Last week, the returning contenders and potential risers of Class 2A were covered, with defending champions Pierce County headlining those schools. Pierce County will not be the only 2A school seeking consecutive titles this year, because the Prince Avenue Christian Wolverines won A Division I in ‘22 and ‘23.
Of significance, however, is that both Prince Avenue Christian and Pierce County can still repeat as champions given the new public-private split for the state playoffs. In fact, the AJC rankings will reflect the postseason alignments, and thus Prince Avenue Christian is ranked No. 1 in the A-3A preseason poll, giving 2A two No. 1 schools to open the season along with Pierce County.
The Wolverines headline a number of championship-contending teams and postseason disrupters. Below is a look at those teams.
Contenders
Prince Avenue Christian Wolverines
The Wolverines can win their fourth title in five years, including A Private in 2020, which was the first for the program that made its varsity debut in 2005. Wolverines coach Greg Vandagriff, who has presided over all titles, enters his ninth season.
The Wolverines will attempt to make the most of the new classification, region and postseason format.
“We jumped into 2A just to play a little tougher of a schedule to prepare us for some of those other private schools,” said Vandagriff, who owns a 97-12 record and five region titles, including four in the last four years, at Prince Avenue Christian. “Hebron Christian and others give us that.”
The Wolverines and Hebron Christian last played in 2021, when this year’s senior class were freshman. They will play the other nine schools on their schedule for the first time in program history. Their non-region schedule consists of 4A-6A schools, plus a team from North Carolina and South Carolina.
Vandagriff wanted the competitive schedule, but would have preferred to play more of the 1A-3A private schools they could see in the postseason.
“No one in 1A through 3A will play us,” he said. “I’m talking about teams you’d think you should play. We chose some larger schools — West Forsyth (6A), Blessed Trinity (4A), Johns Creek (5A) — and we have about 300 kids.”
Vandagriff isn’t convinced the new playoff format will work because all private schools aren’t created equal, and that an idea he said the GHSA is working toward, where private schools that win a state title and others move up a classification while some move down based on performance, would be a better system.
“Everyone wants a chance to win,” he said. “I don’t care what classification you’re in, whether your school has 3,000 or 1,000 kids. It goes to real life, socialism vs. capitalism. People work hard to make money, while others want it handed to them. That’s why there’s winners and losers in life.”
The Wolverines will compete in 8-2A with Hart County, Stephens County, Franklin County, East Jackson and Hebron Christian.
Vandagriff said sophomore Ben Musser will be the starting quarterback, taking over for 2023 AJC Class A Division I player of the year Aaron Philo.
The offseason quarterback competition was between Musser and senior Jake Bobo.
“We brought both players in and just explained the situation that Ben had won the starting job, but it can be get fluid so Jake needs to be prepared to play.”
Carver-Columbus Tigers
Georgia has two schools named Carver, one in Atlanta, the other in Columbus, and now both are in 2A. It’s the Tigers of Columbus that went 10-4 last year, winning region and reaching the 3A semifinals. Fans of 2A will recognize a familiar name in Tigers third-year coach Pierre Coffey. He coached the Tigers’ new Region 1-2A rival, Spencer, from 2015-17, when they competed in 2A in ‘16 and ‘17. While there, he reestablished the program, guiding the Greenwave Owls to their first playoff win since 1967 in the 2015 3A playoffs.
Coffey inherited the Columbus program following the Tigers’ 2021 run to the 4A championship and has kept the program at a title-contending level, reaching the quarterfinals his debut season and coming within a win of returning to the state championship last year.
The Tigers have reached at least the quarterfinals four consecutive years.
“At Carver the expectations are always high,” Coffey said. “That’s something Dell McGee (who won the Tigers’ only state title in 3A in 2007) brought here, and I got to see it firsthand because I was an assistant on his staff from 2011-13. The expectation is deep playoff runs.”
The Tigers return seven offensive starters and nine on defense. Coffey praised the team’s offseason, which was highlighted by first place, runner-up and top-four finishes in 7-on-7 tournaments at River Ridge, Auburn and Georgia Tech, respectively. They also had positive OTA experiences at Valdosta, Eastern Carolina and LaGrange, among other locations.
“Having this many returners is a blessing,” Coffey said. “There hasn’t been a lot of reteaching, just fine-tuning. We’re pushing each other and looking for that junior and senior leadership. Last year, we were a team of mostly sophomores. Now, we’re junior-heavy.”
The Tigers aim for a fifth region title in the last six years, competing in Region 1 with Columbus, Hardaway, Jordan, Kendrick, Shaw, Spencer and Sumter County.
Other incoming contenders: Morgan County Bulldogs
Potential risers
Hapeville Charter Hornets
The Hornets could have also been filed under “contenders”, seeing as how, when they last competed in 2A, they won a championship in 2017, reached the semifinals in 2016 and the quarters in 2019. They were assigned to Class 4A from 2020-23 despite having around 600 kids as a public charter school, and qualified for the playoffs all four years, advancing in the first two.
They’ve reached the playoffs every year since 2016.
“We still made gains in 4A,” said Winston Gordon, the program’s only coach, who enters his 14th season. “We lost in the last couple of seconds to (No. 5) Central-Carrollton (41-33) last year in the first round, and we beat Malaki Starks and Jefferson, at Jefferson (12-10 in the first round of the 2021 playoffs). We were competitive, but it came down to attrition. The bigger programs platoon at their positions and we’re playing two-way. That’s the difference in 4A.
“But we didn’t complain. It was unfair because we only have 600 kids, and who’s coming here? Who’s leaving Westlake, or Hughes, or Creekside? Let’s be real. Bannekar is in the same zone, so no one is transferring in from there. So, as far as that perception, that’s untrue. We develop kids, and we’ve been doing that ever since I got here.”
Arden Key, Kawaan Baker, Kingsley Enagbare and Rory Starkey are all currently on NFL rosters and played for Hapeville Charter under Gordon. Other Hornet alums, including quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams at UNLV, and Marcus Carroll at Missouri, are looking to make an impact this season.
Gordon has added four former Hornets players to his staff this season. Andunte Devereux, Richard Hayes and Michael Neal all played for the 2017 championship team, and Antoine Wilder is from the Class of 2015. All graduated with teaching degrees, with Devereux earning his masters in teaching.
“They’re plugged in with teaching a coaching gigs and they’re familiar with our system,” Gordon said. “We’re revitalizing the staff to get those guys in line to take over the program.”
Other potential risers: Westside-Macon, Crisp County, Burke County, Holy Innocents’, Lovett, Miller Grove, Coahulla Creek, Ringgold, Sonoraville, Hart County, Hebron Christian, Stephens County
Sources: Georgia High School Football Historians Association, MaxPreps
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