The biggest surprises from the first full weekend of Georgia high school football.

The last time Cartersville was ranked No. 1 in the preseason, quarterback Trevor Lawrence was a senior fourth-year starter.

North Gwinnett and Roswell soared in national polls and Brookwood entered the Massey Ratings after opening-game wins.

Georgia High School Association schools play numerous games against out-of-state competition. GHSF Daily will track the scores of those games each week to see how Georgia fare...

“Big-time players step up in big-time games, and he’s a really big-time player,” McEachern coach Kareem Reid says.

Reigning national champ Buford comes into 2026 ranked No. 1 in two national polls and are the highest-rated Georgia team in all but two prominent national rankings.

With a new school year comes sports competitions, and also the second edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s all-sports standings for GHSA schools.

GAC trailed Hebron Christian heading into the spring championship season but overcame the deficit with a state championship in boys tennis, top-5 finishes in six other sports.

Although the Blue Devils finished with fewer state titles than the top two challengers, they were near the top in nearly every sport.

Marist won four state titles during the school year and earned a state-best 1,734.5 points on its way to first place in Class 4A in the inaugural AJC Varsity all-sports list.