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2 days ago | 
ajc.com | Todd Holcomb
KIPP had no individual champions but prevailed on balance. KIPP essentially clinched the 2A title in the next-to-last event, the 3,200 meters. Runner-up Franklin County won the event, but KIPP’s Nasir January and Josiah Owens were fourth and seventh, respectively, with each running personal-best times. Jayden White was runner-up in the 800 meters (1:59.8) and fifth in the 1,600 (4:40.5). Travion Callaway was second in the long jump and seventh in the 100 meters (11.36).
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2 days ago | 
ajc.com | Todd Holcomb
Tri-Cities has hired Michael Woolridge as its football coach. Woolridge had been Pebblebrook’s head coach the past two seasons. His 2024 team finished 6-5, the Falcons’ best record since 2021. Woolridge was South Atlanta’s head coach in 2021 and 2022 the two seasons before that and led them to a 22-3 record and two state quarterfinals finishes.
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3 days ago | 
ajc.com | Todd Holcomb
Carver-Atlanta won its first state championship in any sport since 1969 on Saturday when its girls track and field team claimed the Class 2A meet at East Jackson High. Carver stood in fourth place entering the final event, the 4x400-meter relay, but crossed the finish line first, overcoming city rival Washington, Shaw and Columbus — the teams that stood 1-2-3 before the dramatic ending. “It was just a moment of joy,” Carver coach Jonathan Scott said.
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5 days ago | 
ajc.com | Todd Holcomb
Fitzgerald, a South Georgia football program that has made five consecutive state semifinal appearances, hired Stephens County’s Wes Tankersley as head coach Tuesday evening. Tankersley, who led Stephens County to two region titles in his seven seasons, was approved by the Ben Hill Schools board. “We’re excited to be part of that community and continue the success they’ve had,’’ Tankersley told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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1 week ago | 
ajc.com | Todd Holcomb |Rosana Hughes
A teen recently arrested in connection with the 2023 killing of Manchester High School student Brandon Smith was his teammate and led the football team in rushing and tackling in a state championship game just days after Smith’s death. The GBI on Thursday announced it arrested Qua’vion Jakwon Cooper, 17, a senior at Manchester, on a murder charge.
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2 weeks ago | 
ajc.com | Todd Holcomb
Appling County on Tuesday hired Tucker Pruitt — whose 60 victories this decade are tied for most among South Georgia football coaches — to begin a new chapter for a successful program hit with 10 forfeits to its 2024 Class 2A semifinals season. Pruitt led Fitzgerald to its fifth straight semifinal appearance last season. Fitzgerald won the 2021 Class 2A title, the school’s first championship since 1948, and was runner-up in 2020 and 2022.
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2 weeks ago | 
ajc.com | Todd Holcomb
Rodney Cofield, one of the winningest football coaches in Atlanta Public Schools history, is returning to the city as coach at B.E.S.T. Academy. B.E.S.T. Academy opened in 2007 and played its first varsity season in 2012. The football team has had one winning season and one playoff victory. The program’s victory total improved from 0-8 to 3-7 to 4-6 under most recent coach Bernard Goodrum, who resigned this offseason to take the Griffin job in his hometown.
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2 weeks ago | 
ajc.com | Todd Holcomb
A rival school and a rival parent tipped off the GHSA to possible recruiting violations that ended with Appling County’s football team forfeiting 10 victories and its region championship, according to GHSA records. Appling County, a Class 2A school about 70 miles southwest of Savannah, last week became the third football team in GHSA history to forfeit as many as 10 victories, joining Waycross in 1990 and Brunswick in 1994.
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2 weeks ago | 
ajc.com | Todd Holcomb
Appling County is moving on from football coach Jordan Mullis after the southeast Georgia school lost an appeal last week to overturn 10 forfeits assessed by the Georgia High School Association. Appling County notified Mullis by email Friday afternoon that the school was opening up the coaching position, Mullis told the AJC on Monday. Mullis remains a teacher at the school. He declined immediate comment on the school’s decision. Appling County principal Ben Horner declined comment.
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2 weeks ago | 
ajc.com | Todd Holcomb
Twenty-four former Georgia high school players went in this year’s NFL draft. That was the third-most among states and more than Georgia’s 21.4 average for the past 10 years. Georgia finished second among states if counting homegrown players. Three of Florida’s 26 players came from elsewhere to finish their careers at boarding school IMG Academy. One of those was former Savannah Christian and Georgia defensive lineman Warren Brinson, the Packers’ sixth-round pick.
