Monday, Aug. 17, 2020
Class 7A
*Best player: Daejon Reynolds had 88 receptions for 1,534 yards and 16 touchdowns in 11 games for Central Gwinnett last season, but that’s only half the story. Rare for a player in the highest class, he played extensively on both sides of the ball and had 60 tackles and four interceptions. Reynolds committed to Florida on Feb. 3, his 17th birthday. Reynolds transferred to Grayson shortly after his junior season.

*Best position: Defensive back. A dozen senior safeties or cornerbacks in this classification are rated as three-star recruits or higher. David Daniel of Woodstock and Nyland Green of Newton are four-star recruits. So is Marquis Groves-Killebrew of Brookwood in the junior class.

*Most highly recruited: Barrett Carter of North Gwinnett is the consensus No. 4 outside-linebacker prospect and No. 44 recruit overall nationally. Carter committed to Clemson in May. Daniel, Green and Micah Morris of Camden County also are top-100 national senior recruits. Groves-Killebrew, Tyre West of Tift County and Sam Horn of Collins Hill are top-100 recruits among juniors.

*That's interesting: Grayson did well in the transfer portal as Reynolds was joined by former McEachern quarterback Carlos Del Rio. The QB-WR combination plans to play together at Florida next season. This summer, three New York players opted for Grayson’s green acres. Linebacker Sebastian Sagar, committed to Tech, is from Brooklyn, where football is delayed and playoffs canceled. He was followed by Long Islanders Jaidan Jackson, a defensive end, and Jayvian Allen, a safety. But Grayson also lost a good one. Marquis Groves-Killebrew, a four-star junior prospect committed to Georgia, transferred out to Brookwood.

*Underrated: There are no major offers waiting for Grady Bryant, but the 5-foot-10 Grayson linebacker had a school-record 134 tackles last season.

*Snubbed?: Del Rio, Camden County running back Jamie Felix, Lowndes defensive tackle Jacques Hunter and linebackers Marcus Bleazard of Harrison and Daniel Martin of Marietta – all Division I prospects who are proven as high school players – might be shaking their heads. Those and any number of defensive backs.

*What else is new?: Two players who would’ve been locks for this team, both cornerbacks, aren’t playing in Georgia this year. Travis Hunter of Collins Hill transferred to IMG Academy in Florida. Formerly the No. 1-rated junior prospect in Georgia, Hunter is committed to Florida State. Jordan Hancock of North Gwinnett opted out of his senior season, citing the health of his parents. He is committed to Ohio State.

OFFENSE
PRO QB – Sam Horn, Collins Hill, Jr.
DUAL QB - Jacurri Brown, Lowndes, Jr.
RB - Cody Brown, Parkview, Sr.
RB - Phil Mafah, Grayson, Sr.
WR - Lemeke Brockington, Colquitt County, Sr.
WR - Daejon Reynolds, Grayson, Sr.
TE - Jack Nickel, Milton, Jr.
OL - Cameron Dye, Milton, Sr.
OL - Dylan Fairchild, West Forsyth, Sr.
OL - Micah Morris, Camden County, Sr.
OL - Gage Pitchford, East Coweta, Sr.
OL - Jackson Walls, Parkview, Sr.
ATH - David Daniel, Woodstock, Sr.
K - Christian Lowery, Harrison, Sr.

DEFENSE
DL - Victoine Brown, Grayson, Sr.
DL - Noah Collins, Grayson, Sr.
DL - Thomas Davis, Lowndes, Sr.
DL - Tyre West, Tift County, Jr.
LB - Grady Bryant, Grayson, Sr.
LB - Barrett Carter, North Gwinnett, Sr.
LB - Ese Dubre, McEachern, Sr.
LB - Jalen Garner, Norcross, Sr.
DB - Omar Daniels, Colquitt County, Sr.
DB - Nyland Green, Newton, Sr.
DB - Marquis Groves-Killebrew, Brookwood, Jr.
DB - T.J. Quinn, Lowndes, Sr.
P - Caden Long, Roswell, Sr.

Coming Tuesday: Class 6A
DeKalb, Newton push back football
DeKalb and Newton counties backed up their football schedules late Friday, bringing to at least 10 school districts and about 67 teams that won’t be playing the week of Sept. 4, when games may begin. There are 425 football-playing schools in the GHSA.

DeKalb Schools, which has 19 teams, suspended games in all sports until October. Newton, which has three football teams, suspended sports indefinitely.

“As a mother of a former high school football player and competitive cheerleader, I understand the role sports play in galvanizing the local community and instilling the values of teamwork, leadership, self-discipline and perseverance among our scholars,” DeKalb County superintendent Cheryl Watson-Harris said in an interoffice memorandum to faculty and staff. “However, the current health risk is too great.”

School districts that won’t play games during opening week include Fulton (suspended through Sept. 14), Decatur City (through Sept. 25), DeKalb, Dougherty and Savannah-Chatham (through Sept. 30), Liberty, Newton and Bibb (indefinitely) and Calhoun County, Rockdale, Stewart and Twiggs (canceled for fall).

Class A private schools Our Lady of Mercy, Pinecrest Academy and Riverside Military also won’t play GHSA football this fall.

Other districts, most particularly Clayton County, have suspensions slated to end before Sept. 4. Clayton’s ban, affecting nine football teams, runs through Friday and will be re-assessed this week.

Florida remains on schedule for Sept. 4
The Florida high school association’s board of directors voted 11-5 on Friday to start football the week of Sept. 4 with practices beginning Aug. 24. The decision came despite an advised further delay by the association’s sports medicine advisory committee earlier in the week. As in Georgia, several school districts might not be ready, especially those in South Florida.

Mississippi sets attendance guidelines
Mississippi became the first Southern state to announce statewide attendance restrictions for high school football Friday when Gov. Tate Reeves announced a limit of two guests per student participant. “Twenty-two players on a field is not going to overwhelm local hospitals or overly stress our health care system, but 2,000 people in the stands will,” Reeves said. Mississippi’s season is scheduled to begin the week of Sept. 4.

GHSA leaves spectator rules to schools
The GHSA so far has left spectator rules up to individual school districts. In Glynn County, home to Glynn Academy and Brunswick, attendance will be capped at 40 percent of seating capacity. Glynn County Stadium holds 12,000. Columbia County, home to five football teams, will require face coverings in crowds and social-distancing for non-family groups. Most schools haven't released their football plans publicly.

Michigan pushes season back to 2021
Michigan on Friday moved its football season to spring, making it the 15th state to delay the season to 2021. Michigan allowed its other falls sports, including soccer and volleyball, to continue. Other states moving football to winter or spring are California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, plus Washington, D.C.

Erk Russell Classic won’t be played
The ninth Erk Russell Classic, scheduled for Sept. 5 at Georgia Southern’s Paulson Stadium, was canceled last week. Statesboro will play Wayne County at Statesboro on Sept. 4, but the Clinch County-Lincoln County game won’t be played.
Start dates
First games will begin this week in Tennessee and Alabama. Below are the start dates for each Southern state. The dates correspond to the Friday of those weeks, not necessarily the date of the first game.

Tennessee - Aug. 21
Alabama - Aug. 21
Arkansas - Aug. 28
Florida - Sept. 4
Georgia - Sept. 4
Mississippi - Sept. 4
Kentucky - Sept. 11
South Carolina - Sept. 25
Louisiana - Oct. 9
North Carolina - Feb. 26
Virginia - March 5

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Who is the only Georgia high school football player to receive a perfect 1.0000 rating on the 247Sports Composite rankings: Eric Berry, Justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence, Robert Nkemdiche or Trenton Thompson? (Answer Tuesday)

Answer to Friday’s question: The two active coaches who have won multiple region titles at three schools are McEachern's Franklin Stephens (three at Tucker, two at Lamar County, two at Ware County) and Washington-Wilkes' Sid Fritts (four at Vidalia, two at Rome, two at Elbert County).

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Four Georgia kickers among nation's best
Four Georgia senior kickers and punters are ranked in the top eight nationally by Kohl’s Kicking, one of the prominent rankers and camp organizers.

Noah Jones of Cairo is the No. 1-ranked punter, followed by No. 6 Connor Weselman of Westminster and No. 8 Marshall Nichols of Holy Innocents’. Kohl’s No. 4 place-kicker is Kriston Esnard of Decatur.

Among juniors, Westminster’s Alex Cacchetta is Kohl’s No. 2 kicker and punter.

All are proven at the high school level, as well. Each is among Georgia’s top 10 and are the latest members of the Georgia Power 100.

*Caleb Bonesteel, Dawson County: Bonesteel made 13 of 17 field-goal attempts with a long of 52 yards in 2019. He has made 18 of 23 in his career. Chris Sailer Kicking rates him the No. 73 senior place-kicker nationally.

*Alex Cacchetta, Westminster: Cacchetta is ranked both the No. 2 punter and place-kicker nationally among juniors, according to Kohl’s Kicking. Cacchetta made 17 of 19 field-goal attempts with a long of 49 in 2019. His misses came from 47 and 59 yards. He shared kickoff duties and put seven of 10 kicks in the end zone.

*Connor Cummins, Walton: Cummins made seven of nine field-goal attempts with a long of 46 yards in 2019.  More than 50 percent of his kickoffs went for touchbacks. Cummins is rated the No. 36 overall kicker nationally, regardless of class, by Kornblue Kicking.

*Kriston Esnard, Decatur: Esnard is ranked the No. 4 kicking prospect nationally by Kohl’s. He committed to Tulane two weeks ago. In 2019, he made five field goals, with a long of 54. He had 44 touchbacks. He averaged 41 yards on punts, with six downed inside the 6-yard line.

*Noah Jones, Cairo: Jones is the No. 1 senior punter prospect nationally by Kohl’s and Kornblue. He has an offer from San Diego State and walk-on opportunities at Georgia and other schools. Jones averaged 43.7 yards per punt and made 11 of 19 field-goal attempts in 2019. He put 59 of 73 kickoffs in the end zone. Jones has made 32 field goals in his career, with a long of 48.

*Caden Long, Roswell: Long averaged 42.5 yards per punt in 2019. He has made nine of 12 field-goal attempts in his career. Long is the 54th-rated kicker nationally, according to Kohl’s. Long’s brother Ty, a former Roswell specialist, is the punter/place-kicker for the Los Angeles Chargers.

*Christian Lowery, Harrison: Lowery made nine of 11 field goals and put 57 of 95 kickoffs in the end zone for Harrison’s Class 6A championship team in 2019. He made a 40-yard field goal in the championship game against Allatoona. Lowery averaged 34.1 yards per punt. He’s rated the No. 34 overall kicker in any class by Kornblue.

*Marshall Nichols, Holy Innocents’: Nichols is a top-10 senior punter nationally, per both Kohl’s and Sailer. He averaged 46.6 yards per punt with 11 of 25 inside the 20-yard line in 2019. He committed to Mississippi State in May.

*Britton Williams, Richmond Hill: Williams made 12 of 19 field-goal attempts with a long of 48 in 2019. He put 46 of 68 kickoffs in the end zone. He’s rated the No. 21 senior kicker nationally, according to Sailer Kicking.

*Connor Weselman, Westminster: Weselman, rated the No. 2 senior punting prospect nationally by Sailer, committed to Stanford. He averaged 36.0 yards last season, with eight fair catches and nine of 32 punts inside the 20-yard line.

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Second-round upsets in higher classes rare in computer tourney
Upsets were relatively few in round-of-16 games in the Team of the Decade tournament, which set the scene for some marquee quarterfinals.

In Class 7A, three elite-eight games will pit state champions: 2015 Colquitt County (15-0) vs. 2012 Norcross (15-0), 2016 Grayson (2016) vs. 2017 North Gwinnett (14-1) and 2019 Marietta (13-2) vs. 2018 Milton (13-2). The other quarter of the draw features Cinderella teams 2015 Archer (11-2) and 2017 Tift County (11-2).

State champions also will face off when 2010 Chattahoochee (15-0) plays 2019 Harrison (2015) in 6A and 2018 Blessed Trinity (15-0) plays 2011 Burke County (14-1) in 5A.

Not all state champions made it through, though. Three failed to get out of the second round in classes 7A through 4A.
 
Tucker’s 2011 state champ lost to 2017 Stockbridge 7-0. Stockbridge had a pretty good defense that year led by five-star defensive lineman Brenton Cox.

If Tucker coach Franklin Stephens was down from that defeat, his spirits were lifted by his 2015 Ware County team, which defeated Bainbridge’s 2018 champion 28-7. Dedrick Mills, now at Nebraska, was a star two-way player on that Ware team.

Meanwhile, Statesboro’s 2010 team, the last Blue Devils squad to make the state semifinals, pulled an upset for the second consecutive round by beating 2013 champion Griffin 21-17. Statesboro beat 2018 Warner Robins in the first round.

Mays’ 2016 team, a quarterfinalist that year, beat 2015 Allatoona, Cobb County Schools’ first state champion, 23-22 in 6A.

The computer model used for the tournament simulation was created by Georgia High School Football Historians Association founder Loren Maxwell. It uses historical scores to simulate any matchup involving Georgia high school teams of the past 75 years.

In each game, the stronger team usually wins, but upsets and surprising scores occur as they do in real life.

Below are second-round scores in the larger four classifications with upsets noted in red.

Coming Tuesday: Quarterfinals in 3A-1A.
Class 7A
2015 Colquitt County 43, 2011 Walton 14
2012 Norcross 35, 2016 Roswell 30
2015 Archer 41, 2014 Etowah 0
2017 Tift County 28, 2018 Parkview 21
2016 Grayson 26, 2012 Lovejoy 21
2017 North Gwinnett 20, 2015 Mill Creek 17
2018 Milton 28, 2011 M.L. King 14
2019 Marietta 41, 2010 Valdosta 0
 
Class 6A
2011 Northside (W.R.) 28, 2011 Warner Robins 17
2016 Tucker 21, 2015 Houston County 20
2016 Valdosta 28, 2017 Coffee 0
2015 Glynn Academy 14, 2011 Lovejoy 3
2018 Lee County 41, 2016 Alexander 20
2016 Mays 23, 2015 Allatoona 22
2010 Chattahoochee 38, 2010 Kell 28
2019 Harrison 30, 2019 Dacula 20
Class 5A
2019 Buford 24, 2015 Stephenson 21
2015 Ware County 28, 2018 Bainbridge 7
2012 Gainesville 28, 2010 Hiram 12
2010 Starr's Mill 24, 2014 Mays 14
2017 Rome 6, 2018 Dutchtown 0
2010 Statesboro 21, 2013 Griffin 17
2017 Stockbridge 7, 2011 Tucker 0
2013 Creekside 35, 2019 Carrollton 20
 
Class 4A
2015 Woodward Academy 24, 2018 Troup 20
2012 Sandy Creek 35, 2019 West Laurens 0
2010 Carrollton 26, 2012 St. Pius 7
2014 Buford 41, 2010 Grady 33
2016 Cartersville 28, 2017 Cedartown 14
2018 Marist 41, 2017 Ridgeland 7
2018 Blessed Trinity 33, 2016 Jefferson 14
2011 Burke County 24, 2019 Oconee County 7
Today’s interviewee is Athens Academy athletic director Kevin Petroski, who is in his 16th year at the Class A private school and 13th in his current job. A graduate of Deerfield-Windsor in Albany, Petroski worked with Georgia Independent School Association members before coming to Athens.
 
Kevin Petroski,
Athens Academy AD
1. What are the added challenges as an athletic director during the pandemic? “Student safety is always the No. 1 priority for us in any year, but we’re definitely having to focus more this year on their well-being when they arrive on campus and now that they’re in school. So we’ve had to make sure we’ve educated the coaches on guidelines and provided all the cleaning products. We’ve had to show them not just what they are but how to use them, how much they need to be used and how long they’ll be effective. I’ve had to learn it as much as the coaches. ...

“I also spent an entire week preparing protocols for spectators and visitors at athletic events, then had to finalize all that with our head of school and director of operations. That’s been something that athletic directors have been working on that was never the case in the past.” [For football games, Athens Academy is allowing parents and siblings of players, cheerleaders and coaches, plus 33 seniors. “I know 33 sounds like a random number,” Petroski said, “but that’s what it measures out to be with social-distancing.”]

2. How are the challenges different for a private school compared to a larger school, or a school that’s part of a larger school system? And is it easier to have everyone on board with a decision? “It’s much easier at a smaller school, whether it’s public or private. I know a lot of my colleagues at county schools who are definitely more challenged than I am in some regards. We have one football stadium, one facility on campus, one locker room. As far as people agreeing on what to do, I’m not sure that’s completely true, but smaller schools seem to come to consensus or decisions a little faster. We’re lucky that we have very supportive families, and they want what’s best. I see families wanting their kids to get in what they missed out on in the spring. The majority of people want to see fall sports move forward and hopefully winter and spring as well.”

3. What questions are people most asking you? “They just want to know if we’re going to be playing. It doesn’t matter what sport. Football gets the most attention now because other sports are already playing. I’m getting questions from student-athletes that I never really got before. They’re asking about the GHSA and when does the sports medicine committee meet or when will the board of trustees make a decision. It’s good that they’re interested, but it also lets me know that they’re struggling with it and it’s a stressor for them. That’s nothing you want them to have. You want them to play and not have to worry about that.”

4. How do you see the football season playing out? “I’ve said from day one that the schedule that we have in place now, you can’t write them in stone any more. There’s no guarantee you’re going to play every game on the schedule. We had Charlotte Country Day scheduled for Sept. 11, and North Carolina moved their season to later. We’re now having to find a replacement. We might find out any week that our opponent can’t play and have to find a game. That’s going to be something that’s common around the state. But I don’t think it’s going to keep people from wanting to move forward and play. I guess maybe I’m being an optimist, but I believe we’re going to have a football season.”

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Jackson County seeks assistant in boys basketball, baseball
Jackson County High School is accepting applications for an assistant boys basketball coach and assistant baseball coach that will include duties as a PE teacher. If interested, click here to contact athletic director Brad Hayes.

Sequoyah seeks boys basketball assistant coach
Sequoyah High School is accepting applications for a varsity boys basketball assistant coach for the 2020-21 school year. Teaching certificate needs to be in science or SPED Math. If you are interested, click here to contact head coach Allen Carden.

St. George’s Episcopal seeks assistants in volleyball, boys basketball
The assistant coaches in volleyball and boys basketball will assist in all matters concerning the varsity teams. We are looking for someone who wants to help build a competitive program in an elite academic environment. We are only in the fifth year of competing at the varsity level. St. George’s competes in GISA AA athletics. These are part-time jobs through the season with the possibility of expanding roles in the coming years. Click here to contact athletic director Britt Gaylor.

Rockdale Co. seeks assistant football, baseball, girls basketball coach
Rockdale County High School is looking for an assistant coach for baseball, girls basketball and football. Interested candidates should be certified in one of the following teaching vacancies – English, Spanish and/or SPED (Science and/or English). Click here to contact athletic director Chad Suddeth.

Manchester seeks head softball coach
Manchester High School is now accepting applications for our head softball coach. Also, there is a possibility of coaching an additional spring sport, with a SPED co-teacher opening as well. Interested applicants can send their resume and cover letter to assistant principal/athletic director Dr. Kelvin Smith by clicking here.
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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.