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Football

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...

DeKalb High School Sports Highlights: Week of Sept 1

FOOTBALL   Tucker 18, Southwest DeKalb 7: Yusef Minor caught a 24-yard touchdown pass on fourth down from wide receiver Dominic Sanders in the first half, then quarterback Juwaan Williams passed 12 yards to Josh Dawson in the fourth quarter for the ...

Tucker subdues Southwest DeKalb 18-7 in opener

S.W. DeKalb QB JALIL YOUNG attempts outrun Tucker defenders: JORDAN LANDRY, MARQEEYE BIGGS and AUSTIN BENNETT. Photo by Travis Hudgons
After being held to 61 yards total offense in the first half, Tucker found a way to overcome Southwest DeKalb’s tenacious defense Aug. 25 at Hallford Stadium. Quarterback Juwaan Williams completed a 3-of-7 passes for 49 yards and a touchdown, and r...

Druid Hills falls to South Atlanta in opener

South Atlanta and Druid Hills combined for 10 turnovers, but a fumble by the Hornets that resulted in a touchdown was the difference Aug. 19 in the season opener for both teams. With South Atlanta leading 6-0, quarterback Ferris Baughns fumbled after...

Civil war: Community rivalries make big impression in county

Ron Gartrell gets a call every fall from his mother, reminding him that the “big game” is just a few days away. The Stephenson football coach isn’t getting a heads up about his team’s annual showdown against M.L. King. Instead, it’s notice ...

2011 DeKalb County High School Football Team Preview

Arabia Mountain Rams Head coach: Chris Beal (3rd season) Region: 5-AAA 2010 record: 3-7 Outlook:  Another year of maturity and the school’s second senior class gives coach Chris Beal reason for hope. Senior defensive back Case Woodard is the marq...

Severe heat causes coaches to monitor athletes closely

Druid Hills players take water breaks every 15 minutes during practices. Coaches are closely monitoring players' eating and drinking habits in the wake of the deaths of two football players outside DeKalb. Photo by Robert Naddra
Kip Hall can better keep up with his football players now that school is back in session. Hall, the head coach at Druid Hills, is able to monitor his players’ fluid intake and make sure they’re eating right. With the heat index hovering near or a...

Harris chooses South Carolina at media day

Lithonia offensive lineman Joe Harris commits to South Carolina over Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi State. Photos by Travis Hudgons
  The University of South Carolina football team will have one of the largest DeKalb County contingents of any school if scholarship commitments made in the offseason come to fruition. Lithonia senior Joe Harris, one of the top offensive linemen in ...

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