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Schools

A 2011 5-AAAAA Football Preview

Depending on who you ask, the Region 5-AAAAA football season could be a two or three-team race this year.

All four Region 5-AAAAA teams lost in the first round of the state playoffs last season, a distinction that doesn’t speak well to the overall quality of play. But that collective performance does not tell the whole story of a region that has plenty of exciting players and should feature an close race among five teams for the top four spots.

I feel the region will be stronger this year,” said head coach Jep Irwin. “Three teams had new head coaches last year, including Lassiter. Four teams were very young - Lassiter, Marietta, Wheeler, and Cherokee. Woodstock and had very strong senior classes, but I don't believe they will slip very far, if at all. Walton has the most starters returning. I believe the region will be very competitive.”

But according to head coach Brent Budde, two teams have emerged as preseason favorites.

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“Probably right now, the way everything looks, I’d have to say Walton and Lassiter probably have to be the two teams to be favored,” Budde said.

Walton will enter the season as the team to beat, as they return a host of starters from last year’s 7-4 team. The team was also bolstered by the incoming transfer of dynamic running back Tyren Jones, who was an impact player at Lassiter as a sophomore a season ago.

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“I hold no hard feelings or ill will towards him,” Irwin said. He helped us make the playoffs last year and tried hard while he was at Lassiter. It was a family decision and I wish him the best of luck this season except on Sept. 30 when we play Walton.”

Jones’s presence creates depth at the running back position as Walton was already set with starter Jim Hogue, who Irwin calls “very physical, hard to tackle.” 

The Raiders appear poised to unseat Etowah as region champs and find their way into the second round of the playoffs and perhaps beyond.

Despite the loss of Jones, the Lassiter program also has a buzz around it this season, and most of the attention is on junior quarterback Eddie Printz, Jr, who threw for over 2,200 yards last season in his first year as the starter.

“I expect Eddie to have a big year and show a great deal of improvement over last year in terms of making plays when the pocket breaks down, making better decisions with the ball, leading the team,” Irwin said.

Printz is drawing the attention of some big time Division I schools, and it’s not simply a product of gaudy numbers from Lassiter’s pass-happy system.

“I think he has the true skills. I don’t think that he’s just a product of that they throw the ball a lot,” Budde said. “He makes the right read. He can throw the ball on the money. And his arm strength is incredible. If he’s being recruited like he is, I don’t think people are just looking at the numbers. I think they’re looking at how he’s throwing the ball and what he’s capable of.”

Etowah is the defending region champion, but they may take a step back this year, if only because Walton and Lassiter will be much improved. It also doesn’t help that the Eagles have lost their starting quarterback for the season thanks to a preseason injury.

Woodstock finished third in the region last year and narrowly missed upsetting Collins Hill in the first round of the playoffs. This year they have an added element of versatility on offense, thanks to the presence of two starting-quality quarterbacks in Jonathan Wiener and Pryce Washington.

“We have two really good quarterbacks, and since you can only play one, the other one is going to play flanker for us,” Budde said. That means that both will be on the field on virtually every offensive play, and Budde has the luxury of switching them out when he wants a specific play run for a specific quarterback.

“At times in a game we’ll put Pryce in at quarterback and move Jonathan out to flanker. They each kind of can do some different things. Pryce can run the ball a little bit different than Jonathan can, and maybe we can get the ball to Jonathan on the edge a little bit more that way,” Budde added.

only returns eight total starters, but it has an emerging talent in junior quarterback Anthony Jennings, who produced a total of 21 touchdowns last season. “(He’s) mobile, good athlete, good passer, very heady and poised,” said Irwin.

All of which makes the Blue Devils a threat to the top four teams.

“It’s the second year that coach Burt is in there. I think they’re going to do a better job this year. You’re going to have to watch out for them a little bit,” Budde said.

After those five teams, the dropoff to the other two is steep.

hasn’t been in the playoffs or had a winning record since 2007. But that’s nothing compared to what Wheeler is enduring. 

The Wildcats are in the midst of an unprecedented stretch of losing football. They had a 4-year stretch where they went 4-36 from 1999-2002. But they are 1-29 in their last three seasons and there appears to be no end in sight for their status as a non-factor in the region.

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