Dalton High School will soon kick off its 100th season of football, though few of the previous 99 squads faced the challenges that are about to hit this centennial team.
The Catamounts have been one of the state’s most consistent winners, having posted a .500 or better season 83 times and reaching the playoffs 48 of the past 60 seasons. Several of the earlier non-playoff teams won seven or eight games and missed the postseason due to smaller playoff fields.
To join those playoff teams, the 2024 Catamounts will have to navigate one of the state’s toughest Class AAAA regions. The task is nothing new for Dalton, which earned a playoff spot and won a postseason game out of Region 7-AAAAA last season, a league that won seven times in the playoffs.
Well, all four of those postseason teams are back together in the new Region 7-AAAA — Dalton, Cartersville, Hiram and Cass — along with state heavyweight Cedartown, former 6A program Allatoona and region holdover Woodland-Bartow.
“We were in one of the state’s most competitive regions a year ago, but it doesn’t get any easier this year,” Dalton coach Kit Carpenter said with a slight laugh. “We lost Calhoun (which dropped to Class AAA) and gained Allatoona and Cedartown.