There are just 22 days remaining until the kickoff of the 2024 high school football season. But make no mistake, preparations for the upcoming campaign began months ago. And teams throughout northeast Georgia already are in full countdown mode.
With that in mind, we spent the last couple of weeks catching up with programs around our area to get a feel for how spring practice went, how the summer is going, and what coaches believe the fall will look like. Our "Two-a-Days" series honors those old-school grinding sessions that lead us out of summer and into fall, asking each area coach two key questions about the state of their respective programs.
Over the next two weeks, AccessWDUN's Friday Game Night will get you prepped for the start of gridiron action with responses from coaches throughout northeast Georgia.
(Teams run in alphabetical order)
NORTH FORSYTH (5-6 in 2023; 1st round Class 6A playoffs)
The Raiders are coming off a second straight playoff run and will bring an experienced team into the 2024 campaign, including the majority of a defense that was ballhawkish last year, and an offense that got better as the season went along.
They have not made the playoffs in three consecutive seasons since a run in the late 90s to early 2000s. They also will be back in a nearly all-Forsyth County region in Class 6A.
We caught up with Coach Robert Craft, now in his ninth season in Coal Mountain, and asked how the offseason has been coming along leading up to one of the more anticipated seasons in a while.
QUESTION: Coach, y’all have a lot of experience returning on both sides of the ball in 2024. What has been the focus this summer?
A: Our focus this summer and all offseason has been all about building our team for 2024. The leaders of this team, took on the name TEAM31 for this upcoming season, which represents that it will be the 31st season of North Forsyth football. We have invested a significant amount of time on our mental training and the culture of TEAM31, modeled after the 2008 USA men’s Olympic basketball team. The leaders of this team put together a list of Team Standards that they believe will be the make-up of TEAM31 and throughout the offseason we have dug into that list of standards.
Q: Senior quarterback Eli Seaney is back as are three starters at receiver in Brady Holbrook, Nate Gravitt, and Avery Adams. That group showed they can be explosive. Will there be a little more emphasis on the passing game this season?
A: Our team and our offense will certainly depend heavily on Eli and he is a tremendous leader. He’s unselfish and best of all, he makes everyone around him better. He is surrounded by a talented group of skill players, you mention a few: Brady, Nate and Avery. Each of those receivers are super talented, they have the ability to be explosive but they are each so different from one another and compliment each other very nicely. We are always going to be an offense that has a run first mentality but each of these guys along with a few others, will have opportunities to contribute in a heavy way on our offense.
BONUS QUESTION: The program has not made the playoffs in three consecutive seasons since 1999-2001. Y’all could equal that in 2024. What has been the message to your group this offseason as y’all chase that history?
A: Our message has not at all been about chasing history. We certainly feel like our program has taken some great steps forward, but it’s not just our football program, it is our athletic department, school and community are all headed in the right direction and because of that we believe the best is still to come. We have team goals this season, but we continue to focus on the process, day-by-day, what it is going to take to achieve success. If we stay focused on each day, the success and goals will come along the way.
- Up Next in Two-a-Days: NORTH HALL
- Previous Two-a-Days: LUMPKIN COUNTY
