White Co. breaks rankings drought |
White County has made the playoffs more times than not in recent years, but signature wins that would put a team in the state rankings have eluded the Warriors for years.
That kind of win came last week, when White defeated then-No. 8 Hart County 50-47 in a Class 3A game. It was White County’s first victory over a top-10 team on the road since 1983 (Oconee County) and just the third win over a top-10 team in school history.
JBen Haynes, a preseason Georgia Power 100 pick, was 12-of-23 passing for 170 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 151 yards and four touchdowns on 18 carries. Haynes scored on a 10-yard run with a minute left for the game-winner.
“It was significant in that we found a way to beat a really good Hart County team,” White County coach Tim Cokely said. “Knowing that they are a perennial playoff contender, and getting a win there, should help our confidence as we move forward.”
White County, ranked in an AJC poll for the first time since 1972, is GHSF Daily’s Team of the Week. The award, sponsored by Siemens and World Electric, will be presented to Cokely and his team today in Cleveland.
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Coaches with COVID-19 recovering |
Head coaches at Statesboro, Tift County and Irwin County are recovering in their battles with COVID-19, although Statesboro’s Jeff Kaiser is back in a Savannah hospital, saying he might be there for a while.
Kaiser was hospitalized overnight and released Sept. 9 but returned Saturday, the coach confirmed to GHSF Daily on Tuesday. “Miss my team,” he said in a text message.
Tift County’s Ashley Anders was released from Tift Regional Medical Center on Tuesday. His wife, Sheri, posted the news on Facebook.
“After 5 days, oxygen is off, sustained 95 for 24 hours, so he is now home!” the post read. “We appreciate all of your prayers. He is still very tired and weak, but Nurse Sheri and Nurse Camden will take good care of him. Please pray that his oxygen level stays at 95!”
Anders texted to GHSF Daily, “I’m doing better, still recovering.”
Irwin County’s Casey Soliday was released from a hospital Monday afternoon after seven days. He also was diagnosed with the flu.
“I feel better and I am breathing better, just really low energy,” Soliday told GHSF Daily via text. “Very glad to be at the house.”
Soliday said he hoped to be back at practice Monday.
Need a game? GHSFHA can help
Dozens of games have been canceled this season, some just hours before kickoff. Those game-day cancellations can’t be salvaged, but for those getting early-week schedule changes but still want to play, the Georgia High School Football Historians Association might be able to help find an opponent.
GHSFHA founder Loren Maxwell has created a web page on the GHSFHA site that shows every team in any given week that has an open date and fewer than 10 games scheduled. This week, for example, the GHSFHA open dates slicer identifies some 30 of those teams from Dalton to Savannah Country Day.
“This allows schools looking to fill an open date to quickly find other schools with corresponding open dates and hopefully give us all the most complete football we can have under the circumstances,” Maxwell said. “It's only as accurate as the GHSFHA schedule, so I'd also ask for assistance on keeping the schedules up to date.”
Any errors or omissions on the GHSFHA’s schedules can be reported by email to GHSF Daily.
St. Pius cancels Blessed Trinity game
St. Pius, citing a positive COVID-19 test on the football team, on Tuesday canceled its Saturday football game with Blessed Trinity. The cancellation is the first for St. Pius but third for Blessed Trinity, which canceled its games with Forsyth Central and Marist the past two weeks because of a positive COVID-19 test on its team. Blessed Trinity, ranked No. 2 in Class 5A, is looking for a replacement opponent. St. Pius, ranked No. 10, played and won its only scheduled game Sept. 4 against Flowery Branch. St. Pius has not made an announcement on the status of its Sept. 25 game against Cedar Shoals.
Albany teams resume practice
Dougherty County Schools gave its football teams – Monroe, Westover and Dougherty – the green light to resume practice this week, and they can play their first games in October. The Albany school district on Aug. 11 was among the first to delay its fall sports seasons. DeKalb, Rockdale and Savannah-Chatham are the only multi-school districts still in delay. DeKalb and Savannah can start games in October. Rockdale has approved practices but not games.
East Hall junior has 260 yards receiving
Macere Walker, a junior at East Hall, had 260 yards receiving last week in the Vikings’ 30-22 victory over West Hall. The yardage total is among the 10 highest on record with the Georgia High School Football Historians Association. “He started and played on defense and all special teams as well as playing wide receiver,” East Hall coach Michael Perry said. “He's an exceptional young man that has great hands and is just so much fun to be around. He is going to have a big year for us.” Walker, who had 11 receptions and one touchdown, was the leading receiver for quarterback Clete Cooper, who was 28-of-44 passing for 390 yards. It was East Hall's first opening-game win since 2014.
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Here's a look at Georgia's teams ranked on a consensus of five polls (AJC – Atlanta Journal-Constitution/GHSF Daily; GPB – Georgia Public Broadcasting; SC – Score Atlanta; Max – Maxwell Ratings; and MP – MaxPreps). |
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Rankings regulars
Fifteen schools have been in the AJC top 10 for each of the past 50 ranking weeks or longer.
290 - Buford (1999)
109 - GAC (2012)
90 - Blessed Trinity (2013)
85 - Grayson (2014)
83 - Cartersville (2014)
74 - Cedar Grove (2014)
74 - ELCA (2014)
74 - Rabun County (2014)
73 - Prince Ave. Christian (2015)
66 - Callaway (2015)
64 - Clinch County (2015)
61 - Peach County (2015)
59 - Lee County (2016)
59 - Rome (2016)
54 - Colquitt County (2016)
Join the GACA and be eligible for liability insurance, participation in all-star games, registration to clinics, and access to job listings.
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Two games this week - North Gwinnett vs. Parkview and Grayson vs. Collins Hill - match top-10 Class 7A schools from Gwinnett County. What Gwinnett County Schools team (meaning not Buford or a private school) holds the district record for consecutive weeks in the AJC rankings? (Answer Thursday)
Answer to Tuesday’s question: Georgia Tech sophomore Curtis Ryans, the ACC defensive lineman of the week, played high school football at North Cobb, where he was a four-year letterman.
Jostens is the leading provider of yearbooks, caps and gowns, class rings and championship rings and is the Official Championship Ring of the GHSA. Click here to learn more.
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Reilly Mason,
Worth County
Reilly Mason, a junior at Worth County, is the Oglesby Kicking Academy Specialist of the Week. Mason was 4-for-4 on extra points, 2-for-2 on field goals, good from 21 and 36 yards, and kicked seven touchbacks in Worth County’s 34-30 victory over Mitchell County. Worth County rallied from a 30-20 fourth-quarter deficit and beat a ranked team for the first time since 2014.
The Cedric Oglesby Kicking Academy (kickdoctor.com), led by former NFL kicker Cedric Oglesby, specializes in kicking, punting and snapping instruction and provides reputable player rankings created from our competitions. It hosts and selects the Georgia Kicking, Punting and Snapping Awards All-State Team. It has trained NFL Pro Bowl kicker Wil Lutz (Northgate/Saints), Samuel Sloman (Pace Academy/ Rams), Brandon Wright (KIPP Collegiate/Jaguars), Rodrigo Blankenship (Sprayberry/Colts) and Tyler Newsome (Carrollton/ Chiefs). Click here for more information.
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GHSF Daily will select 10 games each week for a Predict the Winner contest, presented by ALL-STAR QB. Predictions must be submitted by 5 p.m. each Friday. Limit one entry per email address. Contest winners will be announced on Mondays at the start of each new contest and will receive the ASQB-LITE model game, the company's most popular. Click here to play!
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Today’s interviewee is Rusty Mansell, a football recruiting analyst for 247Sports, Dawgs247 and CBS Sports Network. Mansell is a former Georgia high school player at Pepperell and a member of the Dragons’ 1990 state championship team.
Rusty Mansell, football recruiting analyst
1. The Rabun County-Prince Avenue Christian game last week drew national attention and an ESPN television audience because of the five-star quarterbacks on each team. What were your takeaways from that game? “I think people realize now that Gunner Stockton can hurt you with his legs just as much with his arm. The addition of Adriel Clark to this team at WR gives them a big option on the edge. He was the difference when he was in the game. Prince had no answer for his size. I thought Brock Vandagriff did what I thought he would, and that is lead his team all the way until the end, and he almost pulled it off. Both QBs are special and love the game of football more than recruiting. I think a lot of people want to see Stockton on tape this week against Jefferson. This will be the best team on paper he has faced in high school. I think this will be a very good game to see this week.” [Clark, who had 11 receptions for 134 yards and two touchdowns, transferred from Riverside Military, which canceled its fall sports seasons because of COVID-19. The Jefferson game will put Rabun and Stockton up against a five-star quarterback for the second consecutive week. Jefferson’s Malaki Starks, recruited as a running back or defensive back, is the No. 16 overall junior prospect nationally, according to 247Sports.]
2. Who is the most underrated prospect in Georgia this season? “I am pretty set on this one. Ahmad Walker at Warner Robins is a two-star prospect on 247Sports. He will not end up there as a ranking. He is also verbally committed to Liberty at LB, and they will have to fight off others to keep him, in my opinion. He was lights out against Valdosta, and he comes with bad intentions every play. Love watching his tape, and that team will be a hard out come December. If he plays on TV late in the year, a lot more people will realize how good he truly is.”
3. You’ll sometimes hear that a player is underrated as a recruit because he hasn’t attended combines or showcase events? How true is that? “That is very true in this day and age. I am always clear on every camp I run or attend. The biggest thing you will do in the offseason is getting a verified height and weight. We [247Sports] will not change a profile unless we have it from a camp and we know it was done right. Measurables are so important with evaluations for colleges [offers] and for us [rankings]. When you hear of a camp offer, a school will ‘offer’ a prospect, but it is not committable until they can see you and verify measurables etc.”
4. What is a common question that you get, or something that fans or players or coaches might not understand about recruiting rankings, the process of evaluating, or anything along those lines? “I am a parent, and I had two of my girls play sports in high school, so I get it and I was very proud of their accomplishments. That is something to be very proud of, to watch your children excel in sports. On the flip side of it, I have a lot parents ask me why their child is not ranked higher because of stats or making an all-region or all-state team, etc. It has little to do with it on our side. It is all about how you project on the next level. Some schools run the ball, some schools throw it every down. I’ve never had a college coach call me and ask me how many yards a player had in a game. I have had them ask me if I have a 40 time or height and weight for a player. It is tough, but again, that is the reality of this. It is all about projection on the next level.”
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Note: All scores are courtesy of the Georgia High School Football Historians Association, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other media outlets. If a score is not accurate, it was reported incorrectly.
*All games are on Fridays unless noted. All game schedules are subject to change.
Stadium key: C - Callaway; ED - Ed Defore; FF - Freedom Field; G - Grady; GM - Griffin Memorial; K - Kinnett; MT - McConnell-Talbert; SC - Southern Crescent; SH - Sharp; T - Tara; TO - Twelve Oaks
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Storm Johnson gives back to student-athletes
Former UCF standout and NFL running back Storm Johnson has joined The Learning Company in offering services to middle and high school students and student-athletes through a boys only academy with NCAA approved classes (in person one-to-one or virtual); final semester program for high school seniors; ACT/SAT prep; athletic training; and Camp Storm, a residential camp facility located in southeastern Georgia on 40 acres. For information, call 770-652-7542 or click here to email.
GPSA/Champion Prep offering opportunities to get skills, exposure
Georgia Prep Sports Academy (Champion Prep Academy) is offering opportunities for 2020-21 student-athletes who wish to earn a four-year scholarship to an accredited college. Since 2013, GPSA/Champion Prep has helped more than 200 student-athletes get the skills and/or exposure they need. GPSA/Champion Prep will be looking to sign 65 student-athletes in December. Click here to complete the admission application. Contact coach Michael Carson at 678-663-7514 or coach Sean Tarrant at 470-577-5502 for more information.
Chattahoochee seeks freshman boys basketball coach
Chattahoochee High School is seeking a freshman boys basketball coach for the 2020-21 season. Click here to send your letters and resume to head coach Chris Short. There are no teaching positions currently available.
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GHSF Daily classified ads
Reach 22,000 readers per day in GHSF Daily’s classified ads. Rates are $50 per week. Ads must be a maximum of 75 words and include a headline and contact information. Click here to contact us.
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About Us
Georgia High School Football Daily is a free e-mail newsletter produced and owned by Todd Holcomb and Chip Saye. Holcomb is a former lead high school football writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and co-founder of the Georgia High School Football Historians Association. Saye is a 35-year veteran of the newspaper industry who has covered high school sports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Athens Banner-Herald, Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail and Gwinnett Daily News.
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