Thomas County Central ended a 26-year championship drought when it defeated Woodward Academy 49-28 last week in the Class 6A final at Mercedes-Benz.
The championship was the first for the Yellow Jackets since 1997, when they won their last of five titles in a six-year span. They also become one of only 12 current GHSA teams to win six state championships. Thomas County Central finished the season 15-0 for just the second time in school history.
Woodward Academy (12-3) was playing in the finals for the first time since its 1980 team won the Class 3A title.
Trey Brenton scored on a 20-yard run on the second play from scrimmage, and the Yellow Jackets built the lead to 28-0 just before halftime. Woodward Academy never got closer than 14 points in the second half.
Jaylen Johnson was 6-of-8 passing for 135 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 105 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries. Brenton rushed for 154 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries.
Thomas County Central also recorded 10 sacks for 68 yards in losses, led by Cameron Brooks with three sacks and Walter Reddick with 2.5. Dee Reddick had 10 tackles.
Woodward Academy’s Landon Walker completed 22 of 43 passes for 309 yards and two touchdowns.
The championship capped off a dramatic rebuilding process led by head coach Justin Rogers, who inherited a team that had not had a winning season in the five years before his arrival in 2022. Since then, the Yellow Jackets have gone 27-1 with two region titles. The 27 victories are the most of any Class 6A team in that span.
“It’s not one thing, it’s everything,” Rogers said after the game. “Our administration wanted it. They allowed me to bring in a bunch of staff, change some things in the way we do stuff in the weight room. They’ve been so supportive there. Then it goes into the players’ buy-in, and we had good players when I got here. Then you add the community support, financially, and you saw it in the crowd emotionally. If you’re missing one piece, it’s hard. When you’ve got all the pieces you’ve got a shot.”
Here are some of the other top stories from Class 6A this season:
*Players of the year: All-state teams won’t be named until later this month, but the eight regions in 6A have announced their all-region teams. Seven of those regions named an overall player of the year. They are Lee County RB Ousmane Kromah (Region 1), Effingham County RB/LB A.J. Butts (Region 2), Jonesboro DB/ATH Jontavius Wyman (Region 3), Douglas County ATH James Johnson (Region 5), Rome QB Reece Fountain (Region 6), Roswell QB K.J. Smith (Region 7), and Gainesville RB Gavin Hall (Region 8). In Region 4, Riverwood QB Jackson Davis was the offensive player of the year and Dunwoody DE Luke Cole was the defensive POY.
*A banner year: Douglas County was the most improved team in Class 6A this season, according to GHSF Daily’s Improvement Tracker, which is based on the computer Maxwell Rating. The Tigers went from a 7-4 team that lost in the first round of the playoffs in 2022 to a 13-1 team that won its first region title since 2022. The Tigers also reached the semifinals for the first time since 1998 and tied the school record for victories in a season that was set in 1964. Douglas County will move to the highest classification next year and play in a region with Carrollton, Chapel Hill, East Coweta and Westlake.
*Looking ahead: The GHSA’s recent reclassification of schools will have a major impact on the state’s second-highest classification next season. The GHSA’s decision to eliminate one class (7A) means the second-high class will be 5A next year and include 61 teams instead of the current 57. More significantly will be that there will be three reigning state champions in 5A. In addition to Thomas County Central, which will remain in the class, reigning 7A champion Milton will move down and reigning 5A champion Coffee will essentially move up. The smallest region will be 2-5A, which will include Coffee, Houston County, Lee County, Northside-Warner Robins, Thomas County Central and Veterans. The largest will be nine-team Region 1-5A, which be made up of Augusta-area and southeast Georgia schools.
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