPN and MaxPreps each spoke before handing Appling their respective trophies.
Buford snapped a 34-year drought of consensus high school football national champions in Georgia. The last was LaGrange in 1991, and the only other Georgia school to be named consensus national champion is Valdosta (1962, 1969, 1971, 1984 and 1986). Valdosta also was named a national champion by some services in 1992 but was not considered the consensus.
Colquitt County was HSFA national champion in 2015.
“This isn’t like when Valdosta won it, when LaGrange won it. It’s a tougher road now,” one ESPN representative said. “You have two schools out in Los Angeles, California, that get to pull from a pool of about 13 million kids. You have private schools in South Florida that get to pull from the most talent-rich area of the country. You have schools in Dallas, Texas, and Houston, Texas.
“They don’t split like Gwinnett County, that when they get to a certain amount of students, they build a new high school and take half of the athletes from Mill Creek to another school.”
Buford was awarded the national title over perennial contenders like Santa Margarita of California, Saint Frances Academy of Maryland, Southlake Carroll of Texas and IMG Academy of Florida. With powerhouses like Buford, Carrollton, Valdosta and Grayson, some experts considered the GHSA’s Class 6A as the toughest football division in high school football.
Buford’s highlights from the Class 6A state championship played on the Jumbotron over the floor, and players cheered like fans as they watched. Fans honored Appling with three standing ovations as he accepted the trio of trophies.
Appling also recalled where he was when Buford was awarded its first national title.
“I think the first one, I was on the way to design a ring. I had a meeting with those guys, and I think the first one was when Sporting News came in,” Appling said.
Appling said the team continued to celebrate as more national polls continued to crown them over the next couple weeks.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime situation. You don’t get these opportunities very much at all,” Appling said. “The first one in the state of Georgia for 30-something years, so I was just proud to bring it back here, and I hope we can keep it going.”
Buford softball arguably had a more dominant season than football did. The Wolves went 36-0 and outscored their opponents 381-27. Buford beat East Coweta 10-0 and 16-1 in the finals to claim the program’s 13th state title — and its national honor.
About the Author
Jack Leo is a sports writer and reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jack worked for the AJC throughout his four years studying journalism and sports media at Georgia State University and the University of Georgia. He's now focused on telling stories in the grassroots: bringing comprehensive coverage of high school sports for AJC Varsity.
