Goodbye to South Georgia’s reign of dominance in Class AAAAA? Or is 2010 just a fluke?
Is the balance of power finally shifting in Georgia’s largest classification for high school football?
South Georgia teams have ruled in recent years, winning 6 out of the last 7 state championships in Class AAAAA. South Georgia was expected to be a top contender again this year with both Lowndes and two-time defending state champion Camden County. However, both have been eliminated in earlier rounds of the playoffs and Colquitt County is now the South’s last hope for 2010.
FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS OF GEORGIA’S LARGEST DIVISION
2003: Camden County
2004: Lowndes
2005: Lowndes
2006: Peachtree Ridge/Roswell (tie)
2007: Lowndes
2008: Camden County
2009: Camden County
2010: ???
2011: ???
Is this year’s playoffs a fluke? Or is the Atlanta area about to have a dominant reign in Class AAAAA? The other three semifinalists are Brookwood, Grayson and Collins Hill.
What do you think? Is the North finally taking control of Class AAAAA? Or is this a one-year wonder? State your case below.
Note: In this particular post, we’re only talking about the state’s largest division.
[The AJC's Michael Carvell is out while recovering from surgery, but you can follow the AJC's coverage of the high school playoffs by clicking here .... and here.]
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164 comments Add your comment
Footbaler
December 2nd, 2010
9:34 am
Can anyone tell me if the Brookwood/Collins Hill game will be televised????? I cannot make it to Snellville Friday but would like to watch the game, any idea?
TheRealDirtySouth
December 2nd, 2010
10:16 am
LaughingOutLoud, Check your history in regards to your comments:”You win High School Championships we produce Pros and well looks like the Hesiman Trophy winner this year lol!!! Enjoy your High School rings Ed Bundys lol!!! And if your wondering yes I have a High School ring with SWD”..
Check your history we already have one of those; You ever heard of Charlie Ward. Do your research as well on the statistics on professional players from the south as well before stating thse absurd opions lest we all be laughing out loud ( not with you but at you)
E Rock
December 2nd, 2010
10:29 am
What school has the most State Titles in all sports the last 10 years?
The Hill !!! Check it out Collins Hill 5A…Thats what you call program production !!
legioncat
December 2nd, 2010
10:37 am
@ Gwinnett Dad
Valdosta has played 1097 games with 862 wins and 201 losses which is a 786 winning %..only 2 teams in america has more wins and that would be Yale and Michigan
BrusterBoy
December 2nd, 2010
11:50 am
I haven’t read all the posts, but something I think everybody is missing is the known recruitment of players in Valdosta. Its been happening since the 70’s where local businesses hire the parents of good players that go to other S GA schools, then rent them a nice apartment in the Valdosta school district. That brings the best players in the area to Valdosta, thus they have good teams. Can’t really do that too well in Gwinnett County.
grayson band dad
December 2nd, 2010
12:32 pm
@ footbaler – I heard the Brookwood game was going to be shown live by channel 2 in Atlanta and will be rebroadcast later in the night.
BrusterBoy
December 2nd, 2010
12:53 pm
Hey grayson band dad, my son played in the band at Grayson a couple years ago. Watch out for the band director, he is a real nut case.
Anyway, someone has mentioned several times about coaching talent. That is such an understatement, that it takes good coaches to mold good talent into a good team. I played for a great metro coach, Wayman Creel, back in the 70’s. He was no brilliant strategist, but is one of the winningest coaches in state history. He did teach respect and hard work, and many of his teams played for state championships in the 70’s. When the talent started to move from DeKalb to Gwinnett, his wins started to move also. South schools can’t really move from apartment to apartment, but have to go from city to city.
Grayson Fan
December 2nd, 2010
3:03 pm
To: quitman dog and all the other Colquitt Co fans; don’t underestimate the power of the Grayson Rams. The North rules now, so you better bring your A game. GO GRAYSON, show them who rules AAAAA.
Grayson Supporter
December 2nd, 2010
3:07 pm
If Gwinnett Co only had two high schools, we would probably be dominating in state titles and championships as well. But sinc we are the top school system in the stated of GA, our talent is spreaded out amongst all our schools. Hats off to Gwinnett Co Football teams. Do what you do and show them who rules AAAAA.
Fred
December 2nd, 2010
3:31 pm
@Grayson Supporter,
If we only had 2 high schools I don’t know how much we would get done as each school would be the size of a large college like GT!
Ooohhh, can you imagine, 20,000 9-12 graders in one place? The horror of it all!!! 
Grayson Supporter
December 2nd, 2010
3:45 pm
Exactly Fred. I hope Valdosta and Lowndes get that.
plowboy
December 2nd, 2010
4:53 pm
@bruster boy…..valdosta does not recruit! maybe lowndes and valdosta switch players every now and then because a kid quits and goes and play for the other school, if u want to talk about recruitment…what did the gwinnett county schools do back in the middle 90`s….bus kids in! my best friend went to parkview his junior and senior year and they had one black guy in the whole school! tell me where all the kids on grayson’s team played middle school ball!!!!!
plowboy
December 2nd, 2010
4:55 pm
I hope Colquitt County buries Grayson!!!!!!!!
grayram
December 2nd, 2010
5:32 pm
Plowboy:
Our middle schools don’t have football teams. They play in the Grayson rec league. That kid from Parkview isn’t on our team anymore he got bad knees after his 14th year.
Fred
December 2nd, 2010
5:36 pm
@plowboy,
I don’t know when your friend went to Parkview but if it was in the 90’s, it is very believable that there were very few non-whites. At that time I think Gwinnett was something like 90-95% white overall and the Parkview area was not where the 5% were. Since that time, there has been rapid change and now the county and the school system are majority minority meaning that there are no majorities in the county any more.
I can’t speak for them but I believe that the vast majority of the Grayson players played middle school ball right where they were supposed to. If you are implying that the racial makeup of the current Grayson team does not reflect the surrounding area, you could not be further from the truth.
plowboy
December 2nd, 2010
5:39 pm
i hear ya grayram! hope you guys play well tomorrow, still want our region to beat ya! funny little fact….same officiating crew from the LOWNDES/GRAYSON GAME 2008 , LOWNDES/CAMDEN 2009 , COLLINS HILL/LOWNDES 2010….all losses!!!!! those guys need to stay away…
plowboy
December 2nd, 2010
5:43 pm
GWINNETT COUNTY IS SO OVER-POPULATED, u mean all those guys start in the Grayson Rec league…that play for Grayson, Parkview,etc….. we all know about Caleb King and how he just went where he wanted
Fred
December 2nd, 2010
5:49 pm
I wasn’t going to get into the whole GFL thing but let me give a brief explanation. GLF is rec league ball. I think most every high school has a park that is associated with them. Mountain Park is with Parkview, Bay Creek with Grayson, etc. These teams have the same mascots, colors and run similar offensive and defensive schemes as the “parent” high school. This is where the kids get their playing before high school. I don’t even know how many hundreds of teams there are throughout the county but you can look up Gwinnett Football League. This is one of the issues with all of the constant school redistricting going on. When the school system builds a new high school, all the elementary, and middle schools in the area get new high school clusters. Then the parks and GFL have to realign as well. It is true that any kid can play at any park in GFL but that does not hold true when they start to play at the high school level. There are very few exceptions to that and mostly they are when a kid has been moved to a new high school after attending the previous one. If he can provide his own transportation and was at least a sophomore (I think), he can stay. If he was not in high or was a freshman and redistricting takes place, he and his family have to move to stay in the same school.
I think I got this mostly right but anyone else that knows better please chime in.
grayram
December 2nd, 2010
5:53 pm
The Parkview kids play in the Mountain Park league, the South Gwinnett kids At south Gwinnett athletic association, Mill Creek kids at the Bogan park league ETC. They all play against each other in the Gwinnett football league. Caleb King i think went to a private school that gave his brother a job or something like that.
plowboy
December 2nd, 2010
6:01 pm
@Fred and Grayram, I am a Lowndes Alum that lives in Tifton, Lowndes has 3 middle schools that run their same schemes…that`s 66 kids to choose from when thay get to high school…..Tifton`s head coach has tried to get more than one team in his middle schools and they won`t (BOE) do it, Colquitt county started doing that when Propst came aboard and look what it has produced! valdosta has always had multiple teams…hope u guys get a GREAT game tomorrow night….the moultrie boys are already there..
plowboy
December 2nd, 2010
6:02 pm
they
grayram
December 2nd, 2010
7:31 pm
Same refs for all 3. Wow.
Columbia Blue
December 2nd, 2010
7:53 pm
@ Grayson Fan
. The North rules now, so you better bring your A game. All I can say is good luck and thanks for the motivational statement. Camden is very pi__ed right now. I can asuure you that we will be back.
Grayson Nation
December 3rd, 2010
9:50 am
plowboy- Not sure what officiating crew you are talking about, but the refs were the ONLY reason Grayson did’nt have a shot at beating Camden at the beginning AND end of last years season….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUQ0_qm10gI..
As far as the population in Gwinnett goes- I can verify that 99% of the players on Graysons team have been playing together since they were in Elementary school which makes one of the reasons for the success simple chemistry. Some kids of course move in and out but not because of “recruiting”…when you have that many kids to fill your roster there is no need.
People move to Gwinnett for the quality of the education- http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/how-gwinnett-schools-reached-688999.html.
Good Luck to all of the boys Friday on both sides of the field. Let us all hope for a competent officiating crew…
Grayson Nation
December 3rd, 2010
9:52 am
plowboy-Sorry the previous link is not working..Lets try again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUQ0_qm10gI
BrusterBoy
December 3rd, 2010
11:53 am
Grayson Nation hit it right on, a kid in the metro area can move into the Grayson district and play ball there right away. No recruiting because we don’t have to, dad will move to an apartment in the Grayson or Brookwood or North Gwinnett district, and can move anywhere else he wants if a program is looking like it is going to be good for a few years. In Valdosta, you guys have to bring kids in from other S GA counties, and you have the support of the entire town, as football on Friday is as big as church on Sunday. I can give you an example from the 1971 team, Stan and Roger Rome were move to Valdosta, and the Football Club or whatever you call them bought the family a nice house and gave dad a job with the city. See the difference?
grayram
December 3rd, 2010
12:07 pm
Grayson Nation: I remember those fumbles well. Newnan got a huge break there. But Grayson lost because they somehow forgot they should block Alec Ogletree on the field goal attempt at the end of the game. Was a short kick for the win and he came untouched and blocked it.
DaKing
December 3rd, 2010
12:09 pm
Imagine if Gwinnett only has two schools in the whole area. That team would be unstoppable. It would literally be a “collegiate style” team. If gwinnett did not have over 20 schools, mostly in 5A, for the athletes to be be spread out so sparsly, no other county school would have a chance. The sheer size of gwinnett population hurts state championships in all sports.
I’m foreseeing….Grayson vs. Brookwood for the state game. Grayson wins.
DaKing
December 3rd, 2010
12:32 pm
Plowboy is an idiot. Demographics change rapidly in the metro-area, in which Gwinnett is. Unlike the southern part of the state, the metro-area offers many types of jobs which brings families from all backgrounds to our area.
As a former employee at Mill Creek High, many students in that school are from New York and New Jersey.
So Plowboy, don’t be saying we recruit up here, because it is farse. Can’t help the fact that Atlanta brings families from across the country. Oh and we have some of the best education in the state as well.
UncleJunior!
December 3rd, 2010
12:59 pm
I don’t know what is considered recruiting but I know that there are parents who look for a good fit for their kid. They do this because they might like a school, a program or it is simply a good fit for their child. Parents are ultimately interested in getting their kid into a good college. If a parent seeks out a program is that considered recruiting? Even so, they would do this sometimes as a huge gamble. If you run over here or there. . . .you might leave a program that could possibly field a dominant team. That is how things are in the Atlanta area.
grayram
December 3rd, 2010
2:35 pm
Easy now DaKing
You can’t call someone an idiot and follow it up with farse??
plowboy
December 3rd, 2010
4:08 pm
@DaQueen I never said anything about recruiting! That was BrusterBoy, u can have the metro Atlanta area…..lived in Virginia Highlands for yrs and u guys can have it…the best education in Atlanta is private schools, Georgia Tech, Emory, Spelman and Morehouse! Hope a Gwinnett AAAAA team wins state so that u all can have some sort of relief!
plowboy
December 3rd, 2010
4:14 pm
@da queen, quit talking about if Gwinnett County had only two high schools….we would be all that and a bag of chips……600,000 in Gwinnett County….100,000 in Lowndes County……we win because of coaching and that is it……about the same number of kids in AAAAA schools all over Georgia, with a few exceptions…. it is what u do with what u have!!!!!
plowboy
December 3rd, 2010
4:20 pm
Lowndes and Camden will be back next year and the year after and the year after……….Lowndes won`t win it every year but no school will do that…..in fact I believe that Lowndes and Camden in a way have made your Gwinnett schools better in FOOTBALL! just ask Parkview, N.Gwinnett, Brookwood, Peachtree Ridge……
Wildcat12
December 3rd, 2010
8:11 pm
First off, it feels good to be back, Now Colquitt at Grayson. This is a good game (I think) Both teams have been flying under the radar this whole season. Now we finally get to see a battle of the unseens. I really cannot pick a winner for this game. Grayson is good and Colquitt is good. It will come down to has the more drive to win. Safe travels to the Packers.
Now to answer the question at hand. Is this year the end of South Georgia’s reign? I would have to say no. First off the question should be is this the end of Camden/Lowdnes dominance. Every team, North or South has to take an off year. Camden is not out for good. We are just reloading. It would be nice to 3-peat, but really think about it Camden has had a target on its back since the beginning of the year. They played and lost. They will be a force in the playoffs next year. Same could be said about Lowdnes. This was a reloading year for the South. Im not making excuses. Camden loss because they were on a high horse. They are like Boise State, They have never had to play four quaters of football except for Miami Central, St. Thomas and Coffee. They thought Hillgrove was a little sister of the poor
Now will North Georgia run the tables this year? Possibly. They have 3 out 4 teams playing in the Semis.
Now next year I think the GHSA should shake up the brackets. Think about it. for the first round South Georgia plays South Georgia and North Georgia plays North Georgia. I think it would be fun to see Camden play N. Gwinnett or Collins Hill in the first round or Lowdnes play Mill Creek or MLK or even Valdosta play Hillgrove. It has gotten old seeing South Georgia beat the snot out of each other and North Georgia beat the snot out of each other.
Good Luck to all teams tonight. Everyone on here can somewhat agree that it will actualy be fun to NOT see Camden or Lowndes play in the Semis. Change is good. Now to answer the second part of the question: Is 2010 a fluke? No, as much as I hate to say this, but North Georgia has made a statement this. They are serious, and it is about time. They will no longer be pused around by South Georgia. COngrats to North Georgia for taking over the playoffs this year.
Clinch County
December 3rd, 2010
9:54 pm
Well, I guess Colquit will win and shut up this North GA talk.
CAMDEN COUNTY WILDCAT
December 3rd, 2010
10:01 pm
Colquit county…and true camden county wildcat fan here is rooting you guys on so yall can win the state tittle this year…keep the tittle down south and show them that we have way more talent in the south than up north….camden yall boys let me down but we cant always win it every year..but next year I promise that we are gonna be state champions!!! our whole entire defense is coming back, and our stand out player JJ Green who is only a sophmore!!! but watch out 2011!!! its gonna be another cat attack!!!
plowboy
December 3rd, 2010
10:01 pm
Well I guess the south dominance and our weak region has one more shot!
Loopy
December 3rd, 2010
10:34 pm
Dont forget cook hornets beat this packers team in moultrie and should have been playing at home tonight against lovett, but lost to the officials oops I mean buford wolves in SHEEPS CLOTHING. well I just want to add a few things hope Calhoun lowers the BOOM on buford. Clinch over Savannah Christian and Colquitt over Brookwood.
Titletown Fan
December 3rd, 2010
10:46 pm
It must be really tough for all these Gwinett fans…..all that talk and boasting about dominance and to see a Region 1 team close the deal and play for the state 5A title. Congrats to the Colquitt Packers for making an incredible run.
Jammer
December 4th, 2010
12:45 am
Congrats to the Colquitt County Packers for showing that South Ga football is still alive and kicking. Also Props to Fayette County Football with 2 teams competing for a championship in there respective classes.
Packerdad
December 4th, 2010
3:28 am
I just have to say. What a sweet victory!! Have been pretty quiet on here, just looking and watching. Our boys done the talking for us on the field..
Titletown Fan
December 4th, 2010
7:37 am
The crickets have taken over Gwinett County internet servers………
EagleNationRising
December 4th, 2010
10:34 am
I appears that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has gotten ahead of themselves, yet again. The metro Atlanta cheerleading is absurd and a borderline joke.
In Class AAAAA, the overwhelming majority of the programs are located in metro Atlanta. A 0.500 South Georgia team that was drilled by a AA program is still sitting in the State Championship game.
With all due respect, I ask posters on this site as well as any cheerleader (I mean “journalist”) working at the AJC to name a major metropolitan area in the United State with a worst level of championship programs than Atlanta, GA. It is unreal! I have never seen anything like it.
FYI: It is great to see that Brookwood is back. Brookwood and Southwest DeKalb were the only metro Atlanta programs that regularly competed at the highest level for decades. New schools and aging populations have changed the dynamics for many programs. Brookwood is still playing good football. We will see if the best team in Gwinnett County can beat a mediocre team from outside of the metro area. At the end of the day, Colquitt County is just a 0.500 program that can’t beat a decent AA program. However, the Packers are very likely to hoist another State Championship!
Say something metro Atlanta posters.
I encourage the AJC staff to report the results and throw the pom-poms in Todd Holcomb’s old office where they belong. Face it, metro Atlanta is just not what you guys hype it to be in the world of high school football. When Grayson can’t beat a team that traveled hours and got hog-tied by a AA team, you know the state of football in this city.
plowboy
December 4th, 2010
11:13 am
@Grayson Nation, just saw your link about the officials, those are the guys!!!!!1 they are terrible…..last year at camden they called a chopblock on our defense…..this year they called late hit after late hit on our defense…..and many false starts…..interference w/ the punt returner when our guy was pushed in to the guy….
pack.to.da.dome
December 4th, 2010
11:39 am
where all the grayson fans guess the south was to much. i think colquitt county should play atlanta teams every year in the playoff. then we could make it to the championship every year. lol
GoPackGo
December 4th, 2010
11:42 am
Grayson was a great place to play. The fans were pleasant to all people from Colquitt County. I live in Atlanta now and still travel to all Packer games. Grayson fans hold your heads up high and thank you for the hospitality. Let’s finish this thing Packers. Go Pack Go!
plowboy
December 4th, 2010
1:33 pm
@EAGLENATIONRISING…..the Cook vs Colquitt game was not a beatdown by Cook….Colquitt had 18 penalties and Cook`s coach that passed away use to coach under Propst….and I`m a VIKING !!
SportsFan31313
December 4th, 2010
2:27 pm
I told all the Metro Atlanta NON Believers about Colquitt County. They will become the 2010 Class AAAAA State Football Champions thereby keeping the State Title down in South Georgia and bring it back to Region 1-AAAAA.
Podivad
December 4th, 2010
3:55 pm
Colquitt County asks no quarter and gives none. No prisioners! South Georgia Football lives. On to the Dome!