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Champion: Memories and Milestones

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Football

Waggoner hired to rebuild football tradition at Decatur

Brad Waggoner. Photo by Robert Naddra
Decatur High School athletic director Carter Wilson, who recently was looking for a new head football coach, found someone with a similar vision for the program. Brad Waggoner replaces Price Jones, who stepped down at the end of last season. Jones wa...

Tucker football coach takes job at Lamar County

Tucker football coach Franklin Stephens. Photos by Travis Hudgons
Tucker coach Franklin Stephens has taken the head coaching job at Lamar County in Barnesville, south of Atlanta. Lamar County had its best season in school history last season at 12-1 and has qualified for the state playoffs three straight years. Ste...

Henry County football coach hired at Lakeside

Lakeside and Chamblee recently hired two new head football coaches. Former Henry County head coach Mike Rozier replaces interim coach Marcus Mitchell at Lakeside. Rozier spent 11 seasons at Henry County where he compiled a 51-67 record. However, he l...

Four schools searching for football coaches

Four schools in DeKalb County are in the process of filling football coaching vacancies. Columbia’s Mario Allen was named head football coach at Rockdale County on Feb. 10 and Clinton Lawrence at Redan resigned a few weeks ago, according to Mark Br...

Stanford’s journey highlights M.L. King’s recruiting class

M.L. King's signees prepare for a group photo on National Signing Day. Photo by Robert Naddra
Two years ago Joshua Stanford was playing high school football in his hometown of Mississauga Valley, Ontario in Canada. Less than two weeks ago Stanford was one of 23 M.L. King football players who signed football scholarships. It was a journey, he ...

Championship diary: Long day ends with state title for Tucker

Dec. 9 began like any other day for Tucker High School’s football team. Players and coaches went to school early in the morning, but 16 hours later the team could claim a distinction no other team in school history could claim.  Shortly after 11 p...

Tucker defeats Lovejoy 22-7 to win football state title

  Tucker coach Franklin Stephens last week refused to compare his 2008 state championship team with this year's team. However, Stephens changed his mind after Tucker's dominating 22-7 win over Lovejoy in the Class AAAA state championship g...

Tucker one win away from second state football championship

Tucker football coach Franklin Stephens appreciates the irony. A fumble last season in the final minutes of a Class AAAA semifinal kept Tucker out of the championship game. This year the ball bounced Tucker’s way and a fumble by Northside Warner Ro...

Tucker’s winning formula modeled after Camden County

Jordan Landry (21) rushed for 137 yards and two touchdowns for the Tigers. Photo by David Sibley
Franklin Stephens was part of a football program that went 63-5 and won a state championship in his five seasons as an assistant at Camden County. Using Camden coach Jeff Herron’s winning formula as a blueprint, Stephens has crafted his own model f...

M.L. King offense feeds off last-second heroics

Cornell Boyd hauls in a touchdown pass on the final play of regulation to send M.L. King into overtime against Brookwood. Photo by Travis Hudgons
  An 82-yard kickoff return with 16 seconds remaining to beat Stephenson. A 31-yard pass play with no time left to send the game into overtime in an eventual win over Brookwood. Those two plays suddenly typify the season for an M.L. King football te...

DeKalb High School Sports Highlights

Stephenson’s Demarcus Sweat can’t catch up to a pass as a Lowndes defender trails behind. Photo by Travis Hudgons
FOOTBALL: State playoffs, first round   AAAAA   M.L. King 30, Coffee 22: Blake Tibbs returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown, his second in as many weeks, and Jonquel Dawson passed for 283 yards and three touchdowns for the Lions (9-2). The Li...

Playoff ready: Eight teams earn berths in state football tournament

The Tucker Tigers finished 10-0 for the third time in the past five seasons, advanced to the state semifinals last year and won a state championship in 2008. Photo by David Sibley
By now, M.L. King players have forgotten about their come-from-behind 50-49 win over Stephenson in the final game of the regular season Nov. 4. At least, Lions coach Mike Carson hope they’ve erased it from their memory. M.L. King, just a few days r...

What a rush: Teams find long-term success on the ground

Florida commit Mike Davis (28), are averaging 312 yards through nine games.Photo by Travis Hudgons
Shotgun formations, no-huddle offenses, five receivers weaving their way through defensive backfields. The allure of the chance to score at will and put on a show for the fans has led more high school coaches in Georgia to adopt the spread offense. B...

Defending tradition: Stephenson linemen working to fulfill common goal

Seniors Carlos Hood, from left, Jafar Mann and Jarontay Jones anchor the defensive line for undefeated Stephenson. Photo by Travis Hudgons
Jarontay Jones and Jafar Mann were a year away from entering high school, but they had the same ambition—win a state high school football championship at Stephenson. “They all had goals of winning a state championship, even in middle school,” J...

Quarterbacks climbing up state’s all-time list

by Mark Brock   Martin Luther King Jr. senior quarterback Jonquel Dawson and Cedar Grove junior quarterback Johnathan McCrary are climbing up the state career passing charts as the high school football season moves into its final two weeks. Dawson c...

More than meets the eye

Tucker senior linebacker Jacob Sealand, who has committed to a scholarship to Vanderbilt, mixes raw emotion with sharp instincts to lead the Tigers’ defense. Photo by Travis Hudgons
Tucker’s Sealand a talented mix of athletics and academics The first game of his junior season changed everything for Jacob Sealand. All the clutter in his mind about learning formations and transferring what he learned in practice to the game were...

Southwest gains playoff edge with 24-7 win over Dunwoody

Southwest DeKalb's 24-7 win over Dunwoody on Thursday night was about more than gaining an edge for the fourth and final playoff spot in Region 6-AAAA. Only 36 Southwest players were in uniform for the game, according to coach Buck Godfrey, as approx...

Turnovers help Columbia defeat Stone Mountain 21-7

A fumble by Stone Mountain on the opening kickoff was a sign of things to come. Columbia took advantage of six Stone Mountain turnovers and beat the Pirates 21-7 on Sept. 30 in an important Region 5-AAA, Division B football game. The Pirates lost thr...

Transfers help round out successful football programs

It’s no secret that Stephenson has become one of the top high school football programs in the state with a reputation for earning its student-athletes scholarships. The Jaguars, under coach Ron Gartrell, have advanced to the state playoffs 11 strai...

No room for error: New offenses put to test in Tucker-Marist clash

Tucker and Marist have been the two dominant teams in Region 6-AAAA in recent years. One or the other has won the regular season title four of the past five seasons. The two teams also have something else in common this season—revamped offensive ba...


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