Georgia High School Football Daily Spotlight: Five semifinals playoff teams that far exceeded expectations
Of the 20 teams that have reached the semifinals, 15 were ranked in the preseason and can’t be called a true Cinderella. Five were unranked and given little chance before the season of sticking around this long.
Here is a look at each by the GHSF Daily staff:
Rockdale County (AAAA): The Bulldogs were 5-5 last season and started this year 1-3. Then, to ensure that no one would predict them to reach the final four, they nipped winless Monroe Area 18-15 in the 10th game. Since then, it’s been three decisive playoff victories on the road – Banneker (41-18), Hiram (21-7) and Westside (23-7).
Darlington (A): The Tigers were 6-5 last season and started 0-3. This is the private school in Rome that lost star quarterback Nash Nance to Calhoun, the No. 1-ranked team in Class AA. Darlington won its region but lost to Trion in the 10th game. Who saw this coming? Not us. Coach Tommy Atha has Darlington in the semifinals for the first time since the state championship season of 1998.
Clarke Central (AAAA): Talk about a blast from the past. Clarke Central was North Georgia’s top program in the largest class from the mid-1970s through the mid-’80s under Billy Henderson, a Hall of Fame coach, but hadn’t won a playoff game since 1997. The program hadn’t hit bottom, just become mediocre. Leroy Ryals has improved the school’s victory total each since he arrived in 2006. Still, Clarke Central was 8-2 in the regular season.
Colquitt County (AAAAA): Colquitt is the only semifinalist that is coming off a losing season. Colquitt was 4-6 in Rush Propst’s first season in Moultrie, but the coach who won five state titles at Hoover of Alabama has the program in the semifinals for the first time since 1998. Colquitt finished in third place in powerful Region 1-AAAAA.
Eastside (AAA): The Eagles of Covington lost most of their starters from last season’s region champions. That included player of the year Justin Wray. Eastside started 1-2, losing to its Newton County rivals, but has won 10 straight. Remember that this is a program that suffered consecutive 0-10 seasons in 2004-05.
Here is the preseason ranking of the other 15 semifinal teams:
No. 1 – Buford (AA)
No. 2 – Calhoun (AA), Gainesville (AAA), Wilcox County (A)
No. 3 – Flowery Branch (AAA), Clinch County (A)
No. 4 – Camden County (AAAAA), Fitzgerald (AA)
No. 5 – Sandy Creek (AAAA)
No. 6 – Griffin (AAAA)
No. 7 – Northside (AAAAA), Peach County (AAA), Lovett (AA)
No. 8 – Savannah Christian (A)
No. 10 – Newnan (AAAAA)
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171 comments Add your comment
Packer Fan From Albany Georgia
December 3rd, 2009
8:52 am
Go Packers; Beat Camden bring back that 90’s atitude that made us the elite forces of the state!!!!!
Dontgiveadam
December 3rd, 2009
8:55 am
Packers beat them s.o.b. and bring back that title; I got money that you are going to win!!!
Camdenisgood...but!
December 3rd, 2009
8:59 am
I am not a Camden County fan nor a Lowndes County fan…I am a fan of football, so I attended the Camden/Lowndes game. From my vantage point, Lowndes was clearly the best team on the field. They dominated Camden. Camden was fortunate to have a few turnovers go their way. That is why you play the game, but I wouldn’t say Camden is the best team in Georgia! I would disagree. The best team doesn’t always win.
topper
December 3rd, 2009
9:23 am
Camdenisgood…but! – How do you figure Lowndes dominated camden? Yardage was almost dead even! And when it counted Camden drove the ball 9 minutes and ended the game! I have friends both from Lowndes and Camden that disagree with your statement.
Jax Packer Fan
December 3rd, 2009
10:26 am
Just so everyone knows, This Camden/Colquitt game is garnering interest in the state of Florida also. There will be a quite a number of people driving up from Jax to see the game, as well as local Jacksonville TV. BTW. Are there still tix available???
Jim
December 3rd, 2009
10:55 am
I’m proud of all these teams. But all of them can’t go all the way. I have my favorites too, but really it’s bigger than you and me. We will see how it turns out. This is an odd year. 2009. We like to predict, but you really can’t. “The best laid plans of mice and men” often go awry. Only God knows on this one.
AthensPacker
December 3rd, 2009
11:23 am
Speaking for the non-brain-dead faction of our fanbase, I think both Camden and Colquitt are in for a war on Friday. Whoever wins (and I really believe it’s a toss-up) will win the state. The two best teams left play Friday night in Kingsland.
Go Pack!
Grayson Fan
December 3rd, 2009
1:01 pm
Newnan wins by 10, 3 fumbles recovered, 2 blocked kicks, 2 int good D.
nrth ga cane
December 3rd, 2009
3:39 pm
canes handle buford easily. we finally have a quarterback!!! state champions
SportsFan31313
December 3rd, 2009
4:19 pm
Camden County wins it again for the 2nd straight year.
SportsFan31313
December 3rd, 2009
4:21 pm
Enter your comments here
EagleNationRising
December 3rd, 2009
5:37 pm
Sportsfan31313: I remember a period earlier this season when you were riding the Lowndes County bandwagon. Now, you have hitched on to the Camden County bandwagon. Shame on you.
Northside has some injury issues. Can any poster in Warner Robins give me a status update of Northside starting QB Briar Van Brunt and Northside starting RB Shaquille O’Neill? I would like to know what is the story back home in Warner Robins.
We are limping into this semifinal game. At the end of the day, we are Northside. We have limping into semifinal games before and everything worked out just fine. I expect more of the same, if we are 80% at skill positions tomorrow night.
EagleNationRising
December 3rd, 2009
5:39 pm
Camden County REAL big over Colquitt County. Trust me. I always enjoy seeing our Region 1-AAAAA programs perform well. I do believe that Colquitt is “tested.” On the other hand, I do not see anyone riding into Wildcat Stadium in Kingsland and beating Camden County with all of the marbles on the floor.
Good luck Packers.
Good luck Wildcats.
VHS Transplant
December 3rd, 2009
10:27 pm
Guwinster,
You stated the Macon Telegraph only posted the new school classifications of the macon area. You are right, the Macon rag only prints info that concerns the very local area. They try to be big time and just can’t seem to make it! The Macon rag is a joke, and no, I don’t take the paper. Macon takes to much time trying to be an Atlanta “wantta be” and does not have much success being anything. By the way, I am a transplant to Macon (Bibb county).
Tommydawg22
December 3rd, 2009
10:54 pm
Lets just play some football, we are talking about 16-18 year old kids, they are all suspect to make mistakes…Its to the point now that you hope it doesn’t rain and generally the teams with the least amount of turnovers and does the best on special teams will win the game…Don’t talk to much trash it only makes for a long ride home…
chris
December 4th, 2009
1:49 pm
camden cant beat us packers look at what we did to lasstier nobody picked us to win and nobodys picking us to win this week are boys wont it way more than ya do and ya play weak teams lowndes aint that good we will beat ya
qo canes b&t
December 4th, 2009
6:31 pm
tonight tonight we’re going to tear off in some a** tonight! fitzgerald all the way turnt up tonight. qo to the dome or qo home! YOU ON HURRICANES COUNTRY!!!!!!!!
Majorprops
December 4th, 2009
6:52 pm
Camden untested? You people are overlooking the most obvious of points. They are more battle-tested than any other team in the state or nation, regardless of classification. I am familiar with their offseason program, their feeder programs, and their in-season program. To make a long story short, they are so good because they see better competition during the week in practice than from any other team on their schedule. They are so good because they dedicate themselves to work like dogs in a state-of-the-art training facility 365 days per year. They dedicate themselves to the head coach’s system starting in pee wee league. So, yes, they are tested. They are regularly tested against the toughest of opponents: themselves. If they do not win this week, it will be because of what Colquitt County does, not what Region 3 did not do to prepare them. How many of the heavyweights in Georgia stepped up to play them in non-region games? One, Grayson, and they deserve credit for doing so. Let’s see what happens next year when Region 1 teams are looking for SIX non-region games to fill out a schedule. My bet is that they will cop out and play an unheard-of regular season home-and-home schedule to avoid scheduling potential losses against the likes of Camden, Thomas County Central, Ware County, Cairo, and Lake City, FL.
Watch.
WILD CAT GRANDMOTHER
December 4th, 2009
11:22 pm
Well I just got back from the great game in WILD CAT COUNTRY. WOW from what I have read all you fans from Colquitt “Pack Fans” finally saw the light, Camden turned it on and sent your Guys PACK-ING home with a LOSS. Everybody loves a WINNER, one year, or two years, don’t care as long as they are winning. Sorry about the weather, we ordered it just for tonights game, and it did just what we wanted it to, Camden 19 them 10, Your band was GREAT.
SportsFan31313
December 6th, 2009
3:02 pm
EagleNationRising
December 3rd, 2009
5:37 pm
Sportsfan31313: I remember a period earlier this season when you were riding the Lowndes County bandwagon. Now, you have hitched on to the Camden County bandwagon. Shame on you.
Eagle Nations Rising,
I knew you couldn’t understand reason, but you can’t read either? I never was a band wagon jumper. I was always a Camden County Fan. They come from Region 3-AAAAA, the region I came out of. Now, I said earlier this year that Lowndes was the team to beat, and I really thought they were. They were beaten by Camden County in the second round. So it’s Camden County now. If Northside Warner Robins were playing against a North Georgia team I would be pulling for Northside. That does not make me a band wagon jumper but I pull for ALL South Georgia teams. In addition, I’m a realist. Northside Warner Robins wont beat Camden County so you can get all of your records, and all of your stats. It wont convince anyone here but Northside Fans that Northside will beat Camden County. Camden County wins the State Title for the 2nd year in a row.
bigdog
January 7th, 2010
1:36 am
its a shame and a disgrace but it fills my heart with great joy to announce that due to the fact that camden has beaten the best 1AAAAA has to offer, WE now consider you guys A part of 3AAAAA also.maybe we will reclassify you as 3AAAAA-B