Since the school opened in 2004, the Alpharetta Raiders football team has mostly struggled. With no playoff appearances and no region championships, some may ask, “Who are the Raiders?”
Although the Alpharetta football program is young, their head coach, Bill Waters, is a seasoned veteran in high-school football. The former Chattahoochee head coach led the Cougars to five region championships, made eight state playoff appearances, and in 1999, took his team all the way to the state semifinals.
With dreams of building a new program, however, Coach Waters left the Cougars in 2003.
“It was a new opportunity, a challenge to see what we could do,” Waters said. “And [Chattahoochee] was in good shape.”
Since Waters has been at Alpharetta, the football program has not had near as much success as Chattahoochee did under the veteran coach. In the last four seasons, the team‘s overall record is 13-25. The team has never made the playoffs.
Yet despite the natural inclination to compare his years at Chattahoochee to those he has spent at Alpharetta, Waters explains that is not fair to do.
“There’s a major difference. Alpharetta is a new school and a new program. We had to build a feeder program, and it’s just taken some time.”
MAKING A RUN
Now, in its fifth football season, Waters has set some high goals for his Raiders team: “We want to be able to compete at the state level, get in the playoffs, and get things done.”
The Raiders started off the season 2-0 with impressive wins over South Forsyth and Wheeler, but was this going to be a repeat of what happened after last year’s 2-0 start?
In ’07, Alpharetta began the season similarly with a 2-0 record before losing eight consecutive games. In order to achieve its goals, such as making the playoffs, the Raiders will have to safeguard against a similar collapse.
“We’re a different team this year, and although there are no guarantees, we are much more focused,” Waters said when asked how he would prevent a similar collapse.
And judging by last Friday, Waters has done just that, as the Raiders advanced their record to 3-0 and currently are tied for the top spot in Region 6-AAAAA.
“We had some real doubts about how we stacked up against other teams,” Waters said. “But I like the way we’re practicing and how hard the kids are pushing themselves.”
Much of the team’s hopes for a playoff appearance will depend on the defense and their talented cornerback Vincent Williams.
“Williams is a very talented and grounded kid,” commented Waters. “He’s one of those exceptional players that every coach would love to have.” So far, so good for the Alpharetta defense: last year the Raiders gave up over four touchdowns per game, while this season the defense has given up only 13.7 points per game.
Although the Raiders may not be a household name just yet, they are steadily making progress towards becoming a successful team in Fulton County; don’t be surprised to see the Raiders on the positive side of some big “upsets” this year.
Parker can be reached at jparker@uga.edu.
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