Well, that’s a wrap on another great football season in Northeast Georgia.
When it all started 15 weeks ago, it would have been hard to imagine that it could have produced so many success stories.
Gainesville certainly had a phenomenal season. The Red Elephants won 14 straight this season and came up one point of the school’s and county’s first state title in the GHSA. The Red Elephants never had a hiccup during the regular season and carried the state’s top ranking in Class AAA for 13 consecutive weeks. That’s a great season by any standard.
Meanwhile, Buford picked up its third consecutive state title in Class AA and sixth state title of the decade.
Despite the school’s small size, last Friday’s 13-10 win against Calhoun in the state title game gave the Wolves a legitimate claim at having the state’s best program of the decade.
In the postseason, who could forget about Flowery Branch going on the road and winning three straight against higher-seeded teams and making the state semifinals again this year.
This incredible playoff run by the Falcons followed on the heels of last year’s four road playoff wins and appearance in the state title game.
Jefferson picked up its second consecutive Region 8-AA title this season, as well as another undefeated regular season.
Postseason success has still eluded the Dragons: This season they played well and came up just short against the eventual state champs from Buford in the second round of the playoffs.
This year, North Hall extended its unbeaten streak in Region 7A-AAA to 22 games and claimed its fourth consecutive subregion title. The Trojans also made it past the first round of the playoffs for the fourth straight season.
Also in Gainesville, Riverside Military made it to the playoffs for the second consecutive season since making the jump to the GHSA from the GISA in 2008.
Amidst all the playoff excitement this season, the GHSA released the new region alignments with some of the expected shakeups coming down the pike for next season.
The biggest change locally is the partial breakup of the Hall County cluster of school’s in Region 7-AAA. Flowery Branch will moving up to Class AAAA and will join Region 8 with Habersham Central, Apalachee, and a number of Athens-area schools.
Meanwhile, East Hall will make the move down to Class AA. Riverside Military is moving, again, this time from Class AA to Class A.
With all the changes in the works, don’t expect anything less than another great season next year.
Northeast Georgia is building a reputation as some of the best high school football in the state.