Today is Thanksgiving, a day where we pause to give thanks for the many blessings we receive each year, a day to enjoy family and friends. For some, it's a day to set back and watch a multitude of college and professional football games from across the nation on one of the final weekends of the season. For the lucky, for those teams who have survived to week 13, this is a week to prepare for Friday night and the quarterfinal round of the State Football Playoffs. In our area, there are five teams; Hart County and Jefferson in Class AAA, Madison County and Oconee County in Class AAAA, along with Rabun County from Class AA, that will spend a part of their Thanksgiving Day preparing for their next opponents, the next step in the journey to Atlanta and the State Championships, which are now  only 2 weeks away. In Class AAAA,…

The days of fall might be getting shorter, but the action in high school football is getting hotter as we get into playoff season, and the race to Atlanta. With one week in the books for post season action, it's time to look toward week #2, and teams that will be traveling or hosting 2nd round games this year. Before we get to the week 2 action, let's look back at the results from week one. In Class AA, region 8-AA powers Union County and Rabun County opened play with wins at home on Friday. Union County defeated South Atlanta 19-15, in a game played at Blairsville, while Region Champion Rabun County defeated B.E.S.T Academy from Atlanta by the score of 38-0. Putman County and Elbert County both opened state play on the road this past weekend. Putman County fell to Hapeville Charter of Atlanta by the score of 56 -…

While it may be hard for football fans to admit, this is the final weekend for high school football in Georgia. For some teams, this is the final weekend before the third season, post season, starts with the goal of reaching Turner Field and the Championship Weekend for the GHSA. Some teams are clear in their standings, but for others, a brand new computer might be needed to figure out where they are playing on November 11th. With so much let to be decided, let’s look first at what is known going into the final weekend. In Region 8-AAA, the Jefferson Dragons defeated the Jackson County Panthers 55-0 to finish with a perfect 6-0 record in the region and the Region 8-AAA Championship for 2019. The Dragon defense held Jackson County to less than 50 total yards for the contest.Jefferson will enjoy the week off this week, before starting post season play…

With only two weeks of the regular season left for high school football in our area, the playoff picture is coming into clearer focus, as teams  make their final push to the finish line for the regular season. In Region 8-AAA, the Jefferson Dragons captured the region championship with a 26 -7 win over Monroe Area in a game played at Monroe. Colby Clark, Jefferson’s quarterback, ran the ball 37 times for 232 yards, and scored 3 touchdowns on the ground. He added a fourth score on a touchdown pass to Dawson Crowley. “This has been a really fun team to coach and be around. We’ve played extremely well all year”, said Jefferson’s Gene Cathcart.”This team has worked hard in practice and been really unselfish with its play. They are a very close group of young men with strong leaders in all of the grades.” Cathcart said about Clark,”he has played really…

We’ve hit the final turn and started for home in the race to the playoffs for all of the teams in our area, and there are many big games left to decide which teams advance to participate in post season play and which ones  start the long off season. With just three weeks left in the regular season, every region is full of games that will have major playoff and post season implications for many of our high school teams. It’s not to late to get out and enjoy a high school game while the season draws to a conclusion. Before we look at playoff scenarios in our area, let’s look back at a couple of big games that took place last weekend. The first stop is the Granite Bowl in Elberton, where the Blue Devils entertained Rabun County, in a game that featured Gunner Stockman. Stockman, the Rabun quarterback, is…

The temperatures and the heat of September have finally started to relax their grip on our area, but high school football in northeast Georgia continues to be a hot commodity as the calendar approaches November. It was a quiet weekend for games in the area, as many teams enjoyed an open date before the race to post season begins.  But even with a limited schedule, there was one location in our area where the action was hot and heavy as Hart County played host to perennial region power Jefferson. To the victor would go the early lead in region 8-AAA’s championship race. Someone once said that there are games that neither team looses, a team simply runs out of time. This was the case in Hartwell. The Dragons and Bulldogs staged a battle in front of a near capacity crowd at Herndon Stadium that was the epitome of what high…

The summer temperatures finally began to release their grip across the area this past weekend, but the explosion of high scoring offense did not, as high school football turned to the coroner and high school football is rapidly moving toward time to crown Region Champions and to start the match to Atlanta. This is a great time to go out and enjoy a high school football game. Around our area last weekend, the top game was Elbert County traveling to Blairsville to face high scoring Union County in a matchup of 2-0 teams in Region 8-AA. Elbert County, who had won its last three games, was looking for revenge against Union. Union Co. upset Elbert 29-28 in Elberton to deny the Blue Devils an opportunity to host a play off game. Union County broke open a 14 - 14 tie early in the fourth quarter against Elbert to defeat the…

While it may be hard to realize, the 2019 high school football season has turned the corner on the midpoint, and the race to the finish and post season is in full swing around our area.  This week, Region 8-AAAAAA  and the Raiders of Habersham Central, join the other regions in our area and begin region play. Region 8-AAAA, the smallest region in our area with the Stephens County Indians will begin play in two weeks for region and post season play. What do we know to date? We know that in Region 8-AA, the first two weeks of region play have separated the region into two groups. Elbert County, Banks County, Rabun County, along with Union County have held serve for the first two weeks and have pulled away to form a lead peloton from the other teams in the region. Now, this week, the lead group begins to…

In 490 B.C. , a greek solider named Pheidippides ran from just outside the city of Marathon Greece to the capital city of Athens, to report on a great military victory over the Persians. The distance was about 25 miles. Over the next centuries, this distance would become known today as “The Marathon”. What does a foot race have to do with the high school football season? This week marks the 1/3 mark for the 2019 season. Most teams, depending on schedules and open weeks, will have completed either three or four of the ten games that are on their schedule, but are still looking at another eight weeks of games before the season completes in early November. A football season is not a sprint, it's a marathon. One that takes weeks to learn the results of. The first weeks of the season have shown that of all of the…