Bill Bailey says Mount Zion is the kind of town that a traveler might miss if he blinked while driving along Highway 16 in Carroll County. There's a city hall, a post office, a convenience store and one of the smaller public high schools in Georgia.
What’s conspicuous this week – historic, in fact -- is the girls basketball team, which Bailey coaches.
The high school opened in 1939, but it wasn’t until this year that the girls team made the state tournament, which begins in earnest Friday and Saturday with 180 first-round games.
“Somebody told me that might be the case, that the girls had never made the state tournament,’’ said Bailey, also the head football coach at this school of 325 students. “It almost happened last year. We missed it by one point against Bremen. I reminded them of how that felt. They didn’t want it to happen again.’’
The list of invitees to this year’s dance, the 90th state basketball tournament, includes faces new and old, from little Mount Zion in rural west Georgia to mighty Milton and Wheeler in metro Atlanta.
Here’s a look at some of the them:
They’re back
-- Wheeler is the only metro Atlanta boys program that’s made the state tournament each season since 1999, when the GHSA expanded its draws to 32 teams in each class. Other schools with perfect attendance since ’99 are East Laurens, Statesboro, Tift County and Wilkinson County. Tift’s streak of 18 state playoff appearances is the state’s longest. From metro Atlanta, Norcross, Whitefield Academy and Wesleyan have made state each season since 2001.
-- McEachern is the only metro Atlanta girls program that’s made the state tournament each year since 1999. Other perennial qualifiers have been Hephzibah, Northeast-Macon and Westover. Metro schools with streaks of 10 or 11 years are Buford, Campbell, Greater Atlanta Christian, Redan, Stephenson and Wesleyan.
First-timers
-- Mount Zion had been one of only two schools in existence since the first girls state tournament in 1945 that had never qualified, according to the Georgia Basketball Project. Now the monkey is on Lafayette. Mount Zion travels to Towns County on Friday. "We're not just happy to be there,'' Bailey said. "We're going there to make some noise.'' Other girls teams going for the first time are Allatoona (opened in 2008), Drew (2009), Grovetown (2009), River Ridge (2009), Woodland of Stockbridge (2007) and Woodstock (1997).
-- Nine boys teams are in a state tournament for the first time. They are Allatoona (2008), Archer (2009), Creekview (2006), Drew (2009), Heritage of Ringgold (2008), Howard (2008), Langston Hughes (2009), Salem (1992) and West Forsyth (2007).
Who are we missing?
-- Meadowcreek, a state-playoff boys team each season since 2005, failed to make it this season. The only other boys teams with snapped streaks that long are Gordon Lee and Groves, also at six years.
-- Gainesville’s girls, a regular at state since 1997 and champion in 2003 and 2004, didn’t make it. Neither did Randolph-Clay’s girls, ending a 12-year streak. Marist’s run of five years was the longest snapped streak in metro Atlanta.
Drought-breakers
-- Southwest DeKalb’s boys, who beat No. 1-ranked Miller Grove in a surprising Region 6-AAAA final last week, are in the state playoffs for the first time since 2004. The longest time between state tournaments belongs to Washington, which last appeared in 1995. It’s also been a while for Roswell (2003) and Lassiter (2004). The longest broken drought belonged to Pickens, last present in 2001. Coincidentally, Pickens’ boys and girls teams each broke a 10-year drought this year.
-- Glascock County has sent a boys or girls team to the state playoffs only twice in the past 40 seasons. This year’s girls team is the first since 1983. Walton (last appearance 1999) and Pope (2001) are East Cobb neighbors breaking long droughts.
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