It’s not always been like this, a high school football season with too many good non-region games to list.
Some 25 years ago, the GHSA had only four classifications, meaning larger regions and fewer opportunities for teams to test themselves outside of their own league. Starting in 2020, there effectively will be eight classes with Class A’s public and private schools no longer housed together, each now forming eight regions of their own.
As a result, six Georgia regions will have only four football-playing schools in 2020, all guaranteed of making the playoffs. Ten regions will have just five teams, and 12 will have six teams.
That means nearly 30 percent of Georgia teams will play at least half their regular-season games outside their regions.
Eagle’s Landing Christian, the five-time defending Class A private-school champion, is a member of a new four-team region. Finding seven non-region games is a challenge, especially for a team that most opponents wish to avoid.
ELCA coach Jonathan Gess has scheduled 2019 AAAA champion Blessed Trinity, AAA runner-up Crisp County, A-Public champion Irwin County and Texas TAPPS Division II champion Trinity Christian.
‘’So I guess what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…ha ha ha,’’ Gess said via e-mail Wednesday morning. ‘’The only single-A school I could find to play us was Irwin County and Heritage [of Newnan]. We tried to get everyone else in the world besides Blessed Trinity and Trinity out of Texas. I didn’t want to play Crisp County as they are the 3A runner ups and have everyone coming back. But it is what it is.’’
The Georgia High School Association released the 2020 football schedules on Tuesday for a season that's four months away if COVID-19 allows.
Below are the 10 most intriguing non-region games of the 2020 season. On Tuesday, AJC.com looked at the 10 most intriguing region games. On Thursday, it will take a look at the 10 best interstate games.
*Eagle's Landing Christian at Irwin County (Aug. 21) – This is the Class A championship game that wasn't last season. ELCA won the private-school state title; Irwin County won the public side. Though it was Irwin's first state title since 1976, it was no flash-in-the-pan achievement. The Indians have reached the finals five of the past six seasons. The 2020 team should be just as good with eight of 16 all-region players back. ELCA had better be as good, as the Eagles also are playing Texas champion Trinity Christian (Sept. 3), Crisp County (Sept. 11) and Blessed Trinity (Sept. 18) in 2020.
*Clinch County vs. Lincoln County (Aug. 22) – Georgia's two greatest Class A public-school programs meet for the first time since 2011. Clinch has won eight state titles. Lincoln has won 11. That's 19 of the last 44 in Class A. They'll open the season in the Erk Russell Classic at Georgia Southern. ''I wanted to play Lincoln in that game because of our history that we've got with Lincoln from the '80s and '90s and even the early 2000s,'' Clinch County Don Tison Jr. told the Valdosta Daily Times. "We've got a great playoff rivalry tradition with them. I'm excited about that game.''
*Rabun County at Prince Avenue Christian (Aug. 28) – Rabun County's Gunner Stockton is the No. 1-rated dual-threat QB prospect nationally among rising juniors, according to 247Sports. Prince Avenue's Brock Vandagriff is the No. 2 dual-threat QB prospect nationally among rising seniors, according to the 247Sports Composite. Rabun County is 59-7 over the past five seasons. Prince Avenue is 55-9 in that time.
*Grayson at McEachern (Aug. 28) – Official preseason polls won't come until August, but Grayson got a vote for No. 1 in Class AAAAAAA in a recent AJC.com blog. The Rams have seven top-102 senior prospect in Georgia, according to 247. No other region has that many, much less another team. Most interesting among those is Carlos Del Rio, who is committed to Florida. Del Rio, a transfer, will visit his old teammates at McEachern in this August game. Del Rio's backup last season, Bryce Archie, played well as a sophomore last season, throwing for 543 yards and seven touchdowns, so McEachern should be fine, too.
*Cedar Grove at Colquitt County (Sept. 4) – Cedar Grove has won state titles three of the past four seasons in Class AAA. The Saints will test themselves at Colquitt, the perennial AAAAAAA power. Cedar Grove also is playing Tucker in what might be an unofficial DeKalb County championship. Cedar Grove historically has challenged high-profile teams, including McEachern (lost), Hapeville Charter (won), Colorado's Valor Christian (won) and Alabama's Central of Phenix City (lost) last season. The Saints also played McEachern (lost) and Alabama power Hewitt-Trussville (won) the year before.
*Parkview at North Gwinnett (Sept. 4) – These were probably Gwinnett County's best two teams last season, though Grayson and Buford would have an argument. Parkview and North both went 12-2 and reached the state semifinals. Parkview lost only to Class AAAAAAA finalists Lowndes and Marietta, and North Gwinnett lost to Lowndes and Colquitt County. Both should be contenders again. Parkview sports the state's best running back, Cody Brown, while North Gwinnett has cornerback Jordan Hancock and linebacker Barrett Carter, the best pair of defensive prospects on any one Georgia team.
*Marist at Woodward Academy (Sept. 4) – Marist and Woodward played in 2015 and 2016, splitting, and those were their first regular-season meetings since 1995. They first played each other in the 1920s, according to GHSFHA.org. Since John Hunt came to Woodward in 2011, these teams have won eight region titles and reached the semifinals or better seven times. Woodward moved up to AAAAA for 2020. Marist remained at AAAA.
*Valdosta at Colquitt County (Sept. 11) – You've heard, right? Valdosta hired Rush Propst as head coach this month. Propst led Colquitt County to state titles in 2014 and 2015, then state finals in 2017 and 2018, and was fired, accused of various misconduct that he largely denied. Propst will return to Moultrie on Sept. 11. "You know, that's going to be different now,'' Propst told AJC.com "You spend 11 years of your life in a place, it's an emotional deal. But I'll do a good job of watering down that and taking that out of it. We'll get our kids focused like any other away game.''
*Eagle's Landing Christian at Blessed Trinity (Sept. 18) – It's happened 12 times in GHSA history that a school has won three straight state titles. This will be the first time two of those schools have played each other with their streaks active. ELCA has won five in a row in Class A. Blessed Trinity won its third straight in 2019.
*Lowndes at Valdosta (Sept. 25) – It's the Winnersville Classic, still the most famous rivalry in the state. It's always a big game, even if the cross-town rivals are no longer in the same region or classification. Both will have new coaches, Propst at Valdosta and Jamey DuBose at Lowndes. DuBose comes from Central of Phenix City, Ala., where he won two state titles.
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