It’s been more than two weeks since its last game, but Milton’s football team is still winning championships.
High School Football America on Saturday trumpeted the Eagles as the No. 1 public-school team in its final poll.
Four Georgia teams finished in the top 10. The others were No. 5 Grayson, Georgia’s Class 6A champion; No. 8 Carrollton, the 5A runner-up; and No. 9 Buford, a Class 6A semifinalist.
Another 11 made the top 100. They are No. 25 Lee County, No. 32 Douglas County, No. 34 Hughes, No. 35 Collins Hill, No. 41 North Gwinnett, No. 59 Thomas County Central, No. 61 Coffee, No. 67 Mill Creek, No. 69 Roswell, No. 74 North Cobb and No. 90 Colquitt County.
Milton won Georgia’s Class 5A championship with a 15-0 record and a 56-35 victory over Hughes on Dec. 18.
Most of the consensus top-10 teams nationally are private schools, often Catholic. Those include unanimous national champion Mater Dei of Orange County, Calif.
Georgia’s private schools, such as Class 4A runner-up Marist and Class 3A-A private champion Hebron Christian, are powerful in their classifications, but the strength of the state’s public schools have prevented the rise of private football factories seen in many other states.
