The new Georgia High School Association classification and region/area realignment has brought some interesting matchups and changes to wrestling in the 2016-17 season, more so than probably any other sport.
Some Areas in the larger classifications contain five or six teams. Meanwhile some lower classifications feature areas with as many as 13 teams. In the Traditional season, only four individuals in the lower classifications will make state instead eight as in years past. Needless to say, it has added to the pressure for many programs to repeat past successes.
Last month's State Duals saw Jefferson and Gilmer, owners of 22 straight Duals titles between them, duke it out for the Class AAAA state title. The Dragons made it 16 straight titles with a tough win over the Bobcats. It was the first non-title season for Gilmer since 2009.
Now, the Traditional season will keep the intrigue going as area and state teams head to Sectionals on Friday at various sites around the state. The Sectionals will run through Saturday.
The top four wrestlers in each weight class in Classes A, AA, and AAA will move on to next week’s state finals. The top eight in each weight class in Classes AAAA, AAAAA, AAAAAA, and AAAAAAA will advance to the finals, which begin in Macon on Feb. 9.
Sectionals sites for northeast Georgia area teams are scattered throughout the state.
In Class A, Commerce and others in Area 4-A will head to Holy Innocents in Atlanta, while in Class AA, Area 4-AA teams Banks County and Riverside Military Academy will travel to Rockmart in northwest Georgia. Area 4-AAA teams will head to Morgan County and, in Class AAAA, Jefferson will play host to Sectionals that will also include West Hall and Chestatee.
In Class AAAAA, Buford will host a Sectional, while in Class AAAAAA, Gainesville will head to nearby Lanier.
There are plenty of favorites from northeast Georgia this weekend, including defending champion Jefferson (Class AAAA). Buford, which also won this year's State Duals, and defending champion Commerce will also bring practically their entire teams to the Sectionals. In fact, the Dragons and Wolves qualified wrestlers in all 14 weight classes for the Sectionals, while Commerce had 13 advance.
Commerce coach Kendall Love knows the Tigers can’t rest on the success of the Area meets.
“After winning three (state traditional titles) in a row, we always feel we have a target on our backs,” Love said. “We always know our guys are going to get the best effort from every guy they face. But, we tell our guys not to live off the success of past teams. I think knowing they are always going to get someone’s best effort makes our guys work harder. We’re going to continue to do what we do and I feel confident we can get most of these guys into the finals.”
There are plenty more teams and individuals from northeast Georgia with high hopes, however, including several teams that stormed through last week's Area finals. West Hall, which has been in a rebuilding mode, advanced 10 wrestlers, while Chestatee sent eight.
West Hall coach Eric Radich said he has seen steady progress from his group during the season.
“We wrestled well last week, and I feel like these guys have improved a lot as the season has gone on,” Radich said. “We’re in a tough Sectional with Jefferson, Oconee County and others. We would like for everyone to advance but I think if we had half of our group get through that would be tremendous. We feel good that the program is headed in the right direction.”
Lumpkin County, the state runner-up in the Class AAA Duals, saw 12 make it to Sectionals via the Area 4-AAA tournament. Also from Area 4-AAA, Dawson County and North Hall each sent five, while East Hall sent three to Sectionals.
In Class AAAAAA, Gainesville brings five into the Sectionals.
In Class AA, Banks County pushed through 10 and Riverside Military Academy advanced six after the Area 4-AA Tournament.
Banks County coach Kasey Hanley was more than pleased with one of the youngest groups his had in his time in Homer.
“We have seven new guys this year and it’s been a learning process,” Hanley said. “But I thought they did a great job last week in a very tough Area with (defending state champion) Social Circle and Elbert County, and a bunch of good teams. The kids really responded.
“We had five make it to state last year and we’re hoping we can do better than that this year. We’ll see what happens.”
