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 7-5A -- Defending champion: Cartersville (now in 7-4A)
With GHSA reclassification and dropping from seven classes to six, this is basically a brand new region. It was in northwest Georgia the last four seasons, now it houses teams from Fulton, Hall, and Gwinnett counties.
Fulton schools Chattahoochee, Johns Creek, Milton, and Roswell all moved in from various region. Lanier (Gwinnett) and Gainesville (Hall) both move over from 8-6A last season while Seckinger (Gwinnett) moves up from Class 4A to make up a spread out seven-team field.
And it is stacked -- at least at the top.
Milton is the defending Class 7A state champion. Gainesville played for the Class 6A title in 2022. Roswell has won 33 games since 2021 and advanced to the quarterfinals or farther each of the past three seasons. Lanier advanced to the second round and lost to Roswell in last year’s playoffs.
With Chattahoochee and Johns Creek still in rebuilding mold and Seckinger playing its first varsity schedule, it figures to be a battle between the other four teams for the region title and playoff positioning.
Milton edged out Gainesville in a close vote but the Eagles will have the two best players in the region in senior quarterback Luke Nickel (3,914 yards, 38 TDs, 4 INT) and senior receiver C.J. Wiley Jr. (68 rec., 1,473 yards, 14 TD). Wiley led the state in receiving yards in 2023.
Gainesville has plenty of talent returning, especially on the defensive side of the ball, and may have one of the best front-7s in the state. Seniors Julius Columbus, Brandon Bailey, A’Naryon Dorsey and juniors Xavier Griffin, Kadin Fossung, Marshall Leonard, and Tydrick Turner should wreak havoc on most offenses. That group racked up 194 tackles, 46.5 TFL, and 36 1/2 sacks in 2023.
But the offense lost 6,400 yards to graduation. The Red Elephants will be breaking in a new quarterback (So. Kharim Hughley), a new running back (Sr. Carmelo Byrd), and has had to revamp its receiving corps with several transfers.
Roswell, much like Gainesville, will be reloading on offense. And the defense should be formidable. The Hornets graduated its quarterback, top two rushers, and top two receivers from 2023 that totaled more than 6,200 yards of production. But they do return maybe the best linebacking duo in the region in seniors Ryder Duffy and Tyler Harrison, who piled up more than 250 tackles, 34 TFL, and 4 sacks by themselves last season. They also return five in the secondary that grabbed 6 INTs and had 26 PBUs in 2023.
Lanier may be in a slight rebuilding mode having to replace their quarterback, top rusher, and leading receiver from a year ago. The Longhorns do bring back four of their top five on defense, including senior DB Logan Laughlin, who had 86 tackles, 2 TFL, 5 INT, and 2 forced fumbles last season.
Chattahoochee returns senior quarterback Luke Priester, who threw for 1,700 yards and 26 TDs in 2023, and senior receiver DJ Avery (51 rec., 857 yards, 12 TD). But the Cougars gave up over 30 points/game in 2023 and have not made the playoffs since 2017.
Johns Creek played both Roswell and Lanier in 2023 and lost by a combined 96-9 score. They were young and averaged less than 200 yards/game on offense. The Gladiators have won just three games since a quarterfinals run in 2021.
Seckinger is in the second year under former West Hall coach Tony Lotti, who knows how to build a winning program from basically scratch. But it will be the Jaguars first-ever season playing a region schedule so there will be some growing pains in perhaps the toughest region in Class 5A.
It’s Milton’s region to lose coming into the season with 14 returning starters and Power 4 talent at virtually every position. Look for the top three of Milton, Roswell, and Gainesville to battle it out for the region title. It would take a sizable effort for any of the other four teams to pull the upset.
The key stretch for the Eagles, and possibly the region itself, will be when they head to Lanier (Oct. 4) and Gainesville (Oct. 11) on back-to-back weeks and then close out the regular season at home against Roswell (Nov. 1).
Gainesville opens region play, hopefully, on Sept. 20 against Lanier at the new-and-improved City Park Stadium. The biggest game of the season for the Red Elephants will be playing host to Milton on Oct. 11 and they close out the season on Oct. 25 at Roswell.
Roswell will have the toughest finish with road games at Lanier (Oct. 18) and Milton (Nov. 1) sandwiched around its showdown with Gainesville.
- Up Next in region previews: Region 6-6A
- Previous region preview: Region 8-5A
