Metro Atlanta dominates 2022 AJC Super 11 team
With four players from Gwinnett County and nine from metro Atlanta, this year’s AJC Super 11 team is closer to “big city” than “small town.”
It’s cyclical in Georgia.
In 2021, three Super 11 players were from South Georgia, three from Northeast Georgia and none within 30 miles of downtown Atlanta.
What’s constant is talent and high school production. This year’s 11, representing the state’s best high school football players, are reigning all-state performers, each projected to sign with Power 5-conference college teams.
Here are more tidbits about the AJC’s 38th Super 11 team:
- Three are the first Super 11 players from their schools: C.J. Allen of Lamar County, Bo Hughley of Hughes and Keyjuan Brown of South Atlanta. North Cobb quarterback Malachi Singleton is his school’s first since 1990, and Kennesaw Mountain center Connor Lew is his school’s first since 2003.
- Justice Haynes is Buford’s eighth Super 11 player this century. Kayin Lee is Cedar Grove’s seventh. Only Peach County, with eight, has had as many or more selections since 2000.
- Haynes, Lee and Vic Burley of Warner Robins have won high school state titles. Haynes’ championship came with his previous school, Blessed Trinity. In 2021, none of the Super 11 selections had won state titles. Two would win them that year.
- Three Super 11s have committed to Alabama: Haynes, Brookwood quarterback Dylan Lonergan and Mill Creek safety Caleb Downs.
- Downs and Haynes are sons of former NFL running backs. Downs’ father, Gary, played at N.C. State and spent most of his NFL career with the Falcons. Verron Haynes played at Georgia and mostly with the Steelers. Lonergan’s father, Dan, is a former Penn State quarterback.
- If Alabama signs those three, it would mark the second time in nine years that a school has signed more Super 11 players than Georgia, which has two Super 11s committed – Hughley and Allen. In 2019, Auburn and Clemson led with three each. Alabama has signed only 15 Super 11 players through history.
- Lonergan is a potentially top-100 national high school prospect in football and baseball. He plans to play both sports at Alabama, but he could become the first Super 11 since Jeff Francoeur in 2001 to bypass football for a pro baseball career.
- Only one Super 11 pick, North Gwinnett defensive lineman Kayden McDonald, is uncommitted. Recruiting sites indicate that Clemson is McDonald’s leader.
- Brown is committed to Purdue and would be the Boilermakers’ first Super 11 signee. Arkansas would have its first Super 11 signee, Singleton, since 2003.
- Six of the 11 are also top-11 state prospects in the 247Sports Composite. They are No. 1 Downs, No. 2 Haynes, No. 3 Burley, No. 4 Lonergan, No. 6 Hughley and No. 9 Allen. The rest are No. 16 Lee, No. 27 McDonald, No. 38 Singleton, No. 45 Lew and No. 68 Brown.