Allatoona High will not be having a graduation ceremony this spring. Don’t be alarmed; it’s not that they lost accreditation. Simply put, the school has no seniors. Allatoona is Cobb County’s brand-new high school and, for Class 4A football in the area, that means fresh competition has moved to town.
Set on 120 acres near the Cobb-Paulding border near Highway 92, the newly formed Buccaneers will draw student-athletes from schools such as Harrison, North Cobb and Kennesaw Mountain. They will not, however, play these schools on the gridiron this year. On a team of mostly ninth and 10th graders, with a few 11th graders sprinkled in, the Bucs will play a modified schedule, which will include matchups against several classifications, to get acclimated to competing on the second-highest level of high-school football in the State of Georgia.
“When you’re this young, you can’t fix all of the problems at once,” said new head football coach Gary Varner.
And since there will be no players lost to graduation this year, Varner will focus on and strive for on-field improvement to get his players ready for next year. Varner is up to the challenge, as the coach is no stranger to Georgia, or Cobb County for that matter. He came here in 1996 as an offensive coordinator for Pebblebrook High. After five years, Varner moved up to serve as the offensive coordinator at Kell High. Shortly thereafter, he found himself leading Roswell High’s offense to the 2006 state championship.
Despite only having approximately 800 students enrolled this year, every sport (with the exception of football) will play a full Class 4A schedule. Allatoona principle, Scott Bursmith, believes that this will challenge his students and make them better. And considering most football players participate in more than one sport in high school, the young Bucs will look to gauge their opponents for next year in other forms of competition, such as basketball and track. In those sports, the Bucs will have the opportunity to compete against some of the very same players that they will face on the gridiron come 2009.
START IT UP
As for the level of confidence in Varner outside of the program, parents and fans immediately felt that his successes at Roswell would rub off on his new Allatoona team. The school held summer sports camps before it even opened its doors up to students and excited teenagers showed up in droves in anticipation of one day building Allatoona into an athletic powerhouse.
“Parents have been calling us asking what they could do,” Bursmith explained. “The booster clubs sprung up overnight.”
The football team won’t be eligible for the playoffs this year, as too many teams from their future Region 7B-AAAA are missing from their schedule. In fact, the only schools in their region that they will play this year are North and South Paulding along with Hillgrove. Everyone else will just have to wait and see what the Bucs have in store for them next year.
While Varner is feverishly trying to improve his team on the field, he is also working to make sure his players are just as sound off it: “We want to build character in the kids and make sure they are well disciplined.”
And with a healthy balance of support from parents, teachers, coaches, and fans, it will be no surprise to see the Allatoona Buccaneers on top of their game in no time.
Collier can be reached at cranstoncollier@gmail.com.
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