Last season, the writers and guests at AccessWDUN Sports correctly picked four out of eight region champions that involved northeast Georgia teams in the Georgia High School Association. Fellowship Christian (8-A Division 1), Gainesville (8-6A), Jefferson (8-5A), and North Oconee (8-4A) all captured titles in 2023.
We also nailed 26 of the 32 playoff teams in the eight northeast Georgia regions in the GHSA.
The 2024 campaign will certainly be different as the GHSA dropped down to just six classifications. However, despite the smaller number of overall classifications, there are now 10 new regions among six classifications housing area teams that should bring some exciting action this fall.
A 13-person panel, made up of media members from Blitz Sports Georgia, Friday Game Night, Gwinnett Daily Post, North Georgia SportsLink, WDUN AM/FM, White County News and WRWH AM/FM, cast their votes during the offseason for who they think will win the 10 area regions.
We will look at two regions each day this week, starting with Class A and finishing with Class 6A.
REGION 8-4A -- Defending champion: North Oconee
Five of the nine football playing schools from 2023 return in 8-4A, led by three-time defending champion North Oconee. Cedar Shoals, East Forsyth, Madison County, and Walnut Grove also remained in the region. Flowery Branch and Eastside both dropped down from Region 8-5A.
Most of the teams in the region will be in flux with roster turnover due to graduation. The Titans always seem to reload and they have a solid mix of upper and underclassmen on the roster.
Eastside, which advanced to the second round last season, brings back a wealth of talented skilled players, including junior quarterback Payton Shaw, who threw for over 1,600 yards in his first full varsity season. Senior running back Jayden Barr is back after scoring 16 TDs in 2023 in a backup role. The Eagles also return their top six receivers from a year ago.
Cedar Shoals always has talent but can they get consistency on Friday nights? Madison County and East Forsyth, both playoff teams from a year ago, lost some key personnel as well.
The Broncos are under a new head coach in Dustin Canon, who was on staff last year, and return several key starters on both sides of the ball, including senior quarterback Brock Szackacs. But they lost their leading rusher and their top two receivers. They do return half on a defense that yielded 20.8 points/game in 2023 in a tough region.
Flowery Branch was hit hard by graduation as well and will be in a rebuild mode while Walnut Grove does return senior 1,000-yard rusher Emadd Howard on offense and five of their top six on defense. But the Warriors will be breaking in a new quarterback.
North Oconee was a unanimous pick to win their fourth straight region title with Eastside picked to finish second for a second consecutive season. The Eagles could give the Titans a serious challenge but the two teams will not meet until Week 9 (Oct. 11) in Bogart.
The real battle will be for the third and fourth spots as the other five teams are all in flux. Madison County and Flowery Branch were the preseason selections to make the playoffs but Cedar Shoals and East Forsyth will be in the mix.
Whoever can get hot can make a run. Branch has to travel to both Eastside (Sept. 20) and North Oconee (Oct. 25) and also finishes on the road at Cedar Shoals (Nov. 1). East Forsyth opens the region at home against North Oconee (Sept. 20) and has a key road game the following week (Sept. 27) at Flowery Branch. But they have huge home showdowns with both Cedar Shoals (Oct. 4) and Madison County (Nov. 1) to close out the season.
The key stretch for Cedar Shoals will be three straight road games against North Oconee, East Forsyth, and Madison County in the middle of the season. But the Jaguars close out the season with a pair of home games against Eastside and Flowery Branch.
- Up Next in region previews: Region 8-5A
- Previous region preview: Region 8-3A
