The 2024 football season ended Wednesday, and no classification won more titles than 2A. You may be scratching your head, because in every year leading up to this, each class produced the same number of champions: One. However, with this being the GHSA’s first year of splitting smaller private schools (3A-A) off for their own postseason tournament, the possibility was created for A, 2A or 3A to produce two state champions.
Class 2A managed to secure this unique, first-time feat before championship week. Both Hebron Christian and Prince Avenue Christian, which competed during the regular season in Region 8-2A, reached the championship game, assuring the 3A-A champion would come from 2A.
The Hebron Christian Lions won their first championship in a program founded in 2007, and the Carver-Columbus Tigers beat the Burke County Bears for their first title since 2007.
It’s unclear how long there will be a private-public split among the smaller private schools, as its fate hinges on each GHSA reclassification cycle. Opinions of private school coaches seem to point toward displeasure in the new model, which uses computer rankings to determine seeding, as opposed to traditional region standings.
For this year, however, 2A can bask in the glory of two state titles and two teams ranked No. 1 in the final polls, while every other class has to settle for just one.
On the public side, the Tigers dominated all season, with the defense never allowing more than 15 points in a game, including the playoffs, where they outscored tournament foes a combined 234-48. They beat Burke County 52-14 in the championship.
It’s the Tigers’ second championship overall, and first for third-year coach Pierre Coffey, who began his head coaching career in 2A with Spencer from 2015-2017, where he guided a perennial bottom-feeder Greenwave Owls program to its first playoff appearance in 22 years, and later its first playoff win since 1967.
For the Lions, their season was defined by redemption. On Nov. 1, in the regular season finale, they lost the 8-2A championship to Prince Avenue, 34-31, at home. From that point, it was their mission to reach the championship with the hope of seeing the Wolverines for a rematch in the title game. They got their wish, and the title game wasn’t close, as they handed their foes a 56-28 defeat.
The Lions, also under a third-year coach, Jonathan Gess, had previously never done better than the quarterfinals, in 2019, when former NFL lineman Jeff Saturday was coach and they competed in A. Gess, however, joins historic company as one of just five coaches to win at least seven GHSA championships, his other six coming with ELCA. For context, there are 5,292 coaches in the Georgia High School Football Historians Association database.
The 2024 season is over, and 2A can claim two champions. Now, it’s on the Tigers or the Lions to accomplish another difficult feat for 2A: repeating as champions. The last 2A school to repeat was Buford, when it won four straight from 2007-10.
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