Making predictions in sports is risky business. Making predictions in high-school sports borders on downright impossible; there are simply too many teams and too many variables to project what will happen once the players actually hit the field. But that’s never stopped Score Atlanta before. So, without further ado, here are Score’s Big Predictions for 2008.
Prediction No. 1: The order of finish in Region 1-AAAAA will be …
1. Lowndes – The region schedule is slightly harder than Northside’s, so it’s not entirely impossible that they drop one region game (maybe at Tift County on Sept. 26? The Blue Devils played them close in an 11-point loss at Lowndes last year). The trump card is that they get Northside at home, and that will make the difference. The Vikings go 6-1 with a win over Northside for the region crown
2. Northside – Joe Scott has some mighty big shoes to fill with the departure of QB Marques Ivory. He won’t be a game-changer the way the current Jacksonville State Gamecock was in high school, but if he can perform as well as he did during the regular season last year, the Eagles should be good to go. This prediction says they lose only to Lowndes in region play and get bumped to the No. 2 seed after losing the tiebreaker.
3. Valdosta – The Wildcats have two players as good as any in the state in Mike Gilliard and Antonio Foster, but they will have to replace quarterback Michael Turner and running backs David Arnold and Marcus McNair, all three of which are playing at the next level. Still, there is enough young talent to at least equal last year’s 9-3 record.
4. Coffee – Someone in this region is going to be awfully unhappy when the playoff spots are finalized and they’re not in. There are at least five, and possibly six, deserving teams. Chances are the Tift-at-Coffee game on the regular season’s final day will decide the final playoff spot. Give Coffee the nod due to home-field advantage.
5. Tift County – It will be a long offseason for whomever is in this spot after Nov. 7. A team like Tift would be a shoo-in in any other region, but road games against Northside and Coffee in the final three games might be too much. Realistically, the Blue Demons could finish anywhere from third to sixth.
6. Warner Robins – Head coach Bryan Way and team will want to move past last year’s disappointing 3-7 record and postseason miss, but might be up against it to finish .500 in the region. Warner Robins will almost certainly have to steal one of the first two region games (at Tift, at Valdosta) to have a realistic playoff shot.
7. Colquitt County – The Packers bring in Rush Propst, formerly of Hoover (Ala.) High and MTV fame, as their head coach. Propst went 115-12 during his time at Hoover before a messy end to his career there (amid allegations of grade-fixing, among other things), but will struggle for wins with the strength of this region. Hopefully Propst’s boys have been hitting the “two-a-days” this summer …
8. Houston County – Three coaches in three years isn’t the way you want to do things in Region 1 … Greg Robinson will try to step in and get this team back on the right track, but it won’t happen this year.
Prediction No. 2: Two ’07 state champions will repeat.
The defending champs in the largest and smallest classification are two of the best teams in the entire Southeast. Period.
Emanuel County Institute has talent that makes most 5A schools jealous, with Washaun Ealey, Dexter Moody and J.C. Lanier, and Lowndes is simply too stocked with athletes to trip up in the playoffs. It doesn’t hurt that the Vikings have virtually all their key pieces back from last year’s dominant title-winning team.
By default, there will be a new champion in Class 4A after Northside was bumped up a class, and Carver-Columbus just has too many talented squads (Cairo, LaGrange, etc.) breathing down their necks in 3A. Buford will be good—make that very good—again, but I can’t see the Wolves winning in Class 2A after losing five seniors to Division I schools. So that leaves us with ECI and Lowndes.
Prediction No. 3: Speaking of Ealey, he will break his own state single-season rushing touchdown record.
ECI was so dominant last year that Ealey was often on the bench not long after halftime. He clearly could have had far more touchdown runs than the 58 he got, which bested the existing record by an absurd 12 scores. The lines are massive, the surrounding talent is excellent, and Ealey isn’t too bad himself. If the conditions are right, he should get 60-plus scores this year. But, like I said, the only thing that might hold him back is a lack of carries because of the dominance of his team; most of the Bulldogs’ games will get out of hand, and quickly.
We hope you enjoyed Score’s 15-day high-school preview, of which this piece is the last installment. If you missed any of our features, click on the “High Schools” tab on the navigation bar. If you disagree with any of Ewalt’s predictions, leave a comment or contact him at aewalt@scoreatl.com.
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