ATLANTA — Through the years Region 7-AAAAAA has been one of the most feared in all of Georgia high school football.
Since 2006, the league has captured three state titles (Norcross twice and Peachtree Ridge once in the old AAAAA) and played for it three others (North Gwinnett twice).
So last year’s first round playoff sweep at the hands of 8-AAAAAA was shocking to say the least. Two of those teams -- North Gwinnett and Mill Creek -- will open their seasons Saturday in the Corky Kell Classic at the Georgia Dome hoping to show the rest of the state that the 2014 finish was an anomaly, not a trend.
Mill Creek will take on fellow Gwinnett County foe Brookwood at 11:45 a.m. while North Gwinnett will take on Colquitt County in the nightcap at 5:45 p.m.
North Gwinnett, which is making its sixth straight Kell appearance, will have a huge task against the defending AAAAAA champion Packers. The Bulldogs bring their most inexperienced team in coach Bob Sphire’s 10 years in Suwanee to the Dome. Only eight players on the Bulldogs’ roster have any varsity starting experience and they will have first-time starter sophomore Cade Fortin at quarterback to run their patented spread attack against a stout Colquitt defense.
It has left Sphire feeling like a perpetual roller-coaster enthusiast.
“I have felt somewhere between overwhelmed all the time to very excited -- nearly from moment-to-moment -- as we’ve prepared for this season,” Sphire said. “I just don’t know what I’m getting from this group on a day-to-day basis. But, they are working hard. They are in a tough spot having to live up to the expectations we’ve built as a program and not really having the experience of those other teams. It is what it is.”
For Mill Creek’s Shannon Jarvis, it will be the first trip for the Hawks to play in the Georgia Dome. They are hoping it won’t be the last.
“We’re really trying to NOT underplay it. It’s a big deal for us,” Jarvis said. “I asked our guys and about 25 kids said they had never set foot in the Dome so we want to embrace the experience as much as we can. But we’re also hoping it will just be the first of many trips in the future (to the Dome) for us.”
Both Sphire and Jarvis said it's hard to make too much out of how the 2014 season ended for Region 7-AAAAAA. But they also understand that there definitely exists a very fine line at the AAAAAA level between the haves and the have-nots.
“We had five turnovers in our loss (to Central Gwinnett) and still almost won the game,” Sphire said about last year’s early playoff exit. “At the AAAAAA level you can’t expect to make mistakes like that and win. I still think 7-AAAAAA is as good a region as any in the state.”
“There is a lot of parity in AAAAAA. It’s very cutthroat every year,” said Jarvis, whose program has never made consecutive playoff appearances. “It goes back-and-forth on whether its Region 7, or 8, or 1 with Colquitt and that group from year-to-year. We certainly didn’t think our region would get swept but that just proves how tough it is out there.
“We still feel that our region is as tough as any in any given year. Hopefully we can have a better showing in the playoffs this year. But we have a long way to go before that.”
The Hawks battle with Brookwood -- one of the old-guard powers that is trying to get back to respectability after suffering through its worst season (2-8) since 1986 and first non-playoff year since 2001 -- should give Jarvis a good glimpse of his team’s rebuilt offense. Gone are Daniel David and Jonathan Hawkins and 92 percent of the team's offensive output from 2014.
Their top returning rusher, senior Daniel LeConte, had just 128 yards on 14 carries in 2014.
“When we started this program we modeled it after Brookwood so we know what they are capable of. I don’t expect them to be down long,” Jarvis said. “Our offense will look different; a little more balanced than the last three or four years. (Junior quarterback) Cameron Turley is more of a drop-back kind of passer so we will run things a little different. But we like what we’ve seen and LeConte has a chance to be as good as Hawkins as the year goes along.”
Sphire is both relishing and understandably nervous about facing the defending state champions in their opener with such an inexperienced group.
“I’m not a surfer but the Colquitt program is ‘hanging 10’ right now,” Sphire said. “There probably isn’t a better program going in the state right now. This may not be the ideal recipe for our guys to start off with but it’s necessary for us to be able to get where we want to be.
“We want to play teams we may not be able to beat. It’s the best way to measure yourself as a program to see what you need to do. Our team needs this so they can see where they are. You don’t necessarily need to win every battle to win the war. And our goal is to win the war at the end of the season.”
NOTES: Norcross, also one of the 7-AAAAAA teams to get swept of last year’s playoffs, is also taking on another 1-AAAAAA team in Valdosta Saturday in the Corky Kell Classic.
