The last school year of the decade was a banner one for several high school athletic programs in Northwest Georgia.
Programs at perennial power Calhoun High School and relative newcomer Heritage High School both notched high rankings among their peers statewide, according to Georgia Athletic Directors Association 2009-10 final standings.
In its second year, Heritage’s girls athletics program ranked 16th in Class AAA, and the school was 22nd overall out of 78 schools. Calhoun’s boys and girls programs ranked sixth in the state across the board in Class AA out of 76 schools.
Class AAAA Dalton was ranked fourth among boys’ programs, the girls were 34th and the school was ranked 11th overall among its 80 state peers. In Chickamauga, Gordon Lee’s girls ranked sixth and the boys 15th for an overall standing of 11th out of 83 schools in Class A.
Ernie Ellis, the athletic director at Heritage, credits the school’s coaches with keeping players inspired and building relationships with middle schoolers before they come to high school.
Last season, Heritage’s girls softball team placed second in the region and third in the state tournament. Other girls teams, such as cross country and soccer, also performed well, Ellis said.
Heritage coaches understand the things they say and do to motivate and inspire are remembered for a lifetime, Ellis said. They try to instill a commitment to excellence in themselves and their players.
Coaches want to convey that philosophy to middle schoolers so that they will look to the high school program as a goal, he said.
Past and present players at Heritage are a “well-rounded group and it’s due to the coaches,” Ellis said. “They get the kids to buy into the program. That’s the key.”
Region changesAll the coaches said they are looking forward to a reconfiguration of the athletic regions that will rejoin some traditional rivalries.A revised 12-team 7-AAA region includes Dalton, Heritage, LaFayette, Ridgeland, Ringgold and Southeast Whitfield in Division A and Murray County in Division B for the 2010-11 season, according to Georgia High School Association.Division B in 7-AA will include Calhoun, Chattooga, Dade, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe, Sonoraville, Gordon Central and North Murray, entering its first year of varsity competition in most sports, GHSA records show. And Region 6-A will include Gordon Lee and Trion in an 11-team lineup, records show.NORTH GEORGIA ATHLETICSThe Georgia Athletic Directors Association issued rankings this summer for the 2009-10 school year. Here are state rankings for high schools in Northwest Georgia.School Boys Girls OverallAAAADalton 4 34 11Northwest Whitfield 45 13 21Murray County 43 unranked 66AAAHeritage 31 16 22LFO 48 24 33Ringgold 36 45 37LaFayette 38 63 51Southeast Whitfield 55 51 51Ridgeland 68 59 66AACalhoun 6 6 6Dade County 26 34 29Gordon Central 37 39 40Chattooga 23 unranked 50Sonoraville 48 60 54AGordon Lee 15 6 11Trion 43 24 27Source: Georgia Athletic Directors Association
Shared Athletes
At Calhoun, athletic director and football coach Hal Lamb said programs flourish under a tradition of hard work and the understanding that, in a small system like Calhoun, athletes must be shared among several sports.
“I think it starts with the coaches,” Lamb said. “For all your programs to be successful, your coaches have got to be willing to share athletes.”
He said success comes from high expectations by coaches, players and the community. That results in programs such as Calhoun’s football team, which has tallied eight consecutive region championships and made it to the title game last year.
“Our kids … expect to be in the playoffs year in and year out. If they don’t make the playoffs, it’s a letdown,” Lamb said. Inspiration is contagious, he said, so if one team is successful, others want to match that performance.
Looking to college
Athletic program directors point to the importance of high performance among athletes who are pursuing athletic scholarships to college.
Those include football players like Northwest Whitfield’s Nermin Delic, who signed with the University of Kentucky; Ringgold’s Martez Eastland, who signed with Ole Miss, and the Calhoun tandem of Nash Nance and Da’Rick Rogers, who signed with Tennessee.
Dalton athletic director Ron Ward, in his first year replacing longtime AD Ronnie McClurg, credits his predecessor with the school’s exemplary record.
Boys teams such as football, basketball, wrestling, soccer and baseball all finished seasons among the state top performers, putting the boys’ program the fourth spot in Class AAAA, Ward said.
Those kinds of performances are nothing new for Catamounts, Ward said, and expectations are that those teams will remain dominant.
The football team’s new coach, Matt Land, had been an assistant coach and already knows the school’s winning traditions, he said.
Meeting the private challenge
Gordon Lee athletic director Clay Crowder agreed on the need to share talent in a small school system where the girls softball, basketball and volleyball had finished in the top tier of Class A.
“We had nine girls in our school that played three sports,” Crowder said. “We’ve probably got overall as good of girl athletes as we’ve ever had, right now.”
Boys and girls teams performed well despite often being pitted against well-funded private schools in most of the regular and post-seasons, he said. Gordon Lee’s boys won the region in basketball this year but drew Gwinnett County’s Wesleyan in the tournament and lost a close game, he noted.